Thoughts about stuff and space.

I'm still fighting to get out of my rustiness, but this is some really self-indulgent work that I did. 

It's also worth noting that a lot of the work I've been doing lately would be completely impossible without some good influences:

My girlfriend Rachel, whose work can be seen here: http://www.rachelgregor.com/
Because she's always encouraging me to do more self-indulgent art and not worry about my professional life quite so much.

And my friend David, whose work can be seen here: http://everybodysalone.com/
Because I'm constantly exchanging emails and images with him about our work and with whom I have been collaborating with for the past few months. He also has been very encouraging as well as challenging me in my work, especially with regard for the digital medium.

I'm also going to leave a note for myself here, with hopes that I check back and find comfort, perhaps it can do the same for you.

Usually once a month and definitely once a quarter I have a week where I feel like a fraud and that my work is terrible and I'm not progressing and that I'm a poor wretch of an artist. This is normal. It happens. It will continue to happen. If it happens it means that you are none of these things. If it does not happen, re-evaluate yourself because maybe you aren't experimenting enough, or you've fallen into a procedure for creating your work instead of a process.
For some reason, this phase always feels like the first time I've felt like this and I forget that it has happened, and will happen again, and it will all be okay. So here's to worrying a little bit less next time it rolls around.

eth.

space

I feel super rusty. I haven't been painting for myself enough lately.

Started doing this 1950's sci fi stuff and I haven't quite figured out how to address this subject matter completely yet. The source is so simplistic and elegant I really don't want to trample on it or leave out things that I feel like are important.

Tricky.

eth.

Nothing to do with anything

That's what this is. But I find myself kind of drawn to using this french ultramarine/cobalt blue. There's something about it I can't quite pin, I think it's mostly just that I find it very hard to use. It's such a bold, obvious, kind of annoying color. And it's not nearly as sexy as a pthalocyanine or prussian blue. It's also vastly different from the gray blue/green color that I have a natural tendency toward using, and I'm always up for trying to break myself out of color habits.

Corel Painter 12. 30 min.

But look at me talking about digital paint as if it was oil paint. It's funny isn't it? I don't really see any reason not to talk about it in such terms, I really don't think any differently when working in analog or digital media, except that when I'm working in analog I have the recurring thought of "mixing colors is impossible and sucks" and "wow, paint is so luscious and creamy, I have to find a way to replicate this digitally."

I also find myself drawn toward using colors to great space or dimension rather than value--as demonstrated in the grayscale version of this image. I'm particularly fond of the area directly under the chin, because in the grayscale it's a strange negative version of the illusion of depth created by the color  relationships.

Thus concludes me talking about paint.

eth.