A short update

For the very few people out there who sometimes take a peek at my humble efforts to contribute something to this world, no art is being produced at the time. We recently bought another house, and it's gonna take months and months of doing all kinds of things on our current house to increase its' sellability, and than some more doing all kinds of things on the new house. So it's probably going to be a while before I post anything here again. In the little time I have besides work and working on the house and planning, I'm working on my writing skills (something I do besides painting). I'm following a course on creative writing and poetry at the moment.
I'm having a lot of ideas about new works and the direction I want to take. I'm writing all of that down for later use.

A bit fed up at the moment

As far as drawing and painting goes, I'm a bit fed up with the things I'm doing at the moment. For the last few years, all I haven been doing really is study. I have been doing the figure drawing bottega at SOFA, and I've been doing master studies (drawing and painting). And now, suddenly, I'm a bit fed up with all this study and really feel a need to start finding a voice of my own, to start expressing myself.

But, after being in a study mindset for so long, this is certainly not easy. What I also started to recognize lately is the fact that I tend to zig-zag too much. Whenever I see a great painting or drawing (style), I sort of feel the need start doing that too. Letting yourself being influenced is one thing, but I'm always letting myself be carried away too much. And that has got to stop.

My last post was about a master copy after the 'Man with the golden helmet' by Rembrandt or a pupil. It hasn't changed much since that last post, I did some more underpainting work at the helmet, mostly creating texture. But there was an enormous reluctance to carry on with the painting, or anything else for that matter. I stopped working for a while to do some serious thinking, and the conclusion was that I'm just fed up with studying, with working after someone else's ideas. In my thoughts I saw myself as an old man, looking back, and all I had been doing was studying and not developing something of my own.

So, in conclusion, I think I figured out that I must not try to be anybody else but me. I will try to produce work of my own, flaws and errors included, and I'll try to learn to be happy with work of a lesser standard than Rembrandt, Turner and the rest.

New painting started

The painting in my last post is drying in the area I need to work on, so, aside from drawing, I've started another painting, a study of the man with the golden helmet (Rembrandt or a pupil). I just started on the underpainting, and decided to document more of the whole proces, so I took a few pictures. This is how far I am at the moment:

I already spotted a few issues:

1. the nose is too short, so that needs to be fixed. 

2. the helmet is probably not high enough. That cannot be fixed anymore without redoing the whole face, and I think that that's not an option.

I first primed the whole canvas with the 'goo' from the bottom of the pot I clean my brushes in. Then I slightly drew in the main forms with white chalk (still visibile in the helmet), and then started to work on the darker shapes with burnt sienna and van Dyck's brown. 

New painting (in progress)

It's been twenty days ago already since my last post. I never got around to taking a few pictures of the painting I'm currently working on. I only want to do that in daylight...

It's after a selfportrait of Rembrandt. The likeness isn't really good, but that's not really what I've been working on; I've mainly concentrated on the building up of the painting (which layer after which other layer, when to work opaque and when to glaze), and on the applying of the paint itself (dragging, scumbling and glazing). Up till now I'm quite happy with it:

The top of the picture is too dark, the light wasn't enough....

Two details:

The last detail photo shows the area I'm currently working on.

It's been a while since I last posted. Haven't been sitting still though, just didn't get around scanning anything or taking photo's of drying paintings...

I started working more and more on pen drawings...

Pen drawing, loosely based on an etch by Rembrandt

Pen and ink, 10 x 10 cm

Ink portrait

New paintings and studies are on their way. Bought a large easel yesterday, hope to produce a lot of nice work on it. In the meanwhile, a little portrait study in ink & wash (bistre):

Back to ink

I tend to drift a little between different materials. Sometimes I use pen & ink, sometimes oil paint, sometimes it's pastel. I've tried other materials, but these are the ones I keep coming back to. I didn't do any oil painting for the last two months, I haven't really been up to it. Right now it's pastel, and pen & ink (and a combination of materials for studies). So for this post, its a pen drawing after an etch by Rembrandt:

Head study after Rembrandt etching

Nocturne no.1

This is a pastel study for a nocturne; it's supposed to be a view from a bridge I drive across every on my way to work. Unfortunately you cannot stop on the bridge; I would've loved to have taken some photo's, because the view is different every day. 

Nocturne no.1 (study)

It's been a while

Apart from being sick, I've been working on lots of different things, but didn't have a lot to show for. I recently tried pastel and was amazed at the color depth and textures you can achieve. This a an abstract thing; should have paid a bit more attention to the lines, some of them are not so straight and perpendicular. But I think I'm definitely keep working with pastel:

Abstract in pastel

Happy...

I recently reorganized my 'studio', and I've come to the conclusion that the real reason I've not been doing a lot of work recently was the location. I was completely unhappy with the layout. But now I've measured up a few things and reorganized; threw out a lot of stuff and installed a stereo system. And now, all of a sudden, it's fun to work there. The only thing I've been doing in the meanwhile is SOFA homework. 

Now to get the rest into gear again...