work in progress – Page 3

Another unfinished figure study, ca. 2008. Oil on panel (hardboard).

Moue (unfinished), circa 2008. Oil on something, probably cotton.

An unfinished figure study that never saw the light of day. I have no idea where this is now. Painted over, probably.

I’m trying to get back into figure-based stuff. Looking back at older work, I now realize two unnerving things: 1) I have a terrible track record when it comes to finishing things and 2) I used to be better at drawing than I am now.

Corridor 1.

Oil on linen, 31.5 x 46" – Work in progress.

Edit: I thought maybe it was finished. It wasn’t. Somedaaaay.

Got my hands on a projector. I am indecently excited about this.

The idea is to use it to trace small (A4) sketches onto large canvases prior to painting, and thus cut out some of the time I waste getting the proportions wrong and fucking up the perspective when I try to draw on an awkwardly large scale.

Now if I could just figure out how to print my scanned drawings onto transparent acetate without smudging the ink and getting my fingerprints absolutely goddamn everywhere.

I swear, it’s as if I discover my hands anew each morning and spend each day asking WHAT DO THESE DO? and banging them against things and slapping people and knocking stuff over.

You know how I like rocks?

I forgot about this one. This ridiculous, wall-sized thing. I left it behind when I moved. It’s not finished. I miss it now.

Work in progress, oil on linen, stupidly big (~6 feet tall?).

Started a second of these cliff paintings. I’m not great with reds, the rocks look soaked in blood.

Work in progress, oil on linen. (31.5 x 46")

I’ve started a new painting. It’s rocks again.

Rocks and skinny boys, that’s all I really want to do.

Oil on linen, work in progress. (31.5 x 46")

Yet another torso. My studio is littered with body parts these days. It looks like the scene of a tasteful accident.

(Detail.) Oil on paper, work in progress.

Struggling a bit with this one. I think I’ve figured out why. “Paint a figure study in oils” is basically my artistic default setting: it’s an almost automatic response to a blank canvas. But my oil painting technique is slow and methodical and involves building lots of layers and occupying the same mindset for as long as it takes to finish the damn thing. I am not in the right frame of mind for that just now. My interests are all over the place and I’m acting on impulse a lot and I’m not in the mood for reflection. Gotta find a new technique.

Detail, work in progress (torso). Oil on paper.

So, I stayed up too late one night trying to fix this painting and ended up slathering most of it in a thin layer of Prussian blue. The result struck me with the force of an epiphany and I even wrote a note to myself that read “WHEN IN DOUBT BLUE” and pinned it up in the studio with a flourish. Next day I came back in and saw this. Hahaha what the hell have I been doing?

So I took the only logical course of action. I abandoned the painting and moved house.