Euro Cyclist

Euro Cyclist

Acrylic on panel

24"x36"

 Since completing my thesis at the Hartford Art School in 2009 I have not had the opportunity to work with acrylic paint all that much. This painting was a lot of fun to do as it offered a chance to re-visit the medium.  Included in a previous post was  the preliminary drawing in which this painting was based upon. 

Best Artist EVER!!!

Isabella with her tour de force

My niece Isabella was over on Thanksgiving, and she was really excited about doing some painting with her kook of an uncle. I tried to set her up with a small piece of canvas board but she shut me down and insisted that she painted on a wooden panel, similar to the ones I used for my thesis paintings. I didn't have any that size and so we settled on a smaller panel that I had kicking around. Here she is looking serious with her first ever acrylic on panel masterpiece! Pretty awesome job, especially the floaty little hearts in the sky! Love this kid!!!

Final Headless Horseman

Not feeling so motivated lately in terms of illustration , focusing a little bit more on climbing. I guess this is normal for me, sort of an ebb and flow between art and climbing. Seems like one fuels the other in many ways. Despite the slacking I have managed to finish up a pretty good sized acrylic painting . I showed a color study I did for this piece as well as some drawings in an earlier post. In this post I have included the finished painting along with a little video that shows a little bit about the painting process......

The Headless Horseman

Acrylic on Board 19"x19"

Headless Horseman from dan yagmin on Vimeo.

Nocturnes

Arkhip Kuindzhi

Patches of Moonlight

Earlier I posted a color study that I have used for the painting, in which I am finishing up at the moment of the Headless Horseman. The painting is a "Nocturne" or a painting of a night scene, and is the second painting I have done like it. Painting a nocturne is quite different, and a bit more challenging for me. Rather than trying to create light , you are challenged with creating a lack thereof, which entails a lot of other techniques and methods. . This type of painting examines darkness and conditions near its edge. Creating far more unique compositions, nocturnes heavily rely on abstract elements in order to hold the picture together. For this reason, shapes and silhouettes play a big role , often times edges are softened, and the values in the painting are often close to one another. (When I say values I do not mean your personal values, or whether you not you believe in abortion, etc... Rather, I mean values in terms of light to dark. A number 1 value being the lightest and a 10 being the darkest value. ) The typical color palette for this type of painting is of course cool,limited, and moody.

As always I like to look to some other artists for information and inspiration. Above and below I have included a number of nocturnes that have been painted by various artist over time, all equally amazing!!

Enjoy!

Tsuchiya Koitsu

Maizuru Harbor at Night

N.C. Wyeth

The Black Spot

N.C. Wyeth

The Old Pew

N.C. Wyeth

The Treasure Cave

Frederic Remington

The Sentinel

Frederic Remington

The Old Stage-Coach of the Plains

Frederic Remington

The Hunters' Supper

James Abbot McNeil Whistler

Falling Rocket

Childe Hassam

Railway Crossing

Rembrandt

St. Paul at his Desk

Rembrandt

An old Usurer Examining a Coin

Madison Art Cinemas Show

Saturday was the opening for my show at the Madison Art Cinemas, in Madison Connecticut.

Things went quite well except for the fact that I was a bit unprepared, due to the fact that I had just returned from five weeks abroad. But hey, the paintings were framed and on the wall in time and I was able to hang out with the many great people that came trough. This despite the fact that it was 5:30 a.m according to my body's clock. So things could have been worse. Although I still need to get down there with some labels for the paintings, and a few other things, such as a copy or two of Norton B. Nice..

The show will be up for another month so if you are at all interested please stop by and have a look. I have hung a wide variety of work including the work I did for my thesis project at UHA, some new watercolors, and some digital work as well.

The address is 761 Boston Post, Rd. , Madison , Ct., 06443.

Or for more info visit the event page on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=259849908432&ref=ts

Big thanks to all of the great friends and family that made it by on saturday, you guys are great!!!!! Thanks for the support!!! And a bigger thanks to "Assu" for sending me some photos to show!

Photos courtesy of :

Andrew "Assu" Joseph

Iron Mike follow up

Iron Mike

6"x9"

Watercolor on Arches 140lb Hot Press

Lately I have been doing a lot more painting with watercolor. I forgot about how much I enjoyed the spontaneity of the medium, and how much I like the fact that I can finish a painting in a few hours. It seems like the faster I paint something when using watercolors the happier I am with results. Unlike acrylics, where I feel like it takes me ages to build the painting up to a level I am happy with.

Although watercolors have earned a reputation for being a pretty unforgiving medium , I think they allow for certain freedoms that others do not! Having the ability to work fast, on paper, with only a few colors, only requiring water, and little to no cleanup makes it a pretty appealing medium to say the least.

So over the next few weeks I am trying to do a watercolor a day. Here is my follow up of Iron Mike.

Hers is a link below to one of Mike Tyson's interviews:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4l0ZyKmeNE#watch-main-area

West Oakland Beast

I created a series of images for DungeonTraining.blogspot.com while I was staying out in the Bay area this past fall. I did not get the chance to finish one of them, the West Oakland Beast, so I spent a little bit of time the other day trying to finish it up. I still need to do some work on it and will post the final when it comes together. In this post I decided to also include a little detail of the attack dog, in which is based on my friends dog named Alpha. Alpha and her dad Roman run amuck, chewing on buckets, speakers or whatever they can get their jaws on, during training sessions at the dungeon. They keep the riff raff out!!!!!!

Alpha Detail

This painting as many of my more recent paintings is completed with a very limited palette, Ultramarine blue deep, Cad Lemon yellow, Burnt Sienna , white, and Alizarin. I have learned a lot from working with this limited range of color and is quite the change from the 24 color palette I used on my thesis paintings.

West Oakland Beast

Acrylic on Board

7.5"x9.5"

Revised NYC Dog Walker

Currently I am working on a revision at a larger scale of one of my paintings, The NYC Dog Walker. In this post I wanted to share a little bit about he process I used to create the original piece. For the most part it is pretty straight forward, and like most pieces I start off by drawing tons of small thumbnail sketches. For this one, once I had a thumbnail that I liked (pictured below)I went ahead and ran it through some filters in Photoshop.

Dog Walker Thumbnail
1.5"x2"

After the thumbnail went through the photoshop filters, I went ahead and colorized it blue, as seen below. This image will serve as the final paintings under painting:

Thumbnail after applying Filters

This process of running the sketch through filters, and then colorizing it, makes for some spontaneous patterns, shapes, colors, and textures in which you may not arrive at otherwise. Once I have this done I will print this image out and mount it to a piece of board, and begin to paint on top of it. I have an idea where I want to go with the painting in terms of the figures, as this was worked out in the thumbnail stage. I try not to be a slave to my original skecth and make efforts to hold on to the more abstract shapes and patterns created by the photshop filters. From this point I continue to paint pretty directly, making changes and revisions along the way until I arrive at the final image seen below:

NYC Dog Walker
5"x7"

So the revised version of this painting is going to be a bit larger, measuring about 12"x16" versus the original 5"x7". So I wanted to tighten some things up in the drawing , and make some changes to the dog's, vehicle,etc. Pictured below is the new drawing that will serve as the rough for the new painting!

Revised Dog Walker Sketch

Graphite on paper

6"x9"

Rickshaw Challenge

As all guys, I of course have a dream vehicle . For some it is a red Porsche, for others it might be an old school Camaro, or maybe a Benz or a sporty Beamer. For whatever reason we are born with inherited attractions to certain things ,whether it be a particular color, a flavor of soda, or a type of music. If you know me , or have had a good look at this blog and my art it should come as no surprise that my dream ride would be a pimped out Tuk Tuk or Rickshaw.

Ever since my first experience whipping around in one of these high powered go carts in South East Asia I have been obsessed with them. Not quite sure what it is about them that makes me so obsessed. Maybe it is the fact that they still embody the old school design relative to vintage vehicles of yesterday. In the modern world of today this style of design has been left behind. Except for in developing parts of the world, where this style still strives. Due to its small size, in large congested cities , old school Tuk Tuk's can be seen out maneuvering the most modern of vehicles. Perhaps my connection with this comes from growing up as the son of a guy who loved to drive old clunkers. When I was just a baby I was carted around in an old Chevy Vega, then an old Ford F 1-50, followed by a 1970's Bronco, a 1970's El camino, and in current times my Pop's still drives a 1970 Chevy Nova.

Vintage Chevy Vega

At any rate there is something I love about these three wheeled vehicles in which has driven me to create numerous pieces of illustration about them. I believe that in Thailand these little machines are referred to as Tuk Tuk's , whether they are powered by a motor or by a human. In India they are known as Rickshaws, and I am unsure of the name they go by in places like Cambodia and elsewhere, but different variations exist in many parts of the world. Tuk Tuks, and Rickshaws , etc. come in many styles and colors, and are commonly decorated to suite the drivers tastes. In this post I have included some paintings that I have done illustrating Thai Tuk Tuk's found in and around the Capitol Bangkok. Also included are numerous photo's in which I took of various Tuk Tuk's throughout Thailand and Cambodia, and an example of the Rickshaw found in India.

Bkk, Tuk Tuk Ride
24"x48"
Acrylic on panel

Tuk Tuk Driver
5"x5"
Acrylic on Panel

Tuk Tuk Sketches
Graphite on paper

Indian Rickshaw

Thai Tuk Tuk Taxi Bus in Ayutthayah

Cambodian Taxi Tuk Tuk

View of Angkor from Tuk Tuk

Bkk Tuk Tuk

Bkk night Tuk Tuk

Bkk Tuk Tuk 2

Bicycle Tuk Tuk , Chiang Mai

Southern Thai Style Tuk Tuk

Aonang

Currently I am trying to assemble a team to participate in something known as the Rickshaw Challenge, check it out at: http://rickshawchallenge.com/

If all goes well we plan to partake in the event this coming July. It seems like a wild, fun way to see India. So far I have a few friends on board and it looks like it is going to happen. Hopefully I am going to create a blog dedicated to this endeavor, as well as have a benefit art show to try and help fund things. I believe that a lot of the money that in which it costs to participate goes to charity in India, something that makes it more appealing to me as well.

Below are a few fun videos, one in which I slapped together quickly from some old footage, and another of someone doing some Rickshaw stoppy stunts!! Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAwenLnBnLs&feature=related

Thai Tuk Tuk Ride 2007

Chief Bromden

Chief Bromden

6"x13"

acrylic on board

Contained in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest are numerous passages that beckon to be illustrated. In particular are the passages that describe the visions/daydreams/delusions of Chief Bromden. I started to create a series of Illustrations from theses passages , but they were put on the back burner while I worked on my thesis. During the week long workshop with Gary Kelley and Chris Payne, held this past July in Hartford, I had the opportunity to work on one of these illustrations. In an earlier post I showed my preliminary sketches and a digital color comp and so I decided to show the piece close to finish. It is a relatively small piece measuring 6"x13" , and is acrylic on illustration board. This painting was done using a very limited palette consisting of five colors, ultramarine blue deep, cad yellow lemon, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, and white.

MFA

Below are a few photos I shot during my last contact period with my MFA group in Hartford.

Here is a photo of me with some of the great teachers I have had the opportunity to study with over the years. Ted Lewin, Vladimir Shpitalnik, and Murray Tinkelman.

My wall of paintings hanging in the Silpe Gallery , Hartford Art School.

A shot of Gary Kelley during his demo at the HAS.

A shot of C.F Payne during his demo HAS.

Last week I had my thesis defense, which went fairly well. Included in the defense committee was my thesis advisor Doug Anderson, UHA professor Bill Thompson, Program Director Murray Tinkelman, and Visiting Artist C.F Payne. I was a bit nervous about this, having guys like that in front of my paintings made me feel pretty vulnerable to say the least. Murray being the great guy that he is calmed my nerves by reassuring me that this was not the time to bash me and my work, but to rather celebrate the accomplishment and discuss the overall experience. So I relaxed , the Thesis was approved and I graduated with an MFA in illustration.

The overall experience of being a part if the program at Hartford was incredible. The friends I made along the way, the teachers that I worked with, the speakers that I saw, and the places we traveled to all made up an incredible journey. Personally I watched my own work grow with leaps and bounds, this was largely due to being a part of such a great group of artists.

I have to give the biggest thanks to Carol Tinkelman, the person who holds the entire program together, and Tom Bradley associate dean of the Hartford Art School.. If it was not for them I would not have been accepted into this program due to accreditation issues with my undergraduate school.

So Thanks again Carol and Tom. And thanks again to everyone else that has been a part of the MFA in Illustration program at the Hartford Art School.

Final San Fran. painting

Here is the final painting for my San Francisco assignment given back in March as part of the MFA program at the Hartford Art School.

I posted a few earlier posts in which I showed some of the preliminary drawings, as well as the painting in progress. This painting is now hanging in the 2009 thesis exhibit which is taking place now through the 24th at the Silpe Galley, University of Hartford. The entire show show is pretty amazing, and includes 13 artists from around the country, all working in different styles and mediums. I encourage anyone that is interested in art to stop on by the show, it is one worth seeing. The opening reception will be Friday, July 24th. , 5-7 p.m.

Possible portraits

Piet Mondrian

Acrylic on panel, 8x14

Ken Kesey

Mixed media, 6x9

Chief Bromden

Mixed Media, 4x 12 

In a few weeks I will head back to the University of Hartford for two weeks of classes, followed by graduation. For one of the classes, with Gary Kelley and C.F Payne , we will work on a portrait assignment. I have a few different ideas and directions to go in for this class, and have worked up some studies for them. Two of the possibilities, Ken Kesey and Mondrian , are pretty  straight forward portraits with a little distortion .  The other is an image that I created of Chief Bromden, based on a paragraph from Ken Kesey's , One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Not sure which one I will go with for a final piece. Painting  Mondrian could be cool, I think he is a pretty interesting looking character. Ken Kesey is a very unique character  which I think if I tied in something more about him into the piece could be cool.

 I am pretty excited about the Bromden idea, as I think it illustrates some of Bromden's visions/ delusions featured in the book. I am just not sure if this will fly as a portrait. I may  try to somehow enlarge Bromden within the composition, making it more of a portrait.We'll see!