Gallery 1261 in Denver is having a contemporary figure show for the month of May. It hosts several of my favorite artists like Scott Burdick, Burt Silverman, Zhaoming Wu, as well as favorite instructors from the Denver Art Students League like Ron Hicks and Quang Ho.
http://www.gallery1261.com
Zhaoming Wu has been one of my favorite artist for a long time. I've watched his instructional DVD and bought his book. However I have never seen any of his paintings in person. As I walked into the gallery, I saw three striking figure paintings on the far left wall. These 16x20 oil paintings had rich colors, beautiful textures and just gorgeous rendering of figures with elaborate drapery. As I walk closer to the paintings, the details became broad brush strokes. The textures became globs of paint and some looked like it was applied directly from the tube. It was like enlarging a low resolution image and looking at the individual pixels. Each of his brush strokes was so deliberate and the colors incredibly strong. I can't stop staring at it. How does he create a painting with such generalizations that looked so real from a distance. Some of my artist friends suggest that he simply move back often to look at the painting. However I believe artists who can pull this off have mastered the art of seeing. They are able to see and paint the essentials of their composition and leave out the unnecessary details. It really makes me think about my attempts to capture every detail that I see and over blending of my colors to look realistic. Seeing Mr. Wu's paintings make me realize that I need a paradigm shift and learn how to see my subjects in a new way. It's going to be a long journey and I can't wait to get there!
Recently I've really enjoyed drawing with the Cretacolor drawing leads. I like the soft sanguine colors that give a natural skin tone look to my figure drawings. Even though I am applying colors to my drawing, I am still focusing on the drawing and the values. I find the oil based leads gives me better control over different shades and it blends pretty well. I especially like the effect of grey paper showing through, giving it a cool shadow color.
Ever since I lost my job at Microsoft end of January I've had this mental block and having a hard time getting the proportions correct in my figure drawings. Several people who have seen my work in the past have also commented that my art work seems flat and needs more attention to the form. As a result I've been trying to focus on my drawing for the last four months. It has been a uphill struggle, especially for me who loves working in colors. One good thing about committing to drawing is that I don't have to rush to get my sketch done and leave enough time for colors. Now I can take the time to make sure I get the drawing correct before working on values. I've came across an excellent instruction video by Fernando Freitas that really made me think about modeling the 3D form and the different values. The video can be rented on smartflix.com.
