"Beets"

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"Beets"

12 x 16 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I started the drawing with a dry brush with burnt umber.  I went pretty quick knowing that the gesture was more important to capture rather than spending too much time articulating lines.

I then started to apply the paint, usually when I paint I like to go in sections and take it to a certain stage. Again I am not using any medium in the first stage of the painting, I am just laying down the primary colors and modeling them correctly to their form.

When I felt comfortable with the colors and the modeling of them, I then moved onto the background.  I know a lot of artist work the other way around, but for me at times this works.  I can easily bring the background in and soften the edges of the subject where it needs to be soften.

This is the result of my first session which took me about 3 and half hours to paint, I did not apply the darkest darks because I did not want them to sink in.  Primarily whats important in the first stage for me is to get the right colors down, model them correctly and play around with the edges.

This is the finished result after the second session.  I brought in the darks and it really unified the values, then I added more of the smaller details which brought it all together in the end.  I hope you enjoyed it!

Detail

"Il Siciliano"

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"Eggplant and Lemon"

12 x 12

Oil and Canvas Panel

I started this painting with burnt umber and again in a dry brush manner as I did with the previous painting.  As you can see I started also to outline the shadow shapes, just lightly indicating where there placement will be.  I don't go to far in this stage it depends if the painting is really intricate, but with this one I didn't need too.

I modeled the lights and shadows pretty quickly, I went section by section.  I first started with the eggplant enthen moved towards the top of it.  After I finished with the eggplant I moved to the lemon, I started with the shadows enthen moved toward the lights.  In this stage I keep the paints pretty thin scumbling in the main colors I will use, I used no medium just the paint straight out of the tube.

After I felt comfortable with the modeling of the lights and shadows, I started the background.  Its fun blending the background with the objects your painting, you can play with soft and hard edges.

This is the finished result after two sessions, the second session I went in with a little Linseed Oil and brought back the darks and also added more chroma to the lights.  Its fun playing with different textures and techniques when handling the middletone and lights for finishing touches.  Hope you enjoy!

Detail of the lemon

Tomatillos...

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"Tomatillos"

Oil on board

9 x 12 in

I am posting the process of this painting, I started right off the back with a dry brush no charcoal for the drawing stage.  Then as you can see I just started to apply the dead coloring stage with no medium, just to get the correct Hue, Value and Chroma.

I went pretty far with the dead coloring, but had so much fun with it.  Once I got the modeling right with the Tomatillos I then moved onto the background treating it the same way with no medium.

This was the end of the first session I had with this painting, I got pretty far on the first day.  It was fun playing with the lost and found edges, I kind a think of it as hard and soft lines when you do a gesture drawing.  Once I had the background in I was able to play with the edges on the Tomatillos and the background make it soft in some areas and hard in others.

This is the final result,  I hope you enjoyed!

Previous Portrait...

This is a portrait I previously posted, I have been practicing with this portrait for the past couple of days. I still do not think this is a good photo but for now it'll do.  Its fun experimenting with different techniques with this painting, and will still be hacking away at it!

Adam's Portrait...

I started this quick portrait sketch of my friend Adam with charcoal to get the proportions right.

Once I got the sketch right I start with the wash in with a raw umber, I model my forms in a monochromatic way with raw umber.

Once I feel the shapes are modeled right and it has the feel that I want I went in and covered the background in Ivory black.  The mediums I used was Linseed Oil and Dammar Varnish, which I will next time just use a little of Linseed instead of using both Dammar and Linseed.

When the background is done I went in and started playing with colors on the portrait, which is the fun part.

I used very little Linseed Oil and primarily did this in two sessions.  Hope you enjoyed!

"Pear"

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"Pear"

9 x 12 inches

Oil on Panel

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Daily Painting in 5 hours

   This is a Daily Painting of mine that took 5 hours to paint in total.  I started with the drawing/painting in burnt umber, then I go into the darks .  I first worry about the big form enthen rough in the correct color pallete.  After the big shapes are turning right I then move into the smaller shapes.  In a nutshell thats what went in the making of this quick painting.

3 hour portrait painting...

This is a painting I did in 3 hours, the night before I drank a lot of Coca-Cola and could not sleep well.  I usually don't drink soda but when I go out with friends I wanna stay up so coke does the trick for me.  I woke up and just decided that I just wanna paint and be as loose as I can be, it was a lot of fun to do, but very tiring when you start seeing the sun come up.

Ball point pen drawing!

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"Presidents"

7 x 10 in

Ball Point Pen

This is a ball point pen drawing that I did for a buddy of mine that really likes these guys.  They're names are starting with the obvious George Washington, Henry Knox, and Nathaneal Greene.  It was a challenge doing this drawing, first I have never done more than one portrait on a page.  Getting their likenesses was also a little challenging, my process with ballpoint pen to continue with the other post, is that I just dive into the drawing without doing any prep work, I start with really light lines or guidelines to show me the right measurements.  Once that's layed out I go into the darks, or at times I just concentrate on sections of the drawing bringing to an almost finish look enthen move onto the next.  Once I have the whole drawing harmonized and the tones are right, I go in and blend what needs further blending and bring it to a finish. Doing ball point pen is very challenging, I view it as doing charcoal drawings. If you have the right control then it becomes much easier to manipulate the tones.  Hope you enjoy!

Murals in Washington D.C.

Beginning stages of the "Ponte Vecchio" mural...

Finished details of the "Ponte Vecchio"

This is the other side of the restaurant, where I did the second mural...

These are photos of two murals I did in Washington D.C. for a restaurant that's opening in Febraury, 2010.  The whole idea behind the murals in relation to the restaurant, is to bring the customers back to Florence, Italy.  On one side of the restaurant you'll be looking outside and see the "ponte vecchio" and on the other side you will see a normal street in Florence that has the two original restaurants that the owners opened in Florence, and also a regular apartment door that you'll find in Italy.  The wall also has the two street names, in which the restaurants are located in.  This mural was a lot of fun to do, I  have not done anything with spray paints in a really long time, so in the beginning it was a little nerve racking, but after ten minutes it came back too me.  I occasionally used a brush for the really small details, so when I finished the mural I went back and sealed it with a varnish.  I had the owner of the restaurant there for the majority of the process and he gave me good ideas along the way in which improved the mural.  I thank him for helping me and giving me the opportunity to do such a fun project! hope you enjoy!

The process...

This is a ball point pen drawing that I am currently working on, I wanted too share with you guys the beginnig process. I basically start with the darks, enthen move onto the midtones and slowly move into the lighter tones.

Van Dyke

Pen and ink

My Friend painting and me painting him!

I am currently in Boston at my friends, we just had a great gallery opening! This is me painting my friend while he's painting a landscape. These types of paintings I love doing because of their fluid gesture strokes! I hope to be getting more into these types of paintings

Art show opening on the 15th of October!

Hi Everyone!  sorry for the long absence...I have been in Europe traveling and seeing the wonderful museums and paintings!  Its very hard to be back home when I just wanna be in Paris right now! soon enough!  I wanted to let you guys know that I am having a show with a friend of mine in Providence, RI.  We are having our show at the www.royalgalleryri.com/ If anyone wants to come by the directions are on their website.  Here are my paintings that'll be in the show.  Enjoy!