Gravity #10 Work In Progress Part 2

Yesterday, I laid down the second coat on Gravity #10.  Except for one mistake, I only sprayed it from one direction.  This make is so that it looks different from different angles.  Confused?  Pictures are worth a thousand words.  Take a look below.

This is the angle in which I sprayed the paint.  I know where this painting is going to hang in the person's house who it is being made for.  When people exit the dining room & head into the living room, it will look like this (plus all of the splatter lines).  You can see part of Gravity Painting #9 in this shot, along with Lori Chandler-Lewis's "Pointy Garden"

This is the same painting from the other angle.  When they go from the living room into the dining room, this is what they'll see.

If the painting is looked at head on, this is what it will look like.  Mostly.  I had a huge challenge photographing this painting, because I only have two flood lights.  Normally when one photographs flat art, one can simply place the floods to either side of the image, and there is little or no glare.  Not so with this image.  Because the canvas has been altered by adding sculpted lines, any no diffuse lighting results in glare.  I ended up lighting it from a bunch of different angles & blending the angles together in Photoshop to get the most accurate image possible.


For those wondering what size this is, a little bit of background has been added for comparison.  Harry Potter (American & British) and other books in the background.

Gravity #8... Finally

Here ya go.  I wasn't as happy with this one as some of the other work I've done.  The smooth texture of the airbrushed background didn't integrate as well with the line art on the foreground.  Some may find this more pleasing.  Hey, the artist can't always be right :)   I think it was a worthy experiment, and it provided a lot of feedback for gravity #10.  Namely, the texture work I did when laying down the gesso was not dramatic enough to get the effect I was looking for.  Gravity Painting #9 proved to be more successful in that regard.

Gravity #10, Work In Progress

I have a very patient friend who is awaiting a commission piece that he won at a charity auction... back in June.  Right now I have the first part of the underpainting complete.  Now, I need to apply color from an angle, like I did in #9, so the color will change depending on the angle in which it is viewed.

Here's the process so far:

First, the panels were gessoed, with intentional texture

Then, the panel pieces were bound together

Turned out that gesso didn't have enough texture.  Added pumice based structural paint

Started work on underpainting

Head on underpainting complete.  Still needs angled painting

Gravity #9

New Painting!  Using a sculpted background and airbrush for a specific effect
(Gravity #8 still needs photos taken, in case you were wondering)

From this angle, it looks like a mostly red/black background

From this angle it looks mostly like a yellow background!

I love helping people think consciously about their own perceptions :)

Gravity Painting #7... or #8??

So, I am doing a commission piece for a friend which is going to be a set of five panels.  So far, I've gotten the gesso on the panels.  So, does that count as #7?  Because tonight, I met a fellow named Will who needed his coveralls painted for the upcoming Fremont Parade. And, I started & finished it tonight.  Oh, nad they are coveralls, not exactly canvas (kinda, but not really...)  So do they even count at all??

The nice thing about this project is that I was able to test out some new paints.  I'm going to be painting a fair number of Naked Bicyclists who have a wonderful habit of showing up before the parade actually happens on Saturday.  I was able to figure out the best combination of paint, medium & water.
Here's the results:

White was too thin & dripped.  Fixed that for Sat.

Sunshine in his back pocket!

Gravity Painting #6: A Study in Materials and Colors

This piece was an exercise in trying a new substrate, as well as mixing mediums. 

I chose a 12" Ampersand "GessoBord" for this piece.  I also wanted to try some earth tones.   Because this piece is only 12"x'12", I only laid down the background colors in paint, and used a Japanese calligraphy pen for the lines.

When I was getting ready to do a gloss medium wash over the piece, I found out that the ink was water soluble.  Yay!   A happy accident that worked in my favor.

Final piece after the medium dried.

A Humbling Moment

Even though I thought I come up with the term "Gravity Painting" on my own, I decided to do a quick Google of the term.  The results were incredibly humbling.

First, there is a video of Amy Shackleton's process, here:  (Click for Video Link)

Not only is the process & result incredible, when you go to her website's gallery, it is obvious that she is prolific.

Go visit it now.  We'll wait for you.  Aim Artistry

Also, there is Holton Rower’s Paintings, which can be found here: Holton Rower

And, a video of the incredible process is here:  (Click here for YouTube link)

Feeling like I should go crawl into a dark, warm cozy place for a while now.  But, the great thing about the modern world, is that there is room for many artists, with many different styles.  It's great to see how others are using gravity and material science to create such work!