Digital Art 2

Christmas eve here in New Zealand and I thought I'd put up a few more digital art images.

Eog by M Francis McCarthy

Here in "Eog" I was fascinated by bezier curves and the path tool in Photoshop this was created using channel ops, many learned from Kais power tips. Kais power tips we're useful for creating effects we now take for granted. In a pre layers world most effects had to be created using the calculations menu and multiplying or subtracting various channels to create the desired effect.

Scrap by M Francis McCarthy

This was created using one of the first programs to ever have layers. Unfortunately I forget it's name and my researches cannot find the name of the program or it's inventor. It was very limited but I took the rough idea into Photoshop 3 and worked on it. We take layers so for granted now but they were miraculous when they came out.

Sopyu by M Francis McCarthy

Sopyu was created in Corel's Photopaint. Photopaint came with the suite and was just a few steps behind Photoshop back in 1995/96. This was done after they got a better Gaussian type blur. They're original blur was super boxy.

Uyki by M Francis McCarthy

Uyki was the first peice I sold that was digitally created. It was sold to an interior designer I knew from my time as a manager, artist and designer at a company that did art and framing for interior designers and the hospitality industry.

Digital Art

I first became aware of computers in the 80's. Frankly I was leery of them and was sure they we're going to take over the world and enslave us all (Er. I guess this is a legitimate fear given humanity's adoration of the smartphone. present company included). I wanted nothing to do with them

Hoquea                                                              M Francis McCarthy

Fast forward to 94. I see comics colored in glorious ways that I'd not imagined possible and on the film screens a new type of art was making it's presence felt. I've always followed my deepest intuitions and they we're leading me into this realm of color. At the time I made not a lot of money though I worked hard at the job I'd had for 9 years or so. My mother provided my door into computer land by secretly loaning me the money for my first computer (my dad never knew she did this).

Pokp                                                                    M Francis McCarthy

It was an AT&T 486 with a 500 mb hard drive and most excitingly a CD drive! Not a CD burner that was only an expensive and vague dream at that time. It took me awhile to wrap my head around the thing, this was 1994. I've no space here to delineate my complete progression of learning program by program but I started out with the CorelDraw 3 Suite and then progressed to Painter 3 finally I was able to get my hands on Photoshop.

Broken                                                                    M Francis McCarthy

My big goal at first was to color my pen and ink work and I did do a far bit of that but eventually I started getting really abstract with my art. The freedom of the virtual art studio was intoxicating and I ran wild in it. Creating whatever struck my fancy. I used to love starting with only a blank white file and using only noise I'd create a digital work of art filter by filter, manipulation by manipulation.

Nu                                                           M Francis McCarthy

These images I've posted today are just a small sampling of this exploratory period that lasted from 1994 to 1998. In 1998 I started working as a graphic artist and illustrator and was on a computer all day long working! How I got to landscape painter from there is one of the tales I plan to tell on this blog and I've more to share...

Landscape Painting Edges

Well, as the end of the worlds been postponed I guess it's incumbent on me to keep up this blog. Today I want to write about edges in painting. I'm posting a couple of recent paintings just for illustration. I could have posted just about any landscape painting that I've done as I very consistently pursue a certain edge quality in my work.

Clearing Storm  8x10                                 M Francis McCarthy

That quality is all about getting the edges right. I cannot say that I always achieve the effect I want but that is one reason painting still fascinates me after doing it for a while now. Many great artists have mastered edges and deserve close study. Some that come to mind are George Inness and the French painter Corot. How a painter handles edges is one of the greatest determiners of what their style is.

Fleeting Light 8x10                                                               M Francis McCarthy

Below is a detail of "Fleeting Light" that shows a bit of my particular way of handling edges. Every painting is full of different edges and all must be approached in the appropriate manner for what is being rendered and the of the painting itself.

Fleeting Light (Detail)                                                           M Francis McCarthy

I'm focusing on the sky/tree edge challenge here because frankly it's the greatest challenge for me in any painting. This is because the sky is the brightest part of most landscape paintings and the vertical trees against it are generally the darkest part. Because of this inherent contrast difference the transition from light to dark has to done with care or the painter runs the risk of creating a cutout appearance in his scenes.

Camille Corot                                             Three Trees with a View of the Lake

Above is a painting by Camille Corot. In my opinion Corot is one of the greatest edge painters ever!I saw many of his original works on my trip to the Louvre in Paris. Corot took a sort of flecky approach to his edges. They appear to be built up in many layers and there is always a feeling of air and silvery light in his work. He is a great guy to study. Any painter who's doing edges in a way you admire is good to study I reckon. I may revisit this topic in a later blog as it's absolutely crucial to creating a good landscape painting.

Illustration

For 13 years I worked as an illustrator and art director for a company that produced apparel and other items that were sold in department stores, zoos, national parks and Starbucks coffee. Today I'm posting a few of my portfolio images from the early part of that era.

This image above is "Devil Boy" my attempt at capturing a skater type look back in 2000. I printed some of this design on tees for my own company "Kewl Studios" a story I will tell another time.

I created "Moe"as a portfolio piece intending to mail it out as a post card to solicit illustration work. At the time this was drawn, I was definitely entranced with graphic styles that would screen print print well. 

Another Kewl Studios design that I printed. It was always interesting to see who purchased this shirt. I think it went over most peoples heads. Not sure really what I was saying with the design but I do think it looks cool and catches the eye.

Speaking of catching the eye. I feel art must do this if it is to be successful on any level whether commercial or fine art. I strive to do this always, even with landscape painting. With landscape work however I scale the in your face aspect way back. Candy colored high contrast landscapes can grate on the viewers eye.

The three best was to catch the someones eye are color, contrast and composition. Follow that up with style, texture and scale/proportion and people will notice. 

Charles Warren Eaton

Charles Warren Eaton (1857–1937) was an American artist best known for his tonalist landscapes.

He is remembered in American art history as one of the chief members of the Tonalist movement, along with Henry Ward Ranger, Elliott Daingerfield, and others who benefited from the lessons of French Barbizon painting and, more immediately, from the example of the poetic style of George Inness. 

Guided by his desire to convey the underlying moods of nature, he eschewed grandiose vistas in favor of quieter, more intimate views, which he depicted at dawn or dusk. His landscapes still speak to us in a quiet but consistent way of the beauty of nature and of those unexpected and felicitous moments when the man-made and natural worlds merge into unified and harmonious images.

What I love most about Eaton is the way he flattens his shapes and his way with mood and color. Detail is almost completely sublimated to atmosphere. Also his edge handling is among the best of any Tonalist painter

Old Drawings

Recently I returned from a trip to my home town in California. While there I grabbed an old portfolio full of xeroxs of many of my old drawings. The portfolio was put together in the early 90's but these drawings are from circa 1988. In 1988 I was 23 years old and living in downtown San Jose, California.

This was drawn in pencil. The model put on a lot of weight in later years but then again so have I since 1988!

Pencil again here but a bit later in the year. I was fond of using lead holders at the time with leads from HB to 4B pretty soft range. I really never liked any of the super hard leads. This guy was illustrated on Illustration board about 7 inches wide.

Another pencil sketch. I always enjoyed drawing historical figures. I remember being quiet pleased with the expression as I captured it in the sketch.

Unfortunately these are all copies of photo copies. I have a very heavy suitcase full off original art still at my folks place. One day I hope to get it and scan the entire contents at high resolution. 

Meanwhile, it's fun to play with the images. These were all done in the days long before I was anywhere near a computer and the copiers I had access too, I really couldn't play with until around 1992 or so. 

I will be posting more old works up as we progress as it seems like a fun thing to do.

My Studio

Here's a video of my studio taken a few days ago:

My studio is at the Quarry Arts Center in Whangarei, New Zealand. The Quarry was started by an artist named Yvonne Rust. She was an independent spirit and in many ways her spirit continues at the Quarry.

I've been a resident painter for over a year now and I really enjoy the beauty of the place and the good company of my fellow artists. I am there most week days so drop by if your in Whangarei.

Pay off skies

 Monday here in New Zealand and another blog post.

This painting is called "Summer Storm" sized 8x10 and painted a few months ago.

I feel that every painting that I do should have what I call a "pay off sky". By that I mean the sky should contribute strongly to the emotion and impact of the painting, not just serve as a backdrop to the trees and other landscape elements.

I like lots of color in my skies as well and I've noticed that Hollywood does these days also. I've noted many movies that have almost exclusively used twilight light skies in their outdoor scenes. Movies like the Narnia Chronicles and Avengers come to mind but they're everywhere once you start paying attention.

One of the great, great things I love about New Zealand is the clean air and beautiful skies we have here. I never tire of looking up and noting the differentiated clouds and patterns of our southern skies.

Summer Storm                                                                 M Francis McCarthy

This painting is in the 8x10 format. Until recently I eschewed these proportions but I've since embraced 8x10, 11x14, 9x12 as well as square formats. I will definitely write a post in the future about the different proportions and their relative impact. For now I'll say that different proportions really change the feel of a scene. Below is my 5x7 sketch for "Summer Storm"

Summer Storm (Sketch)                                                       M Francis McCarthy

A different feel for sure and far more panoramic. But more goes on in the change that is quite mysterious. The space containing the scene is one of the most important elements of any scene. Like I said though, this a topic for another blog, another day.

Study vs Finished Painting

I like to do a color study prior to painting my final version of the image. The study below is painted at 5x5 inches. I tend to prep my board with a textured clear gesso stained sepia. I then sketch on the board in charcoal. After that I complete the sketch using burnt sienna and black. finally I go in with color painted in fairly quickly and directly..

Indian Summer (Study)                                                     M Francis McCarthy

Here is the same motif painted at 8x8 inches. Though the size is still quite small you can see the image is far more refined in every way. the method use is much like my studies however more time and care is payed to the initial drawing. Also, there are more layers of transparent color and more time and repeated sessions are applied to the piece shown below.

Indian Summer                                                                   M Francis McCarthy

George Inness

I mentioned George in my last post. Really a huge influence on my painting and a towering figure of 19th century painting. Here's a few of his works:

From Wikipedia:    George Inness (May 1, 1825 – August 3, 1894) was an influential American landscape painter. His work was influenced, in turn, by that of the old masters, the Hudson River school, the Barbizon school, and, finally, by the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, whose spiritualism found vivid expression in the work of Inness' maturity. Often called "the father of American landscape painting," Inness is best known for these mature works that not only exemplified the Tonalist movement but also displayed an original and uniquely American style.

Before I came across Inness I was influences more by Impressionism. A movement that really caught on again in the 80's and 90's and is now a huge part of the modern landscape painters vocabulary to the point I think that many painters are not even aware of it's pervasive influence.

George Inness was to foremost painter of the late 19th and early 20th century movement called Tonalism. From Wikipedia: 

Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Between 1880 and 1915, dark, neutral hues such as gray, brown or blue, often dominated compositions by artists associated with the style. During the late 1890s, American art critics began to use the term "tonal" to describe these works. Two of the leading associated painters were George Inness and James McNeill Whistler.

I'll write more about Tonalism in the future as I have many thoughts about the style that I'd like to share. In a nutshell for now I'll say that to me, it's about creating an evocative, atmospheric approach to the landscape. 

I never have tried to ape George Inness but to any artist familiar with his art the debts I owe him are apparent and I never shy away from acknowledging his great contribution to the art of landscape painting. A contribution that frankly has not made it's way into the minds and hearts of the modern art lover in any way near what George Inness and the modern art viewer deserves

Direct vs Indirect Painting

A welcome friend                                                     M Francis McCarthy

"Why are your paintings so dark?"

I get asked this once in awhile at my studio by visitors. I reply that the paintings are rendered in a lower key than what is currently fashionable. Also, to my eyes many modern landscapes seem excessively bright and their colors too chromatic and lacking in subtlety.

Paintings that are made using transparent or semi opaque layers tend to need a lot more light on them to reveal themselves at their best. For this reason many of these types of paintings benefit from having a light directly on them.

There are two distinct approaches to painting; direct and indirect. Good examples of direct painting are artists like: Monet, William Merritt Chase and Vincent Van Gogh. Good examples of indirect painting are: George Inness, Charles Warren Eaton and Whistler. You can do great stuff either way or by combining the approaches.

I prefer indirect for my final paintings as it can convey multiple layers of mood and color. Also because I can reflect and correct as I go but ideally there is a trail of movement just below the surface that shows the structure as well as the finish. I enjoy painting my oil sketches directly as they are small and quickly realized.

Layering transparent glazes of oil tends to darken as the light source must work it's way through the layers and bounce back to the viewer. More opaque styles reflect the source light more directly from the surface.

Late Summer                                                    M Francis McCarthy

You would think that the study would be lighter but it is dark because I'm heading towards a larger more fully realized version. The study above "Late Summer" has just been more fully painted. I hope to put it up here sometime soon.

As a side bar. On my recent trip to Paris I saw many excellent paintings at the Louvre. Many of them would be considered quite dark. What was interesting to me as a modern painter was the focused use of intent contrasts between the lights and dark's in a painting that drew the views eye to where the painter wanted it. Someting thats hard to do if the whole painting is light.

Painting Thoughts

Hey there, another day, another blog!

I cannot promise substance every day (though I'll try) but I'm determined to get this thing up in the air so off we go...

Here's a painting I did about a year ago, it is a pretty typical New Zealand view. Several things about this painting are unique. First off it has conical pines in it. I try to avoid conical pines as they present many composition issues. Beautiful as they are I find they often make me feel cornered in my skies.

Another feature of this painting is the dirt road. Many people ask me why I don't paint moire things like fences and houses in my work. The reason is that I prefer the landscape to speak for it self. It seems that any man made feature steals the show focusing the apprehenders attention in ways that I as the paintings creator do not like. The huge exception to this is paths or roads. In my view they fold right in to the landscape as well as direct to eye in pleasant ways.

Speaking of pleasant., I enjoy creating pleasant images that sooth the viewer. I'm certainly not saying that that's the only type of image that anyone should paint, but for me it's the best use of my time and talent. Just for the record I've been employed to create images like this...

I know, hard to believe it's the same artist eh? Anyway just making a point that at this time I feel the world needs soothing reflective art so that is what I enjoy painting. I did enjoy rendering the dino above also but really that's far more of a technical expression. Btw some of you may have seen this dinosaur on a tee shirt if you knew a kid and went shopping at JC pennies or the like about six years ago...

Why paint?

I have been creating art for 42 years. In that time, I have worked with many different medias. For a long time I was content to use pencil and pen ink to create drawings. The mastery of rendering form in light and shade was for quite a while enough.

With the advent of the computer I began applying colour to my art work in both in the virtual realm and from without. The freedom that I felt working in the virtual world was incredible! I could change anything I wanted at any time. I could also add and remove things at will. It was amazing, a revelation really...

For many years I utilized the skills that I'd learned in creating artwork on the computer to make a living as a graphic illustrator. I found this work to be quite engaging and fulfilling for a time. However, I eventually began to feel a yearning for a deeper connection with my art and it's apprehenders. This desire is what eventually drove me to study painting in oil.

When I first started painting in oils in 2007 I found that many of the skills that I had acquired through a lifetime of creating artwork were applicable in this medium. I also learned that many of the things that work for me in the virtual realm did not work well when I was creating artwork by hand using oil paints and a hardwood substrate.

While creating an actual physical painting I am aware that a transference occurs. It seems this is a transference of energy and consciousness between myself the painting and the apprehender of the painting. Speaking only for myself I do not find this occurs when creating artwork digitally and printing it out. As far as I know this phenomenon exists only with original artworks being viewed by a person in the presence of the original art .

This is a fascinating and rewarding endeavour and is an interesting reason to paint as well. There are more reasons to paint of course and perhaps we will go further into those in future blog posts.

A Newer new dawn...

Michael here. Been meaning to start blogging again. It seems that a focused approach has not worked in the past so I've decided to make the blog about anything I'm interested in talking about.

I will deffo do some painting
stuff here but also i want to talk about being an american artist residing in New Zealand and any other topic that comes to mind or hand...