Blog
The James H Couper
Jan 27, 2008
I finally finished the ship I’ve been working on. It’s been transferred to the painting section, here, and the in progress section now shows the painting I just started. For those interested, the image below shows the final three versions in a sequence of the ship’s progression, with the bottom version being the final.
Missouri River
Jan 26, 2008 — 5 comments
Yesterday I went down to the river. It was overrun with giant frozen masses flowing alongside in delayed unison, gliding left to right, circular in various sizes with sunlit pools in the middle, grinding edges. It made the strangest sound. Stranger was standing at the water’s edge, the riverbank, the high water point, so far below where the water usually runs, canyon edges running forward and behind to the plain. Some giant rusted metal thing with beams and three foot gears and platforms entangled with washed out trees and mostly buried in the silt. You would think you could recognize its function; it was completely unidentifiable. It has to have had many yearly outings at the bottom of this river.
Transmogrification
Jan 20, 2008 — 2 comments
It’s probably pretty apparent that I’m really interested in the process of painting. I like the way a piece changes as it moves toward completion, from ugly and rough, gradually refined into something less ugly and rough. This video shows the evolution of this painting, I tried to take a photo every time the piece changed. It’s pretty cool to focus on one part of the painting and watch as it develops.
If you watch it over and over your mind will soon be under my control.
Commission Piece In-Progress
Jan 16, 2008
This image shows the current progress of the painting I’ve been working on, a commissioned piece. I know it’s a little flat looking right now, but a few of the darker areas, especially on the wings, are going to be layered over with white, which I think will make it glow a little better. At least I’m optimistic about that.
I think this in-progress state works pretty well as an example of my general working method. If you look at the wings, you can get a decent view of how the understructure is built up first, usually beginning with the darkest values, gradually getting lighter with each additional layer of paint. The dress is the closest to being complete, the face the farthest. Generally the layers are fairly thin and somewhat transparent, allowing whatever has been painted previously to sort of glow from within, which gives it more depth than a layer of opaque flat color. As the painting progresses, my focus moves gradually from work on the painting as a whole, large areas at a time, to smaller and more specific refinements. Once I get to a certain point, I go back and forth between dark and light values and multiple colors; sometimes I literally trade between a brush with light paint and one with dark paint. This method of working works well for atmospheric effects; if you get lucky with your layering, you can get a pretty cool sky that looks/feels deeper than the 2d plane of the painting surface. Anyway, that’s the method in brief, I really don’t have any idea what I’m doing, so if you have any technique advice let me know.
Denali
Jan 16, 2008 — 1 comment
This is a photograph taken from Denali, or Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America. The dark triangle is the mountain’s shadow being projected onto the atmosphere. Unreal.
