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Sunday, December 7, 2008

(Almost) Final Self Portrait WIP and Clothed Figure one alumni photos!





OK so above is as of 12 11 08... more cooling of the lights and fine tuning all around.. moved ear.. re-did mouth to capture more of what my "mouf" looks like.. nose completely re-done to soften transitions.. it may need a cooler highlight but I am not psyched to touch it after all that work.. dig it ( me, I mean - i dig it.. at least a little.. and at least for an hour or so.. background to be softened ( see blog of dark where painting was in more detail).. will finalize when feeling less lazy!.. off to workshop to.. what else ? paint the figure ;-)) -kw ps check out the show at 288 Sutter ! Sam has some awesome stuff there ( and my favorite already sold #$%) shout out to team Tomutsu!


Here is one of my final WIP paintings (that would be a self portrait) - just getting near complete-ish.. Very Warm lights on the left and slightly cooler morning light from the window ( and quite bright) on the right.. for me: very complex light - no REAL shadows so.. lots of thinking and.. let me just say i will NEVER be lazy at block in again as the re-working is so painful vs getting it right out the gate! ( and here I thought I knew what I looked like).. painting: i really enjoy it but it is SO intense!)



Lazy block in.. eyes too close, nose in wrong place, ear a mile back on HUGE side of head.. mouth too low..
bringing in the super warms from the inside room lights ( reds/golds/yellows) and the cool-er light from the window ( this is about 10am at my house.. north light window..
rough "ebouche" of color down.. now eyes are too narrow, nose needs much fine tuning and mouth is to.. underbite-y .. i think I had moved the ear by this time.. it was almost an inch on the canvas which is a shed-load of fix!
below - value adjustments yesterday (sat) to get things more to the right /true value range.. when I first put those light cooler values in a think I made a slight .. whelp ? but it was right and good..


and the near final.. very challenging but it has some things I am digging ..




The Chris Canga (non- as in he is very much alive) Memorial Clothed Figure 1 annual dinner ( no. 2). Left to right are Leah, Elisha, Ye Bin, Max, Emmerson and Carmen.. look at Ye Bin's cool polaroid camera ( she always has cool toys!).. Very fun gang! We all laughed.. Emmerson ate like 23 roles and it was all good..
Besides Leah, I am the only other Caucasian in this group.. outnumbered.. outgunned.. story of my life! oh - and that is Carmen's Dude next to her.. he is "in the industry" !
check out Emmerson and the girlz in these next two.. Max seems.. transfixed ?

14 comments:

Wythe Bowart said...

WOW! Great work Kevin! Love that quick head study of the blonde chick below. Reminds me of michaelhussar.biz alla prima paintings. See ya.

Carmen Chow said...

Sh*t I'm totally admiring your portrait painting skills now. You probably don't even need GCA. They draw and paint slow anyway. I don't think anyone can beat you with long poses!

The_Geeks said...

your self portrait=CLEAN!

Matias said...

Like I told you in class, that self portrait kicks ass! When I got home, I tried to find your e-mail and realized that I only have your blog. Here's my e-mail - mat.salas@comcast.net. I'll send that pic once I hear from you. I hope I can join you guys for the figure painting class next semester.

Anonymous said...

I think your work is amazing!!! I came across your blog when I was goggling figures. I am so inspired by your work! All of it, your oil paintings are incredible and I am in awe of the newborn baby in water!!! I really admire your gestures they have so much information and feeling. I just recently made a blog for myself. I am an art student, and made a blog for people to openly view my work. I just want you to know that your art has made a great impact on me, and I am learning a great deal from you. Thanks!
- Hillary Sesnon

theo said...

lol dude max is so funny.. i love that guy haha!! As a true artist, gotta take your time to appreciate beauty, right?

i'd definitely crop that portrait cause it's right in the middle! hehe jez joking trying to be picky and annoying, great work again.. very careful analysis.

I'm looking forward to see some horrific, extra-saturated, wrong, senseless, careless and exagerated stuff posted here. I't be delightful to see some bad stuff from u, that is, if you can pull it off, hah!
See ya wednesday for our last cfd3 class!!

Carmen Chow said...

Kevin, I liked your old background~! The colors worked. The background is too sloppy for your amazing painting. Design the composition! This is going to John Pence Gallery!!

Anonymous said...

I really like this self portrait. I think it's a great start, how much more work will you put into it before you (and your teacher) consider it finished? How much time do you have into it so far?

In the inital block in it looks like you were standing along a corner of your wall, were you?

I like the angle and the warm vice cool lights in this, I also like your color selections and enjoyed reading where you were at during each of the photos.

Last question, how thick is your paint at this point and how much of your work is not quite wet in wet (e.g., like watercolor) or is it thin enough to dry between painting sessions?

Check out Duane Keiser's blog, there is a link to one of his sites, called on painting. If you go through there a way back there are a series of postings about a large painting he did of himself in his studio. I think there is a final slideshow in there. If it's still there, check out how much he changed about himself, features, posture etc. And Duane teaches are at Randolph Macon. So don't feel too rough about all the changes since you sound like you're learning so much from there.

Feel free to delete a bunch from this comment since it's obsecenly long...
Ciao
Cindy

Anonymous said...

here is the link I was talking about
http://keiserprocess.blogspot.com/search/label/painting1

Cindy

C.B. Canga said...

that's the second time i wasn't invited. thanks guys.

you guys all look great. you guys had an awesome class.

The Art of Kevin Wueste said...

Cindy, i'd say I am 30-40 hours in now with some of those hours spent experimenting with different cool and warm notions. yes I was leaning against the wall next to my window when my photo timer went off ;-) this is lit with cool morning light ( north light), a warm lamp near my head and a tungsten tota photo light 3200k bouncing off of a white fill on the floor. when I work on a section, i try to rework the whole area ( like, the nose) as it's much easier to painting fairly thinly ( but not like a wash) over a dry area. with each new piece of work on a painting like this, I am working over a dry area but "oil up" before painting. this particular painting since it is more a student painting then a "kevin" painting is fairly tight and exacting to be 1. like me ( likeness) and to have forms turn nicely - even tiny ones. I saw Keiser's blog.. i'm sure those paintings have a different impact in person! i will get a nice pic of this painting up in a few days when it finally isn't raining! thanks for all the comments everyone!

Gue said...

yeah. we'll be there. yea it starts at 7pm. give me a call or reply back your phone number so we can get together before the workshop,

916-842-1176

Emerson Tung said...

amazing self portrait, kevin! bravo for tackling such hard lighting. love the rendering of the.. i mean your eyes man.

did you change the bg? and yeah.. I kinda agree with Carmen. think the old bg kinda worked better. Somehow with the new one you kinda blend in a bit too much into the bg with all the warm colors.

Sandra Heading said...

Oh' ok, So this is what you look like, Hmmm' I didnt see this one before, Very nice!!