Artwork

“authorship is a dubious concept…” – Victor Pelevin

| ssemchuk
November 20, 2017
“I had never understood my own poetry particularly well, and had long suspected that authorship is a dubious concept, and all that is required from a person who takes a pen in hand is to line up the various keyholes scattered about his soul so that a ray of sunlight can shine through on to the paper set out in front of him.” – Victor Pelevin in Buddha’s Little Finger
August 12, 2017, 8″ X 5.5″

Still not feeling much like painting, so I’m posting more of my drawings from July and August.

July 16, 2017 and July 17, 2017, 8″ X 5.5″
July 22, 2017a and July 22, 2017b, 5.5″ X 8″
July 27, 2017, 8″ X 5.5″
July 30, 2017, 8″ X 5.5″
August 4, 2017, 8″ X 5.5″
August 9, 2017, 8″ X 5.5″
August 14, 2017, 5.5″ X 8″
August 16, 2017, 8″ X 5.5″
August 17, 2017 and August 18, 2017, 8″ X 5.5″
August 23, 2017, 5.5″ X 8″
August 27, 2017 and August 28, 2017, 5.5″ X 8″

“Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it.” – Robert Motherwell

| ssemchuk

November 6, 2017

Oct 1 and 2
Oct 3 and 4
Oct 5
Oct 6
Oct 7
Oct 8
Oct 9
Oct 10
Oct 11 and 12
Oct 13
Oct 14
Oct 15 and 16
Oct 17 and 18
Oct 19
Oct 20
Oct 21
Oct 22
Oct 23 and 24
Oct 25 and 26
Oct 27 and 28
Oct 29
Oct 30
Oct 31

October and 31 daily drawings complete. I followed a general theme in October – I set out to capture small spaces. In many cases, this amounted to adding a horizon line in some of the images. It changed my approach somewhat though, so I will count it as a success – even if it’s not obvious to anyone but me. I found myself consistently resorting to my favourite medium of a combination of a Copic pigment pen and the Koi Coloring Brush Pens in warm greys. I really do like the way they blend on the gessoed paper of my Moleskine books. I recently tried out another brand of the markers – the Zig Clean Colour Real Brush Markers. But after a bit of playing with them, I’m not enjoying how they behave. I will spend more time with them before I write them off.

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” – Rabindranath Tagore

| ssemchuk

October 23, 2017

Wine & Pears One, Oct 7, 2017, Oil on Panel, 20" X 16"
Wine & Pears One, Oct 7, 2017, Oil on Panel, 20″ X 16″
Wine & Pears Two, Oct 21, 2017, Oil on Panel, 20" X 16"
Wine & Pears Two, Oct 21, 2017, Oil on Panel, 20″ X 16″

 

I’ve decided to play around a little with a series of paintings of the same still life approached with different styles. I have two completed and I’m not sure how many I will paint in total – it will depend mainly on my attention span. The first painting was done using the basic technique introduced in the Craftsy course that I completed: Paint & Palette Essentials. I didn’t incorporate all of the ideas from the course, but I did work quite a few in. Overall I’m pleased with the results in both paintings.

 

 

“Nobody owns life, but anyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death.” ― William S. Burroughs

| ssemchuk

October 9, 2017

Sep 1 and 2
Sep 3 4
Sep 5 and 6
Sep 7
Sep 8
Sep 9
Sep 10
Sep 11 and 12
Sep 13 and 14
Sep 15
Sep 16
Sep 17
Sep 18
Sep 19
Sep 20
Sep 21
Sep 22
Sep 23 and 24
Sep 25 and 26
Sep 27 and 28
Sep 29
Sep 30

Another month of daily drawing complete. I had wanted to work on a grey ground this  month, thinking I’d play with adding white, but I didn’t find myself all that interested in it when I sat down each evening to draw. I also found the texture of the grey gesso different than that of the white and it wasn’t as nice to work with. It was a bit of a push to do these drawings this month. Hopefully I will find more energy for it in October. I am starting to think about what my project for 2018 might look like…

“We go forward, looking in the rearview mirror.”- Marshall McLuhan

| ssemchuk

September 25, 2017

July 8, 2017, 5.5” X 8”

I have just not felt like painting lately. I’ve done a bit here and there, but nothing that has amounted to anything. Instead of paintings, today I’m posting some of my favourite drawings from my current sketchbook. In January I started my daily drawing project in order to improve my drawing skills. In June I realized I was not seeing the improvement I had hoped to, so I started a fresh sketchbook with the intention of drawing 30 minutes a day minimum – including the time I put into my daily drawing. It’s gone well and I feel like I’ve been a bit more experimental and playful as a result. Here’s a small sampling.

June 22, 2017, 8” X 5.5”
June 24, 2017 a and b, 5.5” X 8”
July 2, 2017, 5.5” X 8”
July 6, 2017 a, 5.5” X 8”
July 6, 2017 b, 5.5” X 8”
July 9, 2017 a and July 9, 2017 b, 5.5” X 8”
July 9, 2017 and July 10, 2017, 8” X 5.5”
July 12, 2017, 8” X 5’5”
July 13, 2017, 8” X 5.5”

“The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul.” – Wassily Kandinsky

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September 11, 2017

Aug 1 and 2
Aug 3 and 4
Aug 5 and 6
Aug 7 and 8
Aug 9
Aug 10
Aug 11 and 12
Aug 13 and 14
Aug 15 and 16
Aug 17
Aug 18
Aug 19 and 20
Aug 21 and 22
Aug 23 and 24
Aug 25 and 26
Aug 27 and 28
Aug 29 and 30
Aug 31

Thirty-one hand drawings complete. All done in black Copic Multiliner pens and Sakura KOI Watercolor Brush Pens in three shades of warm grey.

Some thoughts:

  1. I liked working with this combination of pens. The Copics did not bleed with the grey pens and the grey pens blended nicely on the gessoed paper. It didn’t occur to me at the time, but it might be nice to find a colourless blender pen to soften the transition between the lightest grey and the white of the paper. I may have to explore that.
  2. Hands are made up of really weird shapes and can look pretty bizarre from different angles
  3. I found it very valuable to focus on the shapes I was drawing, and not the fact that I was drawing hands. I was specifically thinking about drawing this fold in the skin or that bump of flesh or wrinkle and not about fingers or finger nails.
  4. I enjoyed drawing the baby hands the last five days the most. The cute little chubby knuckles and pudgy fingers were more fun to draw than my own hands – especially when mine often came out looking old and claw like.
  5. It is far easier to draw someone else’s hands than my own. I had to tape my sketchbook down to keep it from moving and then do a lot of squinting. And I would inevitably move my hand during the drawing and notice it only at the end when things didn’t quite line up as they should. I am very appreciative of my kids’ willingness to play hand models for me when they could.
  6. I only drew from photos a few times – including the baby hands. I try to draw from life for the simple reason that I am here to learn and to develop my skills at flattening reality. If I have the camera doing that flattening first, I am limiting my opportunities to improve.
  7. Overall I like the result of the August drawings and might have to take up a another theme in October. It helps not to have to try to decide what to draw each day. And surprisingly, I didn’t get bored with the repetition.

“To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way.” – E.M. Forster

| ssemchuk

August 28, 2017

Couple of Pears, Aug 12, 2017, Oil on Panel, 8" X 8"
Couple of Pears, Aug 12, 2017, Oil on Panel, 8″ X 8″
Couple of Apples, Aug 19, 2017, Oil on Panel, 10" X 8"
Couple of Apples, Aug 19, 2017, Oil on Panel, 10″ X 8″

 

The last painting from my July Painting Challenge inspired me to paint the same painting a couple more times. I thought I may do a series of these incorporating variations, but after the third one I think I need a break. At least I have a set of three now.

“Color is the place where our brain meets the universe.” – Paul Cezanne

| ssemchuk

August 14, 2017

July Painting Challenge – Conclusions and Notes

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Panel Preparation
  • Started with 20 Exhibition Wood Cradled Panels from Opus – 15 were 8″ X 10″ slim panels (3/4″ deep) and 5 were 8″ X 8″ deep panels (1.5″ deep)
  • 3 coats of gesso applied to each panel with a light sanding between coats
  • 6 panels were covered with found paper and another 3 coats of clear gesso with a light sanding between coats
  • 9 panels were gessoed in black, grey or Venetian Red gesso
  • 3 panels were covered with gesso tinted with acrylic paint – light blue and yellow
  • The edges of all of the panels were gessoed black and I covered them with green painter’s tape while I was painting
panels
Daily Process
  • Each day I started with about a half hour of drawing, often of the same subject that I would then paint. I found this very helpful to get a feel for the values of the subject matter with graphite or charcoal prior to taking on the paint.
  • I began most of the paintings with a very quick charcoal sketch directly on the panel.
  • I spent between one hour and an hour and a half painting each panel.
  • I painted with two spot lights – one directed to my subject matter and one to my easel and kept the blinds closed in order to control the light.
Day 7 a
Day 7 b
Day 7 c
Day 7 d
Day 7 e
Day 9 a
Day 9 b
Day 9 c
Day 12 a
Day 12 b
Day 14
Random Notes
  • I played a lot with outlines which flatten the image, but then adding volume into the objects themselves with gradated values.
  • Trying to keep the edges sharp was tedious with oil paint and my lines became very inconsistent as a result, which annoyed me. Distinct outlines also created issues regarding shadows and light reflected off the edges of objects and how to portray that in a simplified manner.
  • On Day Fourteen, I decided to soften all of my edges – with a favourable outcome.
  • I should have known better and not cut the a lemon off on two sides on Day Seven. There was no way I was going to be able to make that lemon 3 dimensional after that. And I completely forgot to add the shadow under the bowl.
  • I really need to avoid outlining round objects until I learn to draw a better circle. This was a problem in Day Seven and again on Day Thirteen.
  • My lights were quite bright and the room fairly dark, which sometimes resulted in a fairly dark painting, as in Day Nine.
  • On Day Twelve I roughed in a few colours onto the pears and was about to start blending them in and then decided I liked it how it was and I just stopped.
  • Prussian blue is one of my favourite colours and it turned up in eight of the paintings and the combination of Prussian blue and burnt umber appeared in six of them.
  • The last 3 days I used all of the same colours.
 The biggest gain I achieved from this project was developing an increased ease at just jumping in and starting and not thinking about how it’s all going to turn out – and that has made it well worth the effort.