pencil pencil pencil

i have tried different methods of starting a painting, but at the moment the one that seems to best suit my needs is doing the penciling first. i am primarily a penciller and that has always been my favorite medium, either for the texture or for the ease of control. it is time consuming, but as a technique, in my opinion there's nothing more impressive than a good pencil work. it shows all the artist's craftsmanship. I've been doing some pencil work before applying the underpainting, which have helped me to have more control over the values and the overall mood of the painting.



Materia: Earth
(yeah, I have horrible finger nails. besides being an incurable nail biter, they are usually dirty with graphite. never seen any point in nail polishing either. but i almost always had the boys i wanted. :P)


Materia: Water (detail of the mandala)


Portrait of Angie

Masquerade Show

good news and next projects

I've been in a family trip in the last few days. zero internet, what is not all bad since i don't get so distracted and can focus on reading and sketching. but it was extra good to come home and find out that Duality was accepted into the Masquerade group show, which will happen at the Gallery 101, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. that will be my first group show in an actual gallery, and I am pretty excited about it.

and after several days attempting to put ideas together, i have finally started sketching the works that will be part of the next Energy Art Movement salon, in July. it's a group of 4 paintings entitled "Materia" (Latin word for matter), each one portraying  one of the 4 elements. the works will deal with the notion of chemical structure of the human body and its relation with the circular forms of the sacred geometry (mandalas), while attempting to transmit a sense of energetic nurturing through colors and symbolic images related to each one of the elements. i will be incorporating a bit of mandala art into the paintings.

talking about mandalas, i am really itching to come back to teaching. i have already started looking for classroom space in the area i live in for some classes and workshops. also starting to have the energy back for online classes, but still not much available time to prepare written material. must think!

Duality

Mixed media (acrylics, pastel and graphite) on paperboard,

16 x 20

2010

$600

in progress: Duality

i was almost able to finish this today...



the process...







quality control: