Day 22

This one is bigger and more subtle than it looks. Based on Lichtenstein, but not dots, alas, but wallpaper. Tired. Look closer, the yellow is two tone.

Day 21

Re-using this image. I guess I'm re-enforcing the idea that a varied background doesn't work for an image that you want to come through undistorted, like your fiancee's face. The darker areas distort her face a bit and make this more of an abstraction than is necessary. I love the graphic-ness of this image and that one wisp of hair seals it. I am learning a lot in my painting days here. The funny thing is that I never really thought I would be a painter, but it really does seem to fit the more I try it out.

Day 20

wtf, right? Again, one of these that was just sitting around for a while, staring at me. After I finished the Molly painting the other day, I kinda felt like the background was almost so strong that it was fighting with the foreground, so I figure lets give this pattern a chance as a foreground on a pretty intense background that just didn't win me over at first, but I like this one a lot. Kinda one of those overphotoshopped things that you see online all the time, but the background is 100% organic and the foreground is playfully switching it up here and there--so not too rigid.

Day 19

This one is by no means new. It has been sitting almost done fore weeks, but I could never feel good at it. This past week I've been doing multi-day pieces, so I've been fighting with this one and I am finally ready to say it is done. This piece has a lot of movement and and a really good feeling, but simply is just too schizophrenic for my taste. But overall, pretty solid.

Day 18

So, this is a bit of a departure. Per Josh, foreground first: A beautiful Molly picture, but much less confrontational than I usually lean. Also, this is my first dot painting where there is absolutely no major distortions, my lines are even. The background is just pretty. Painstakingly pretty. Molly says this might be her favorite to date.

Day 17

This wasn't quite as poignant as I'd hoped, but it still cracks me up. I like making abstract and absurd the banal and comfortable. For once I double layered the white where necessary and for my enjoyment left the background a bit on the messy side, but I like things to feel a bit painterly.

Day 16

So, I think this one ended up a bit fugly, so I'm trying to think about another layer to add on it. Up close, it is really interesting, but overall just doesn't do much for me, but that's why I doing this 30 day thing, so I can be free to make a few duds. Or at least a background that I can get back to later.

Day 15 - halfway point

So, I was trying to make the background a bit more interesting, but clearly the value difference is too little and it is a bit hard to see whatsagoinon, so I'll be a bit more careful with this next time. If I would have swirled some yellow in there, it would have worked. I can't for the life of me find a heavy body yellow that is truly opaque. I originally planned on doing the foreground yellow, but it was just too uneven. Sad to say, but I think I might like the original more than the painting. Sad,

Day 14

So, this is simple, but not quite. The background is solid silver and the dots are black. This is the first time I have used an image without a high contrast ratio, so I significantly upped the ante on this one. I stuck with a recognizable subject ( a face because people naturally see faces everywhere says Walter Benjamin) and of course, one dear to my heart, Molly, not only is she people, but she's my favorite one. Each dot lovingly placed, tediously placed. So, the silver background is a reference to Warhol's silver paintings, as his homage to the silver screen from which he took so much of his source material, but the technique is only Warhol-esque in the sense that it is completely the antithesis to his technique--the technique is closer to Chuck Close who is all about painterly human qualities. So, to Chuck, enjoy, also, since you're rich, can I have some of your many many monies?

Day 13?

I've had a tough week, but I'll keep up from here on out. I dropped the yellow from the split. it works with the glasses, but I need the magenta and green glasses which I don't have. enjoy.

Stella!!!

Simple, Stella, with a little halftone in there as a throwback to my first dot painting, the 7 color Cody.

Just for Fun

I'm really enjoying the beauty of this collection as a whole. These pieces are tiny, but they really show the chaotic and scattered thoughts in my head. It is beautiful, loving, and very non-linear.

Day 10

Back to basics. This was supposed to be a research piece, but I fucked it up, washed it clean, and started over. So, there are different types of halftones (lichtenstein's benday dots), and as my work shows, I am absolutely fascinated by them. This one is the non-touching kind, so even when it is dark, some of the background color shows up, then there are some like the diet coke which bleedinto one another. Also lines like my domokun and some other effects I love. first time I've switched colors part way through--it was a whim but it gives me some good ideas for later. Sleep again.... like every night.

Day 9

Calvin on a swirly background. Simple black. The effect is using the color halftone on a monochrome image, then the circle halftone, then masked off with the original background.

Day 8

Sleepy, made from abandoned painting. Murakami.

Day 7

Nothing t0o different here. Lichtenstein source. Cropped and made the plane a girly color. Maybe it should have been pink, but I wanted something with a more similar value to the original blue that I replaced. Main issue I needed to improve was my brush control. I was always the kid who broke the tip off both regular and mechanical pencils--subtlety has eluded me my entire life, just ask my parents and Molly.

Day 6

Sleepy, so I'll be brief. Banksy source. Testing a theory I have about another 3d based double painting. In the three ink system, there is magenta, cyan, and yellow. With my previous paintings you could see the cyan and the magenta-yellow mix (i.e. red) so, blue, red, and all combined is black. So I threw the yellow on the cyan this time and made lime green. So, lime green and magenta, both heavy body, and when they meet, mars black. Kinda Rohrschach-esque, but fun colors. I ordered my two sets of 3d glasses and they should arrive tomorrow, then I'll test this our and see if it woks in paint before making a bigger one someday.

Day 5

Same template as day one, nonchalantly flipped and painted light on dark. The freaky green absorbs light in an amazing way, but the white is a bit boring, but I was looking for the 'film negative' look. So there we go. I know there's a lesson in every step, but I need to put a second coat on the white because the green is just so dark, that even my super opaque white needs to be applied thicker.

Day 4.5

Clearly my photo setup has got to improve a little or I need to get less lazy and update the colors in photoshop. The background is an intense red with magenta undertones and the foreground is a medium-dark blue...cerulean the tube says, but lies I say, its royal blue minus the intensity. There is a bit of unevenness because the blue was not entirely opaque, which on the last one was intentional, but on this one, it means I need to go and touch it up again later in a painfully monotonous way. The weird highlights are the reflection in my bad photo setup.

Day 4

So, geeky, yeah, basic, yeah, trying to go a bit up on the kitsch. I used two semi-translucent paints to make for a bit splotchier of a piece--maybe more than I would want. I might go over the green again, we'll see.

Day 3.5

Molly was out today so I was a bit on the bored, so here's a bunny. Jeff Koons is one of my favorite sculptors ( I know HE doesn't make anything...shhh). The inauspicious bunny is one of his early triumphs and helped with his skyrocket to fame. The bunny is very smoothly 3D and with the simple halftone effect, remains fairly dimensional, while still having a bit of nostalgic silkscreen/photocopier throwback. And I tried a semi-textured background--kinda splotchy and sponge looking... not sure how I feel about it, but overall the piece is solid

Day 3

So, today is a Lichtenstein girl. Background is somewhat of my personal trademark. I guess the swirls go back to a piece I did when I first started painting where I tried to approximate Van Gogh's style--next painting I made after was even length strokes with no objects and no realism. Safe to say it was my first abstract painting. And I feel like people like my abstract work, but it doesn't speak to them in the same way it does to me, so in that sense, they are mostly a failure. Pop however speaks to a part of people that already exists, it speaks their internal language and sink deeper than something as personal as my abstract work. I'm glad people like something of mine and I'm trying to combine the two and see if it sticks--this piece represents as basic a combination as possible.

Day 2

I like this one. Two colors plus a background-the grey is really our friend blue. My first time mixing halftone with flat. So, that's one effect. Next is the dots, next is the rings, so that's three total yet it is a very simple piece. Tiny brush again and the detail shows up. Very 80's looking, which is fun because this is a relatively recent can, bringing back the thoughts of the old very unpolished design of the previous can. Then it's also funny in the sense that it is a clearly Warhol reference, with the classic-ness of the Coke logos, however diet Coke wasn't introduced until the early eighties by time Warhol was working less obviously wholesome stuff, mostly portraiture and things of the like. By time diet Coke reached it's apex of being so pervasive in everyday life, Warhol was dead--but if you think about he's not completely dead.

30 paintings in 30 days... starting now.

Pretty simple, but a stunning effect, if I do say so. The blue is a heavy body light medium blue, which also happens to be one of my favorite colors to paint with. Actually it is, hands down, my favorite paint. The subject is a greenback and the effect simple. I think this is most Warhol-esque one to date. This is the first projector piece I've ever done in small scale and I am thrilled with the result and the amount of detail I can actually stand to put into it when I know I only have to do 108 square inches of it. The finer detail, letter and number, feel present--your brain knows they're supposed to be there and the really feel there. I'm really pleased with this one. Took about 1.5 hours.