A Step Back

• Nick Arcarese

Hey everyone!

So recently I’ve been getting back into oil paint for a number of reasons. My philosophy is that every art form reinforces the other, so when I paint it strengthens my drawings which strengthens my sculpture which strengthens my Graphic Design all simultaneously. Secondly, I have for the longest time worked primarily without color so I feel it’s necessary to understand it better for my career through painting on the side. And Lastly it is just an aspiration of mine to be a good painter and get my work in the galleries.

Layer 1

At the moment, I view rendering a painting in general much like a camera. It starts without clear shapes or forms but will overtime sharpen into a final product. I block in the the Prominent shapes with whats call the true color or just what it may look like without any distortions due to environmental lighting. Looking back this achieved the most in terms of value and color.

Layer 2

Here is where things begin to sharpen slightly yet I have yet to introduce my lightest and darkest values. This is a step away from what I would typically do as I draw starting with my most extreme values in mind first. This decision I will later explain how I may have regretted it. But here I overall just attempted to fixed the shapes in place and ensure my proportions weren’t off.

Layer 3

Things begin to get sloppy here. While trying to sharpen my image I inadvertently muddied the painting a bit and lost proper form in the skull. This is primarily due to starting with my median values atleast from my perspective.

In conclusion I feel like I’m going to put this particular piece to the side or use the other side of the canvas for now for a painting exercise I hope to show and explain next week for now though onto to sketches of the week.

Sketch of the Week

So I’ve been trying to spur creativity by splitting my sketches in half. One with references and one without. Hopefully this will help in creating pieces without a total reliance on the reference. Besides that I dove into some character design at the top by characterizing the an outfit into a set personality. From a officer’s uniform to an adventured explorer. I may reuse this for a project in the future to help create mascots for branding.

Hope you guys enjoyed! Can’t wait to see you next week!

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