Pixels Per Person (With Process)

For the past few months I've been busy painting a new work near the end of my senior year at school. I started by gathering references of the twelve graduating fine artists this semester and painting each of their faces - all of them in a systematic frontal pose. I had mentioned to others when I was in the process of painting these portraits that I had been inspired by one of Justin Coro Kaufman's piece from a few years back. He's an absolutely amazing artist and guy, I would recommend you go there and check out his work. Each portrait took anywhere between a day and almost two weeks. Some just seemed to need more refinement than others, and it was great to be able to sit down longer than a live session would usually take and really work out things over a longer period of time.

I kept the end result in mind at all times so the background is made of blacks, whites, greys, and a few intense colors to make the final piece even more fragmented. After all the portraits were finished they were sent through a saw and sliced into smaller rectangular bits.

At this point I was stuck in trying to figure out how this was going to be displayed. I wanted a thin strip of black to encase the painting in, so I talked with my instructor and designed a simple floating frame. To get it done was a feat in itself, this was the first time I had made a custom frame for one of my works. I bought poplar and maple and cradled the hardboard which is what the panels are glued to. Below I posted shots between building the support panel and frame together. I calculated somewhere around 400 hours were spent from beginning to finish on this piece, from taking everyone's photos to screwing the panel into the frame. This was a completely new learning process, one which I'm going to expand upon in the future.

Pixels Per Person, oil on panel, 43.5 x 42.5 inches

Top Left: Progress shot with two portraits done and a third started next to a reference photo.
Top Right: A detail shot of everyone's upper right face making sure each rectangle was cut to the same size as all the others.
Bottom Left: The board and faces lined up, ready to be assembled.
Bottom Right: Progress of gluing each piece together.

Top Left: Bare frame being clamped together.
Top Right: Back crossbars being glued to the hardboard support.
Bottom Left: Frame being coated with flat black enamel spray.
Bottom Right: The back of the completed painting with floater frame screwed into the cradle of the painting.

Finished and uncut paintings before cutting. Each painting measured 15 x 11.25 inches.

Finished painting in the studio.

Artwork from the past few months

Self Reflection, 12 x 9, charcoal on Yupo

Skull and Circle, 12 x 12 inches, oil on panel

February, 36 x 24, oil on canvas

August, 48 x 36, oil on panel

Here are a few of the paintings and a drawing done over the course of my senior year. Each painting was painted from observation each taking 4 weeks. I wanted to branch out a bit and start to play with space around the figure, perspective wrapping, and texture. My palette has become more and more muted as time goes on and I feel it helps to bring out intense colors in a stronger way than when I used to use them all over. I have a couple works in progress at the moment going in new directions which I can't wait to finish up.

SF Portrait 1, oil on canvas panel

SF Portrait 2, oil on canvas panel

Sofia, 20 x 16, oil on canvas

These are a few of the portraits I completed last year that I never uploaded. The first two were studies done during a week long trip to San Fransisco at Massive Blacks yearly workshop.

Recent Paintings

I've been paintings continuous portraits again after school with art buddies. This semester we've been dealing with a harsher, warmer light instead of the cold and dark portraits of a year ago. Also have a few real quick studies after school once in a while. The copper pot was done to simply observe a metallic object in natural cool light. The small study done for it was not focused on drawing but purely on color shapes. The cast painting was done to figure out how colors mix with each other coming from a single light source and two strong reflective surfaces.

Arielle, oil on canvas

Sant, oil on canvas

Krista, oil on canvas

Copper Pot color study

Copper Pot Study

Quick cast study, oil on panel

High-value study, oil on panel

Nedda II, oil on canvas

Nick, charcoal on paper

Recent sketches from life

I've been slowly filling up a little pocket book that I carry around with me everywhere I go. Back in August when I was trekking around downtown San Fransisco I was told to visit Maido to check out their selection of pens. I've stuck with ballpoint for a while now to doodle around with until it became my favored go to pen. I picked up some 0.3 and 0.5 Hi-Tec C's there and they're incredibly fun to use. In the beginning they seem to never run out of ink, and can produce crisp, thin lines or peppered dots, whichever way it's held.

Nedda 11" x 14" oil on canvas

Gestures at the Palette

Palette sketches

Overlooking the Mississippi in Iowa

Viroqua

Self Portrait

"Gloaming" 10" x 20", oil on panel

Skull work in progress

Skull sketch

 I've been on a recent binge just exploring the ways one can look at a skull.

Self Portrait 1, oil on canvas, 10" x 12"

Self Portrait 2, oil on canvas, 4" x 6"

Skull, oil on canvas, 9" x 12"

Herzberg, Photoshop

The Zespo Studio

The Enigma, oil on canvas, 10" x 12"

Forest Park Dumpster, oil on canvas, 6" x 6"