Easels

     I've recently upgraded to a new set of easels. I used the Dave Ramsey advice and saved up my money over time.

     After a few months I had enough to start weiling and dealing, and went to a few stores around town. After surveying the local art and craft shops I found that Hobby Lobby actually had some of the best deals. I talked with one of the store managers and was able to walk out of the store with two very nice easels for only around $150. It would have been around $300 at asking price.

     Do not underestimate the power of negotiation.

Anyways here are the easels and some descriptions.

The Old Easel

My first post-college easel. Made it out of plywood from Ace Hardware for around $20. Funds were tight, but it got the job done.

The Two New Easels

The French Style Easel:  "French easels are for the traveling artist. French easels contain a sketchbox, and easel, and a carries in a smaller package. The skecthbox holds paint supplies and a palette, and the legs and canvas arm collapse fro ease of travel. They are excellent for painting outdoors, also known as plein air painting." 

It even folds up into this convenient briefcase size so you can carry it with you. It holds all your paints , palette, and up to three wet canvases. 

The H-Style Easel: This easel is sturdy enough to hold up to an 8 foot canvas, but also is small enough that it doesn;'t take up much space in the studio. 

It can also turn on it's side so you can get really close for details.

Here it is holding my canvas

Layer of Grey

The first layer of grey tone on the cloth.

A Few Books on Art

     Here is a list of books to check out on art. They give an alternate view to some of the books you may have read in art class, but they are pretty great. They all seek to come up with, or at least help in the construction of a Christian worldview through which to interpret the arts.

Art and the Bible

by: Francis Schaeffer

     A good introduction to the subject, it's only 2 essays, but has some really good information.

Art for God's Sake

by: Philip Graham Ryken

The creation sings to us with the visual beauty of God’s handiwork. But what of man-made art? Much of it is devoid of sacred beauty and is often rejected by Christians. Christian artists struggle to find acceptance within the church.

If all of life is to be viewed as “under the lordship of Christ,” can we rediscover what God’s plan is for the arts?

Voicing Creations Praise

by: Jeremy S. Begbie

     This is a heavier piece, but a great book nonetheless. It has given me more to chew on than any other book I've read this year.

The book Chronicles the philosophies of art which have contributed to our cultures current thoughts on art. Starting with Paul Tillich, then looking at the Dutch Neo-Calvinists and then to the ideas of Immanuel Kant. He then poses questions to try and lead us to a better worldview through which to interpret the arts.

The Heart of the Artist

by: Rory Noland

     Initially I thought this book would be a little lame based on the cover, but it turned out to be pretty helpful and got me thinking about how churches could start patroning artists to work for them again. An idea used in many different eras throughout the history of western culture, but unfortunately not in our current culture.

     This book also deals with a lot of the sin issues that artists tend to have trouble with. 

Color

The first layer of background color

The Inside of my studio

Study of the inside of my studio

This was a study, or sketch in paint, that I did of the inside of my studio.

The Underpainting

Here is the underpainting

The underpainting is the first layer of paint before the more "natural" colors go onto the canvas. So even though the picture above looks like it was made from charcoal, it is actually all done in a light wash of oil paint. The color used was a mixture of raw umber, burnt sienna and a touch of black, and then mixed with a healthy amount of mineral spirits to get the wash look.

Now I will have a better idea about the true tone of the colors I put on in the next step. Better than if I had not done an underpainting at all.

The next time you see the picture it will have color. Exciting.

A New Painting

I started a painting on Thursday. It is a still life of two pipes.

Here are some of the images

This is a photo of the still life

Here is the sketch being laid in

The sketch after some important values were laid in

The final sketch before the paint goes on

The Final Drawing

Here is the final drawing.

I am going to start the painting soon.

My Next Still Life

I have been contemplating working on a still life for a few days now and after some deliberation I decided to go up to the studio and start a painting. I gathered my painting supplies and a bag full of different items that had to do with manhood in some sense or another and I headed up to the studio.

I decided on creating a still life instead of any other style of painting for several reasons.

The reasons: It is painting from life, what better way to get back into the habbitt of painting than from life? It is going to sharpen the eyes, sync up my hand eye coordination. It will allow me to work on setting up compositions. It is exactly where I want to begin. And most importantly In the book I just finished on being an oil painter, the author suggested to start with still life. So I "inclined my ear to wisdom" as the Proverb goes.

I set up a simple still life and am began with a charcoal drawing to understand it first.

This is after the first hour of working from it.

And this is after the second hour

Hopefully after tomorrow I will finish it and begin the painting.

The Summer

Over the summer I decided to make artwork. After some study I decided on an ideal work day for myself. The day looked like this.

8am. Wake up and Read my Bible

9am. Pray and Journal

9:30am. Listen to the news, check different blogs

10:30am. Read and study

12:00 Have coffee and lunch with my wife

12-6pm. Work on art and listen to books.

The way I broke down the work to ensure the most productivity was the 48/12 method. Which is as it suggests 48 minutes of working and a 12 minute break.

This schedule allowed me basically to produce one piece. This was my first piece I have finished since I was an art student. It took time to get it off the ground, and having grace for myself during this time was difficult, but I am happy with having finished a piece. The rest should be easier from here.

This is a Test

This is an experiment in blogging. A outward contemplation of whether or not I will blog. I have decided to come this far, but will I continue? I do not know yet, I have not decided. The time while doing and experimenting will help in the evaluation.