Saturday, July 11, 2009

Paintings II

Intro: All of these paintings were done for the inspiration/passion/fine art section of my portfolio during 6th semester Viscom with John Krysteski.
They were created in Corel painter X using mostly the palette knife brush. The process of searching through automotive design history, seeing and experiencing all the great designs from the past and adding my own interpretation was one of the most enjoyable things for me. I think this series of classic paintings gave me a chance to go back and visit my roots from my old oil painting days. I used the same process i would as if i were doing a landscape. It's scary, with that kind of traditional painting process, i had to have faith in the process of loose to tight, general to specific. All of these paintings look like they are not working until the final thirty minutes when i tighten everything up and add the final touches that bring it all together.



M1 Allnight - 07/09
Process+Context: This is definitely my favorite painting of the classics' series. I worked on it for 10 hours straight from 8pm to 6am the next morning (Hence the title "M1 Allnight"). During that time i didn't care about anything else except painting this piece. I was focused and didn't worry about any of the other work i had to do that night. I had the feeling that artists sometimes get of being "in the zone" and i knew it would be one of my best. A lot of the time went into arranging the composition and wrestling with the color theory. I was inspired by the strength of the iconic BMW motorsports racing stripes and for some reason just really wanted to do a dramatic painting of this iconic motor vehicle. When i'm older i think i'll look back at this one and i think i'll still like it regardless of what anyone else says.



Pininfarina P5 Saturday Post - 08.09
I had this car in mind for a classic painting for a few weeks before i got to it. It was one of the last ones i did. Looking at my other paintings and the energetic/ heavy brush work style i used in them didn't seem to fit this one. With most of the other paintings my autopilot style is high energy and drama. For this one it felt like the mood should be something like the flavor of vanilla - smooth and comforting. Almost like a Norman Rockwell painting as opposed to a Sargent (both of whom i find much inspiration in painting).



Countach Noir - 08.09
Another scary painting. Scary for me cause it didn't look like it was gonna be working till the last fifteen minutes and scary in tone in general. The Countach is one of the few iconic autos that have an even more iconic aerial view. I imagined this being driven in some Italian Crime Noir film, by the hero or the villain escaping through the night chasing someone or being chased by something unknown.




Porsche Legacy - 08/09
This was originally just one part of a larger painting dealing with all the iconic vehicles in the Porsche marque's history. After spending two hours on the portrait of Ferdinand Porsche i realized it was not going to be economical time wise and decided to save that painting for a later date. I usually paint the car as the focal point of the painting, but in this case i wanted to try something different and left the car loose and made the portrait the focal point. It was good to practice my portrait painting skills that i haven't used in three years.