Last week I posted this photo to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
I asked my followers which one of these they'd like to see me paint next. By the time I was ready to start painting the Model T Ford roadster hot rod had the most votes, so that's what I painted.
"Little Hot Rod Roadster"
As you can see I chose a close crop as I often do. I also made the car blue instead of black and ditched the high rise tunnel ram intake and replaced it with a regular intake with small, round aircleaners. Of course I painted it with palette knives to make it a bit abstract and create lots of texture.
The rusty old Chevy truck came in second in the voting and I'm working on that painting now. The abandoned antique Farmall tractor got a couple votes also and so may be my next painting, or maybe just a sketch...or maybe both.
Here are a couple close ups of the hot rod painting so you can get a good look at that texture.
I decided to hang a shingle on Facebook with a shiny new Facebook business page.
David King Studio on facebook.
I'll still post a blog here at least once/week and this will continue to be my website for now but having a page on facebook allows me to do more than blogging. I'll be posting short videos and hosting a portfolio on my business page, in other words I'll most likely be more active there than on any of my other social media platforms just because the page allows more diverse types of content and also for more interaction. If you want to get a hold of me, the facebook page is a great way to do it, either comment on a post or photo or direct message me and I'll respond shortly. Just click on the image above to be taken to my facebook page, or click on this link; https://www.facebook.com/davidkingstudioart/
During the late 1950's and early 1960's Chrysler Corp had some of the wildest automotive designs. We have Chrysler to thank for the tall tail fin craze of the late 1950's as the other manufacturers responded to the 1957 Plymouth Fury. Chrysler maybe didn't invent the canted dual headlights, in fact customizers had been adding them to cars for a couple years prior but Chrysler took them to a new level, even to the point of shaping the grill to match. That's what drew me to a 1961 Chrysler 300 I saw at a car show, I finally got around to making a painting of it but changing the color from white to red.
"Red Chrysler 300"
Inspired by the canted headlights I decided to put the whole car at an angle creating a more dynamic composition to match Chrysler's dynamic design. Of course I used palette knives for most of the painting to create a semi-abstract appearance, here are a couple close up images to illustrate this effect;
It's good to get out of your comfort zone now and then, especially for an artist. Trying something new can help develop new ideas and new skills. With that in mind I decided to paint three small abstract paintings this week even though I'm not really an abstract artist.
Most of my paintings, especially in the last couple years lean towards abstraction but they always have a subject, which means they are not non-objective which is what a full abstract painting is. To make things a little easier on myself I started with a landscape composition in mind, one inspired by a rural scene with a yellow hay field in in the foreground, a green tree line, a blue sky and a red barn. I didn't use reference a photo, I just had the memory of a photo reference in my mind, this is the result.
"A Spot of Red"
As you can see I kept pretty close to realistic landscape colors and even the shapes are generally representational except for the red spot which doesn't resemble anything in particular but does bring to mind a red barn.
For the second painting I kept the same basic compositional idea but used a warm palette for most of the colors.
"A Spot of Purple"
I didn't look at the first painting at all while making this one, I worked solely from what was in my head. As you can see this one came out much more abstract than the first, hardly even a hint of a landscape in this image.
For the third painting I went with a cool color palette and even broke out the cobalt teal.
Same compositional idea but even more abstract I think. This was a fun experiment and it will be interesting to see how the experience influences my future artwork.
I also made a short art vlog video talking about these paintings, please take a watch;
Sometimes you need to acknowledge that something you are doing really isn't right for you and change direction. No, I'm not quitting my art. No, I'm not going to start doing pet portraits. I am going to stop making "watch me paint" videos. Instead I'm going to use YouTube as more of a vlogging platform. That doesn't mean I'll never demo my process again, it just means that won't be my focus. In my first vlog I explain my reasons for not making "watch me paint" videos anymore.
In a nutshell, painting as performance is rather distracting and gets in the way of my creativity and I would really rather be doing just about anything than edit a video. In this first vlog I also talk about the "Blue 1950 Chevy Custom" painting I showed you in my last blog post.
These vlogs won't be scripted, edited and highly polished, but rather raw, with little or no editing, (because I'd really rather be painting). What you will be getting is insights into my paintings, my process and my personal history and motivation for what I do. If my art interests you I hope that will interest you as well.
What does that mean for this blog? Well, I'll still post here, but many if not most posts will basically be a synopsis of my latest vlog, not always, but probably more often than not. Though I'll also post relevant images and links in those posts as well so there will still be value in checking out my latest blog posts here as well as subscribing to my YouTube channel.
Okay, here's a little bonus, or maybe not. Anyway, here's a photo of me self quarantining in my studio. I hope I didn't startle you too badly.
Not much to say about this one, it's a painting based on a photo I took of a custom 1950 Chevy at a car show. The actual car was painted flat black, other than that I painted it pretty much how it was.
Blue 1950 Chevy Custom
To purchase click on image.
If you have 20 minutes to spare why not enjoy this video of me making this painting?
Well, look at that, only three days since my last blog post. I have actually been meaning to post every Wednesday and Sunday, and I did that more or less for a month then lost my way for nearly a month, let's see how long I can stay on track this time.
You often hear about "balance" in compositions for paintings and drawings. Most of the time paintings are not symmetrical, so what makes for a balanced composition? I have to admit I can't explain the principle in general terms, at least not very well. When I am presented with a reference photo to consider for a painting, balance is one of the first things I consider, however I think it's become somewhat intuitive for me after reading so many books (Edgar Payne's book on composition is one of the best for this) and looking at so many master and professional paintings, composition and balance have become somewhat ingrained in my psyche.
I can say this however, balance boils down to shapes, their size, their value and their placement in the composition. However hue and saturation can sometimes play their part, but if the other factors aren't right, adjusting hue and/or saturation are not likely to help much to correct poor balance.
"Neglected"
Here is my latest landscape All of the elements you see in this painting were also in my reference photo but I adjusted their placement and shapes. I made the outside poplar tree taller than the one closer to the middle, the opposite was true in the photo. Notice that the peak of the barn roof is offset to one side, that was the case in the photo, this seems to be a common design, why I don't really know, but it does make for a more interesting design and in this case helps to balance the composition. If the peak of the barn was right on the center of the barn I'd have to move the barn over to the left more and maybe make it a bit taller to balance the composition, assuming I left the poplars as is.
That takes care of horizontal balance, but what about vertical? I'm not sure it would be considered balance but the composition is divided pretty much in thirds, the grass, then the barn and hills, and the last third, the sky. However maybe that's too "balanced" and if there was one thing I'd maybe do differently if I did it over it would be to move the barn and hills down a bit and reduce the grassy area.
If you would like to watch a video of me making this painting you are in luck, there's one on YouTube, click and watch now.
