My Artistic Focus

My art centers around animals, nature, country life and local scenes. The things I am passionate about and know quite a bit about.

The Inspiration Behind the Series

Lately, I have had a heart toward the plight of animals in the hands of man. We are not, as a species, careful with the resources that we have been gifted. It didn’t start with this generation or even the last few, but the problems have grown exponentially through time.

Planning the Series: Man vs. Nature

My heart has led me to create a series about this topic and am just in the beginning stages. There is a lot to consider and plan for a series and I thought it would be entertaining and maybe even enlightening to take you through it with me.

I have been dreaming about what the series would look like…night and day…for months, as I have been finishing up other projects. Before I start a new project, or in this case a series, I plan a significant part of it in my head. In a series you need to have a common thread from one artwork to another. The commonality could be the color scheme, the style, the texture, the subject matter, the size, or any combination of these considerations.

I decided subject matter would be the paramount theme. That is how I came to the idea of Man vs. Nature.

Artistic Style and Subject Matter

Tentatively, my decisions are:

The style will be Abstract Realism with the animals (the focus of this series) being painted realistically. The rest of the painting would be in different phases of abstraction, from nearly realistic to pure abstraction.

Man will be represented in the architecture and other effects he creates rather than literally being a person or multiple people in the paintings.

All of this could change as I begin to paint. When I’m creating, I allow my heart to take control, and the artwork may change significantly. However, I try to envision as much detail as I can so that I stay on track with the original idea… especially since I have a message to portray in this series.

I’m making this series for people who have a heart for animals and nature so that they can realize that their sensibilities for animals, nature and earth can be worn like a badge of honor on their walls. A reminder that their heart is valuable in the world they are living in right now.

Naming the Series: Finding the Right Title

Although it may be easier to come up with a name for the series once I have a few paintings created, I start thinking about the name from the beginning and give it a name that may or may not be its final name.

One, so that I can put everything related to the series in a recognizable folder on my computer.

Two, to keep me focused on the purpose of the series and I do not stray too far from it.

Three, so that I can live with the name for awhile and make sure it feels right.

Temporarily I call it ‘Man vs Nature’ series, but I doubt that one will stick. Here are some others I’ve come up with, but I’d appreciate any help here. Just put your suggestions in the comments below.

1. Hand of Man
2. Human Nature
3. 2^nd Nature
4. The Nature of Man
5. Coexistence

The Sketching Process: From Mind to Canvas

While thinking the title of the series through I will carry on to the next step which is sketching out the ideas that have been rattling around in my head. Although most of my work these days are digital, my work ethic is the same as when I created oil paintings on stretched canvases on a daily basis.

I start with a sketch. This can be a quick sketch that only I can decipher, or it may be a detailed pencil drawing that shows most every nuance of the finished artwork. Most of the time it’s a simple sketch that only shows the main players and the composition I’m going for.

Once I start the painting, then more details come to me. My thought process is fluid and often changes with my mood of the day.

Digital vs. Traditional: My Artistic Approach

These days, where I spend most of my time on the computer, or actually an oversized pen tablet, I use a brush tip and quickly sketch out what I’m visualizing in my brain with black ink on a soft grey background.

If I was creating this painting in oil on canvas, I would start with a pencil sketch on paper then re-draw it in vine charcoal on the canvas, then go over the lines with turpentine so that they do not brush off when I paint. You can’t get a detailed drawing this way, which gives me the flexibility to make changes and add layers without the dread of losing my many hours of details I drew in.

Although I get criticized for my art being “Digital” rather than “by hand” I find so many artists today using a projector and tracing from a photograph rather than drawing their images. The images are carefully drawn in pencil then paint is applied. To not lose their drawing, they carefully paint around the lines. This results in one layer of paint. The result, although it may end up a very correct likeness of what they started with, is a painting that is flat with no character, missing the layers and depth of a Renaissance master.

When creating an oil painting, I learned to sketch it out as I started to explain above, then with thinned paint you stain the canvas with a single color. This will give a unity of color to the painting and also get rid of the stark white surface, making it easier to achieve the color balance you are going for.

While working on my pen tablet creating my digital art, the black ink drawn on a soft grey background gives me the same advantage as charcoal and a stained surface.

I go as far as planning my composition and deciding what subject matter will be in the composition.

Photographic Resources: From Morgue to Lightroom

As a digital artist, I go out and take photographs of what is now planned to be included in my composition. I can also go through the hundreds of thousands of photographs I’ve taken throughout the years and world-wide travel to find what I need. Every photograph I take is collected in Lightroom with a list of keywords so I can find what I need in a moments’ notice. Organization is important when dealing with so many images.

For years as an oil painting artist, I used a “morgue”. This is a file of photos pasted on cards and filed in alphabetical order or by theme. The pictures were collected from many sources…calendars, magazines, photographs I took, etc. Today, Lightroom is my “morgue”. All the photos are my own and if I don’t have what I need, I hand paint it into my digital composition. I’m proud to this day that people have not been able to tell which images in my digital paintings are photographs and which are hand painted. But I will point out one…

The Fabled Race: A Case Study in Digital Art

This artwork is called “The Fabled Race”. I wanted a long-legged rabbit for the scene and all I had was cute, fluffy bunnies in my repertoire, except for one jack rabbit that fit the bill. But jack rabbits are a tan color that matches the arid environment they are found in. Since my tortoise was also tan, that color would not do. Also, I wanted the rabbit to look distracted and nonchalant over the idea of racing a tortoise, so I ended up painting him in his entirety. Take a close look…can you tell that he is painted while the other animals are my photographs?

Conceptualizing the Series: Three Compositions

Right now, I have three very distinct compositions thought out for this series, but I haven’t put any of them down on paper yet, “so to speak”.

1. Picture a single large tree with its branches spreading wide and roots deep into the grassy field. The field, barely big enough to house the tree, stands in the center of the composition. All kinds of animals and birds are sheltered within its branches. Behind, in the distance, looms a massive city. The image is beautiful, but the animals have been displaced and don’t have a home of their own, so they gather in their huddle.
2. This second composition I already have a name for…” The Pollinators”. This composition is all about the plight of our birds, bees and butterflies’ food source being poisoned and losing their environment. The central image is a vase of flowers. A few bees, butterflies and a hummingbird are trying to get to the flowers, but the flowers are protected from the pollinators by a dome of glass. No options are seen in the picture.
3. My third in this series is a herd of elephants crashing through a building. It is the least developed in my mind, but I think it will be powerful and beautiful.

Which one should I start with?

Any ideas on names for #1 and #3?

What else would you like to see in this series?

Conclusion: Join Me on This Journey

Watch me as I proceed on this course of action and create this series into a complete set of artworks.