Remakings

Some pieces from my painting class; this first one is an assignment where we have to do a remaking of a master's work; I chose to do one of a portrait by Gustave Courbet.  We also had to use the grid system, which I never use; I like to do things free hand! And I don't personally like to do these remakings, but I guess it's a good way to practice technique.

A remake of a portrait by Gustave Courbet titled "Portrait of the Artist (Man with a Pipe)"
c. 1848-49
Oil on canvas  

To see original painting: http://artchive.com/artchive/C/courbet/courbet_pipe.jpg.html

This is where we paint. 

Some studies of other master works that i did in soft pastels:

My interpretation of a portrait done by Rembrant

My interpretation of a portrait done by Courbet

Visual Journal

Hello 2012! So I've decided that I will start a visual journal - a place where I will share my ideas.  I can say now that this will not be one of those goals that I set out in the beginning of the year and eventually forget about (last year, I bought myself a palm sized daily calendar mole skin where I planned to draw something daily and I only got to Febuary so the rest of the pages are empty.  Now I use that little book as a coaster and sometimes as my bookshelf divider - so I guess it hasn't gone to complete waste).  But that's not the point.  

 

I'm sharing some pages of my sketchbook from last year's painting class.  This is where I sketched out random thoughts and ideas; so in this visual journal I will be including many of my sketchbook pages.  In this first page I've included a quote from Mary Rozzi, a photographer featured in Feist's documentary Look at What the Light Did Now, which talks about the feeling of being exposed in public (not literally).  I don't quite remember why I wrote down that specific quote but I can tell you that I'm obsessed with that documentary.   Leslie Feist is one of my biggest inspirations because she is a woman who knows who she is and the world is her playground.  I saw her live last November in The Wiltern in Los Angeles and I ended up on stage with her - but that is a story for another day.  

I love reading my own notes, it's like, you're observing yourself.  Observing your past thoughts and ideas.  In this second page I was doing research on Latin American artists for my class.  One that I really liked is Jason de Caires Taylor, a man who made these underwater sculptures.  Here's a link to his website, in case you're curious:  http://www.underwatersculpture.com/ His work is insane.

This next one is just my little doodles of organic forms.  I love organic forms. I’m thinking of maybe starting a whole series of paintings or charcoal pieces dedicated to them (I don’t mean to be repeating the great Georgia O’Keeffe, whom I highly admire).  I’m thinking of being more ambiguous.  Ambiguous like a Panda bear.