New work!

Hey everyone.

I just finished this piece and I am super excited about it! It is a landscape with litter I had found in the area around where I gathered my information for the piece in a 15 minute time frame . It is based on the idea of litter awareness that in every beautiful landscape, there unfortunately is litter all around it. Ruining its beauty and also the environment. As always I painted this with liquitex heavy body colors and I attached the litter with liquitex gloss gel. It's a great adhesive especially on wood panel. And I can paint right over Ian's residual medium with the paint!

Hope you all enjoy

Early 19th Century watercolor box

As I was looking mindlessly through the internet, I came across this picture which I really liked, and really got me thinking. Its a Winsor&Newton Watercolor box from about 1890. Its amazing to think that some  impressionist and post impressionist painters used boxes like this while sketching. Very inspiring to take a look at the history of materials as opposed to just the art work.

The site for this box and many other antique art supplies http://www.greenandstone.com/ap/wnbl.html

I bet some of the pigments in this box could fetch a pretty penny now for the purists out there!

Really magnificent and super inspiring

Enjoy

Really interesting film

Hey guys, today in one of my painting classes we started watching this film by the BBC with David Hockney titled Secret Knowledge. Now, there has been a ton of controversy on this film, but I still found it incredibly interesting. I personally am not completely sold on the whole idea, but still presents a very good argument 

check it out!

Secret Knowledge

Doing some portraits today!

Doing some one hour portraits and anatomy studies today! Getting creative on some of them, Liquitex freestyle brushes are awesome for quick expressive brush strokes. They hold a ton of paint and allow for fast paced work!

Portrait painting

This fall at SCAD Im taking a portrait painting class. And as part of our homework assignment. We must complete 40-1 hour portraits to get a lot of time working directly from portraits. Here's a picture of my first one done with Winsor&Newton oils!I plan on posting almost all of them so everyone can see my progress and perhaps a different way of doing a portrait for all!

Enjoy

First day back at SCAD

Hello Everyone

So yesterday was my first day back at SCAD so I'm preparing myself for a very busy and art filled semester! I spent some time at the Liquitex and Winsor&Newton offices this summer and have a lot of cool things to show everyone!

Also, if anyone has any specific questions about anything they are dealing with be sure to ask! I will try my best to be able to help you in answering your question, or I can send you forward to some tech people who can help!

Cheers!

Demos in asbury park!

Today I am at gallery 13 in asbury park watching the 20 Windsor and newton and liquitex demo artists all presenting different aspects of the painting. It was great to see these amazing artists educate everyone on very important topics. I am leaving with a wealth of knowledge. Big thank you to everyone fr their kindness and generosity

Finished self portrait

This is my finished self portrait, I learned a lot while working on this piece. It was an entire quarter project so 10 weeks in total from start to finish. I put in a lot of hours but got a ton of knowledge on use of color in skin tones and applications. Great project. Hope you enjoy

Sorry about not posting!!

Sorry about not posting as much the last few days I've been working on this oil painting a lot lately because it is due on Monday so I have a lot of work still to be done on front of the mirror. Just a tip for everyone out there. Never do an observational painting while holding a guitar. It's miserable. Anyway here it is so far and I will post a picture upon its completion hopefully sooner rather than later! Wish me luck

http://leslieartstudio.wordpress.com/

check out this blog this morning, it is resident artist for Liquitex and Winsor and Newton Jimmy Leslie. He's been great to me over the last year and super inspiring! He is an amazing person and an even better artist!

Check it out!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6egUsZvWu4

This video has always inspired me and amazed me! I got to experimenting a while back and discovered that they used Liquitex Pouring Medium! I plan on making a video when I get my hands on some of it!

keep creating

Transparencies

I've started working on my final project for the quarter here at SCAD and I have made serval discoveries. For starters because the acrylic sheets are so glossy, the acrylic paint tends to bead up when applied in thin layers. But in thicker applications, it has no problem adhering to the surface. I will make more updates on this project as I get further along!

Acrylic on transparencies

Today in my water based media class we have started work on our final project for the quarter here at SCAD. I am experimenting with
Layering transparent sheets on top on one another and later suspending them with small space between each one. This is a rough sketch of my idea.

I'm using liquitex soft body and acrylic inks today! It's great for transparent layers!!

Keep creating!

This is a sequence picture of a Trome-L'oeil glaze painting a did at the end of march. I took a picture at the end of every session to help show myself my progress afterwards. I experimented with using W&N Liquin Original with Sansodor. Liquin is my favorite oil medium because it speeds up drying time but not so much that you lose the unique quality of oils. And sans odor is the greatest solvent because it evaporates extremely slowly (I've read almost 90% slower than turpentine) which means a lot less of a headache at the end of a session

On a side note. Be careful with how much liquin to add to your paint because it will fall apart if you don't work fat over lean!

Figure work

Today in class we are doing 6 10 minute poses. What i am finding helpful is using slo-dri blending medium. It thins the paint just a little and also keeps it open long enough for this project. As always liquitex freestyle and winsor and newton brushes are by my side.

Gel medium in collage

One of the most amazing things about acrylic gel medium is how versatile it is. Not only is it a great medium for acrylic paint. But it is also an incredible archival glue. This is a process photo of a self portrait using magazine cut outs for my color. Hope it inspires