Nude of the Week – Landing Daz Render
Daz|Studio render
Sometimes I will have an idea rattling around in my head for a long time. in the case of this one it’s been years! for some reason every time I sketched it out it just wasn’t right. I’ve tried a couple of times with paintings like rage but I’ve never gotten close to the motion in my head.
Last week I was inspired to try some new takes. this is the result. I don’t know if it’s exactly what I wanted, but I do know that it is looking really good and fitting in well with my current explorations into action. I’m looking forward to painting it up!
BTW, if you see any renders you really love, you can always contact me about commissioning it as a painting! I can tailor the size to suit your space and budget (within practical limits of course!) – check here for my past renders and stay tuned for more..
Daz|Studio products used
Figure: Victoria 4 *free*
Lighting: Studiolight Pro
Morphs: Morphs++ NGM for V4
friday nude quotes
“I never had any qualms about posing nude. The human body was always an attractive figure to me, that is, if it was in healthy shape, and young.”
controversial giant breasts sculpture
Sorry I’ve been so out of it lately, I’ve been ill and sore. I started a number of blog posts, only to realize that they made no sense! hopefully I will be back on top of things soon.in the meantime, this is an interesting video that came across my screen, it caught my eye because lately I’ve had times where I feel like this! it does hit at our identity in some ways, often women are not only judged by their breasts but base our identities as women on them.
it’s an interesting concept. ‘how big do we want our breasts to be’ has come under attack, literally, for it’s controversial nature but I think it makes an excellent point. There is so much focus on the idea that bigger is better, that all we need is enhancement to be as sexy as possible. if my email is anything to go by anyway! I see so many ridiculous morphs in 3D art that make these sculptures seem practically normal. these concepts are often created by men with infantile mammalian fantasies. it’s interesting that this sculpture was created by a male, I think it’s really interesting and well executed. it’s a shame they’ve felt the need to censor the sculptures.
15 cost cutting tips for artists – and where to draw the line
Extend - 5x7 Oils on Canvas
- many places provide cheap canvasses. these are a mixed bag. take a look at the thickness, the composition and the stretchers. whatever you do, get 100% cotton, if the canvasses are a cotton/poly blend they will warp and age badly. if they don’t state their composition you can bet they aren’t cotton!
- there are some companies that create excellent inexpensive canvasses, it pays to shop around and the key for these is the stretchers – often the thin stretchers on less expensive canvasses will warp, but the double wide ones not only look better but are more stable as well! plus you can save on framing.
- if the gesso is a little thin, or toothy you can fix that yourself by adding more or sanding it down – companies will save money by providing less ground or by not refining the surface as much.
- use natural earth pigments wherever possible. pigments such as sepia and umber are very common and cheap so they are inexpensive to produce in paints (no this isn’t why I use those colors.. well, not the entire reason!)
- buy a limited palette and blend your own colors. not only will you get better results but you can save on the more expensive real pigments by buying them in bulk
- use hues instead. if you have a family or you are just lazy about hazmat safety (me on both counts!) while painting you can get reasonable substitutes for the pure pigments. I have both types and while the pure pigment is often brighter I’m not sure it is worth paying double the price and having to constantly worry about heavy metals. it is pretty hard to distinguish the two in a painting in the end
- buy the best for the colors you use the most, you can substitute student quality or a lesser brand for tiny touches- no need to go out and buy a whole new tube of the best quality for one painting or a small accent.
- invest in some generic tube squeezers. my grocery store has them near the toothpaste – you will be amazed at how much you can get from that seemingly empty tube!
- duct tape fixes tube leaks.
- save your old student quality paints for playing, experimenting and random events. you never know when someone will want to borrow them. in fact, save everything – you just never know.
- wrap your palette in recycled plastic bags or use lunch wrap to save that unused paint for another day.
- buy really good brushes and take good care of them or buy cheap brushes and don’t worry as much. personally, I take the middle road and buy medium quality brushes because sometimes I take good care of them and other times I forget. this way I don’t mind so much.
- online companies like moo create wonderful supplies like business cards and exhibition postcards with different images for each card. Vistaprint often has free offers on their newsletter.
- check online art supply stores like dick blick and jerry’s artarama and sign up for their newsletters. keep an eye out for their sales and get a bargain!
- the most important tip I can give is to assess your 6 monthly expenditure on supplies, your output of art during that time and use those numbers to factor into your art pricing. ideally you want to make back your art supply expenses on one sale. keep track of those numbers and it will help you keep your pricing current and appropriate.
the miserly artist at work
Interlaced - 12x12 Oils on Canvas
But it’s not about saving bucks. It’s about volume of paint and the potential for juicy creativity. Expensive paints bring out your resident miser. Cheaper paints, used discretionally, are more likely to be lathered on in abundance and bravura.
Fact is, for some of us, inexpensive materials bring out the magic of playfulness.
I love reading Robert Genn’s letters, they have a range of interesting observations, views, tips and ideas spanning the whole gamut of being an artist. I felt a need to write about this one in particular as it’s a subject very close to my heart. especially right now as I’ve been considering buying some new pencils currently on sale. my husband’s comment is, yes but you’d never use them- they cost so much you would want to save them for best.
this is so true of everything for me. I hate spending money (yet, ironically, I love shopping) especially if it’s on something that’s important. when I started painting again I went to a place called art shed which had enormous tubes of paint for under $5 and inexpensive 100% cotton canvasses. knowing that I hadn’t paid that much meant that I could play with paint and if they didn’t work out it wasn’t a real loss. I was free to experiment. in a way, my main style has come from my inner miser, I didn’t have much left in a tube but I wanted to make it count. it was heavily dilute and very thinly applied and I realized by accident that I could create really cool effects with it that thin.
I finally splashed out on real professional quality oils only a couple of years ago (after a large sale) because I wanted to try windsor and newton water miscible oils. my studio is in my house and Liam can’t stand the smell of turpentine. on top of that we wanted to start a family and I didn’t want harsh chemicals around (much better for the cats as well!). I do love these paints, they are wonderful quality and the clean up is very easy. but it took a very long time to get out of the saving mindset. I put the paint on very thinly (even for me!) and I tried to make it go as far as possible. The funny thing is, the tubes are not as robust and splitting. the lids are breaking too – so I have to keep using them as much as possible and not worry so much. the threat of losing the entire batch is freeing me up to play once again.
I still buy art shed canvasses, they have a range and I buy their upper range now rather than the cheapest. it’s still affordable enough that I don’t feel too bad if the painting goes badly – at least not about the cost! I also use one of their easels, which, as far as I can tell, is just as good as any other. the trick is knowing where to cut the costs.
breastfeeding inspires emotive sculpture
Big Mother - Further images at Patricia Piccinini's website
The Sierra Leone-born, Melbourne-based artist decided to give up in her failed attempts to breastfeed when her sister suggested she practise with her own six-month-old son.
“I thought, `I can’t do that. I’m not just an animal, and I am not a lactating animal for some other baby’,” she said. “But then this six-month-old taught me how to breastfeed, and how to breastfeed my own child.”
The work is confronting on many levels – from the stark, hairless nudity of the animal, its gorilla-sized arms and legs and baboon’s bottom and genitals, to the idea humans could engineer humanoid beasts as slaves.
A friend recently wrote about this work on his blog and I was intrigued by the concept. this piece is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful, saddest and disturbing sculptures I’ve ever seen. on Patricia Piccinini’s website are further detail images showing the depth of detail and emotion in this piece.
The story rings on a very personal note. as a breastfeeding mother myself I can relate to her struggles at the beginning, breastfeeding a newborn is a tricky thing and during such an emotional time it is very easy to give up. I remember how many times I would have killed for a wet nurse! I think her friend was a genius to suggest she try an older child, perhaps it’s something more new mothers should consider. I wonder how I would have felt at that suggestion, you do feel like an animal- we joke about being a cow but it is a very animalistic action, based in nature and going back to our most primal roots. how wonderful that this suggestion has spawned such an interesting work.
There is no Such Thing as a State of Readiness
One thing I learned recently is that all the planning and preparation in the world is completely useless unless you actually take the plunge and get going.
Release - 12x12 Oils on Canvas
it’s so important to just do it. nothing is ever going to be perfect enough, nothing is ever going to be ready – everything is a process. putting things off until they are ready or perfect or just how you want them is anathema to getting anything actually achieved. and that is fine if you actually want to coast through and not achieve anything, but usually perfectionist types have very clear goals. I know I do.
If I had waited until I was “ready” to have a baby it would have never happened. and I find that now I have one, I am ready. nothing can prepare you, so there is a limit to how much planning you can do. I was a project manager so you can imagine how that strikes me! (must..plan..everything..) but I realized that all the planning in the world couldn’t prepare me. I just had to take the plunge. and I was right! I prepared for the things I could control (very little) and am in constant amazement by all the wonderful things I could never prepare for.
today I contacted some galleries. as I sent off the emails, I worried. my artist statement and bio aren’t perfect! I don’t have enough lines on my CV, I’m not ready, what if they turn me down, what if I get shunned by the entire arts community because of my problems with capitalization?
but I sent them off anyway. and already received one callback. so there perfectionism. sometimes you just have to jump in, hold your breath and hope. there is no such thing as ready. you won’t get anywhere dipping a toe in – you won’t know the temperature of the water until you actually get in.
Nude of the Week – Plunge Daz Render
Daz|Studio render
this was a happy accident of photoshop and Daz. I wanted to lighten the background so that I didn’t waste ink and was just playing around with selection tools when I got this very fluid and dynamic background that seems to flow with the nude – I’m just so happy with it! I have a bunch of ideas for paintings but nothing is really coalescing. I may go back and do this one a few ways.
Click here for the discussion on my facebook page about this piece.
Daz|Studio products used
Figure: Victoria 4 *free*
Character: Stephanie Elite 4 Base *Free*
Texture: Primrose for S4
Lighting: Studiolight Pro
Morphs: Morphs++ & NGM for V4
Transgendered nude art in paris vogue
Of course, that makes the nude all the more provocative. Her gaze is calm and direct, and the casual placement of her hand clearly reveals that she hasn’t had gender reassignment surgery. Unlike in the buzzed-about Givenchy ad, she doesn’t wear ostentatious makeup or strike any of the dramatic poses that usually mark high fashion editorials. She is simply, arrestingly bare. With her long hair draped over her shoulders, Lea looks straight out of the Garden of Eden — and that is perhaps what’s most subversive about the photo: its ability to make us re-conceive of what we think of as “natural.”
[From French Vogue's delightfully subversive nude - Gender - Salon.com]
There is a lot of strength in this photograph. I love the commentary in this quote, it is a natural portrait. it is unabashed, strong, challenging and surprising. she isn’t hiding who she is, she’s embracing it, embracing both sides of who she is. if the comments I’ve read and heard about it are any guide many people don’t see someone trans, they see a strong, nude woman.
I know a number of trans people, M-F and F-M. I’ve watched the journey of their transformations and the impact this has on themselves, their family and their friends. as a queer identified person with a great many queer friends I’ve sat in on discussions of gender identity and reassignment with great interest. gender is even something I am hoping to explore in an upcoming series. I love the power of identity in this photograph- gender seems to be almost an afternote in this photograph to the enormous strength of self.
Bill Henson: my impressions
millennial slippage is the term coined by Bill Henson to describe the current state of affairs worldwide. He emphasized that “The truth of art” should be exposed to our children, that we should never forget our artistic and cultural history. it’s on the basis of this that we can move forward rather than submitting to this millennial slippage.
The speech last night was excellent. Listening to Bill Henson discuss various cultural references, I looked around at a variety of young, blank, faces and I felt how true some of his statements were. we do need to expose our children to art, to history, to culture. art is the expression of history and the cumulation of our civilization. I was struck by Henson’s self effacing nature. watching him you would never know that someone so apparently shy was embroiled in such a shocking controversy that rocked the art world two years ago. It was interesting how little he cited his own work, preferring to discuss literature, composers and classic painters.
The political nature of the lecture was fascinating as he skirted any specific examples and avoided namecalling, calling instead for a return to statesmanship and common sense with more respect for the arts- both historical and current. I believe he feels truly wounded by Kevin Rudd’s insensitive and ill informed comments about his works, but rose above it to be the bigger person (as opposed to the way it was described in The Age).
I was particularly interested in the discussion about consent and censorship. His defense of the censorship board came as a surprise to some. giving credit where credit was due, he made it clear that the board were very supportive through the entire ordeal. The media have leapt on his comments about consent, afterall, Henson attacked a sacred covenant, contact sport for minors. this was a much more controversial statement than his research that life modeling for artists has no documented history of causing trauma to minors. The reverse appears to be true as so many previous models came to his defense during the scandal and remain solid friends.
I rose above my fear of public speaking to ask a question about the attitudes towards the nude in australia. his answer, in essence, was that he believes this is a wave and that most people are smart enough to realize the ridiculousness of the current attitudes, that the nude is a constant through these waves of attitude and censorship and will remain. I wish I agree that commonsense will prevail!
I wrote copious notes and will write about this further, I want to digest my thoughts more before I do. Needless to say, it was a pleasure to listen to such an articulate, genteel soul speak with passion and conviction. for further comments and observations please read Peter Ryan’s commentary at his blog.
Bill Henson responds live in Melbourne
The light and the dark and the shades of grey
‘We should be wary of governments and interest groups who try to impose restrictions on the free exercise of the artistic imagination. Our zeal to protect innocence should not come at the cost of violating artistic experience.
If we believe that art is a high form of education, that its basis is moral and its goal truth, then we should resist the impulse that would deny the artist the right to deal with what may sometimes be ambiguous, complex and disturbing.
Artists can seem like holy fools, they can seem like devils. They may exhibit the cunning of the insane or the illumination of the saint. But genuine art is the great bridge between the inner world in each of us and the ordinary world in which we live.
Art shows us the truth and it should never be the quarry of the witch-hunter or the social engineer. Any attempt to make the world better by destroying or shackling art represents a repudiation of the truth.’Bill Henson July 2010
[From Federation Square - Melbourne's Meeting Place - Coming Soon]
I have the extremely good luck to go to this lecture tonight with my good photographer friends Peter Ryan and Lillian Johnson. I am so excited to hear his responses to this live, his discussion of the issues and basically any wisdom Bill Henson may have to impart. I feel like I am going to a rock concert, I have that same high of anticipation, breathing the same air as one of my idols. it’s the same way I felt when I got the opportunity to meet Hazel Dooney.
There will be blog posts. oh yes. you have been warned.
For a change my disability will be working for me, we have excellent reserved seats with the media.
Nude of the Week – Bewitched
Oils on Canvas
36 x 24 in
click for detail images and price
Much discussion online has been centered around this painting. about halfway through I had a meltdown- the kind that sometimes will keep me out of my studio for months on end. the kind that sometimes leads to stabbing canvasses. I had something initially which had a lot of power and then, in my usual obsessive style, I overworked it. and lost the power and energy it had.
this time, however, I made my anguish public. I sent out messages venting my frustration to the world on twitter and facebook. this inspired many comments from friends, artists on twitter and even a discussion on fine art views (which sadly, I was unable to respond to, something went wrong in the comments for me) it’s amazing how everyone’s encouragement helped me bounce back and turn it around. this painting went from being a failure to being, well, something of a success if the comments are anything to go by! I sucked it up, got back into the studio and this is what came about. thankyou all so much! I’m still too close to it but sometimes the ones that cause you the most difficulty seem to be the best in the end. I’m glad I didn’t destroy it. I’m glad I didn’t leave the studio for too long. I’m glad because being able to bounce back like this and continue on is one of the hallmarks of growing as an artist.
thankyou everyone for your wisdom and help! you helped me create this painting.
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