Group Progress Report 4.21.11

Justin - I've been working mainly on making FishMoto a more polished experience -- it's the little things that can make a big difference. I've been adding sounds and visual effects to give the game more character -- the fish sloshes around within the bowl and water can spill out, when you crash the fish bowl actually breaks and the fish flops around, and I've made the icons easier to spot. The game is really starting to come together -- soon I'll be making an announcement trailer and start attempting to get some publicity for the game, so stay tuned!

Taylor - This week I have been working on my self portrait. I think I'm about 90% percent finished with it. I want to work in some more oil pastels and tighten a few more things up! I'll post the finished product soon!

Work in Progress update

WIP shot, oil and graphite on birch panel.

Reworking a that piece I thought was ‘done’, but in fact I was just a bit burnt out on it.

Group Progress Report 4.11.11

Taylor- Just a quick update. Finished a painting of an acquaintance of mine. just a simple set up really. The background is really rough but I decided to just leave it be for now. Landscapes are something that I haven't explored very much in the past and if anything this painting made me realize that that is something I would like to explore more in the future. Seems like a landscape could be an interesting experience.

This is my current project. Just a self portrait but I want to explore different processes so I am using a brown ground painting to work over. This method is nothing new but I am excited to make the most of it. I feel it could be a great way to work considering my influences and the subject matter I seem to gravitate towards.

Christina-
Well this week I decided to revisit some pieces that I had previously labeled as 'done'. I use wood as a surface to draw and paint many of my pieces, creating a detailed graphite drawing, sealing it with matte medium, then glazing over it in oils. I think I had just gotten tired of working on these last two pieces, because after completing the graphite drawing, I decided I didnt really want to work on them anymore. Now, however, I feel that they are just incomplete without the oil, and I guess I also just wanted to work on something that I feel I am 'good' at. I feel that I can create really successful pieces with this technique and lately all I have been working on is that gigantic architectural painting of Wall Street, which frustrates me because it doesnt come as naturally to me. Anyways, without further to-do, here are some shots of the painting I am indulging on right now:

You can see how I have painted the center face, and the other two faces are just graphite under-drawings that for some reason I thought were just OK without paint. Now that I have begun painting, I can see how the paint makes the piece so much more complete.


A closer shot. Lighting kinda sucks, sorry.

And here you can see my color pallet. After blocking in the whites, it really takes next-to-no color to create the desired effect. I intentionally use mostly translucent colors vs opaque pigments, i.e. hansa yellow vs cadmium yellow, or alizarin crimson vs grumbacher or cadmium red. This allows light to refract through the paint, creating a more skin-like quality, and allowing enough of the graphite to show through. I always go back in and touch up with graphite after I paint to sharpen it up.

Beating frustration

Word choice is an eternal problem for me. If I try to write naturally, I tend to overuse certain words, phrases, cliches, whatever endlessly. Currently, I usually just try to slam everything onto paper (...or computer, or iphone) as fast as I can, then go through and tweak stuff until it sounds right. Often this still isn't satisfactory though, and I have scrapped more stories because I was unable to express what I desired than I care to think about. But, like many weaknesses, I wonder if this could potentially be spun into an asset or strength.