"Moments"

This is a painting I just finished last weekend while my favorite (and only) sister, Jessica Gordon, was up visiting for the Puppy Love Show. She's pretty happy that I'm finished it too, because her feet can't take any more posing like that!!







"Moments" oil on linen, 24 x 18 inches, 2008

Puppy Love - La Petite Mort Gallery

Here's some photos of a recent group show that I was in at La Petite Mort Gallery here in Ottawa. The show was called "Puppy Love - The Artist as Dog" and was meant to be self portrait of the aritsts as a dog. My sister, Jessica Gordon, also had a piece included in the show.

Hehehe, without noticing, I did dress up in my doggie cosutme for the show (I match my dog in the painting)




































"Ouroboros," oil and wax on panel, 14 x 14 inches, 2008

"Sophie" Step by Step

I just finished this painting yesterday at my friend Helder's house, where we were both painting his girlfriend, Sophie, who was kind enough to pose for us.

■STEP 1: BLOCK IN THE BASIC SHAPES

For this painting, I started with a general flesh colour for the face, then added darks to the shadow side. Normally I would block in all of the background colour early on in a painting, but to achieve a more spontaneous result I resisted, and limited painting it in only where it was absolutely necessary to describe the tones and colours of the face. At this stage, I was mostly just thinking about blocking in the basic shapes, but I was also thinking a lot about “big form modeling.” This means describing the larger, overall forms, such as the egg shape of the head and the cylindrical nature of the neck and body.


■STEP 2: HAIR AND FEATURES

For this sitting, I added the hair with my nifty new Langnickel brushes! They make really nice looking strokes! In rendering the hair, I thought very carefully about each stroke before putting it down. Then I made sure not to mess with them at all afterwards, to maintain the spontaneity. I used burnt sienna, burnt umber and ultramarine for the hair. Then I refined the features, and the overall form of the face. Once the dark hair had been added in, I found that I had to darken my shadows quite a bit from the first sitting, to get them dark enough.



■STEP 3: REFINEMENTS

While I liked the feeling of the brushstrokes in the hair after the second step, the shadow side of the head needed to be darker, so I worked into the hair a bit more, as well as refining the features and adding her necklace.







■STEP 4: FINAL TOUCHES

Although I liked the looseness and of the background up to this point, some of the diagonal brushstrokes were too distracting, and the contrast of her hair against the light background was just way too strong, so I carefully carried some more of the background colour around her head a bit more, being careful not to mess with each stroke too much, as I did want to maintain that looseness. I also worked quite a bit on her neck, which is a challenging area of the body to render successfully. The goal was to render it’s anatomy, which consists of tendons and large muscle forms, while also capturing the soft quality of the neck. Lastly, I went in and softened the cheek and hairline slightly.

Ogrant Update

So, I have just found out that in fact anyone in the world, student or not, can leave feedback on my Ogrant video application to help me win money for school!, and (YYAAAY!) they actually take the feedback into consideration when they choose the winners too!!!!!!! so Yyyaaaaayyyy!! Also, any Canadian Student with a valid student email address through their college can vote for my video too! So please leave me some comments on my Ogrant, and if you're a Canadian student, even better, you can vote for it too!! (click here to vote and leave feedback)!!

Cheryl Painting - Sold

I did this painting in a three hour session that was held at Joe Bastiste's studio in Santa Fe. He holds drop ins every Wed and Sat in his studio, and while I was there as the TA to Yuqi Wang at Andreeva Portrait Academy, I attended as many of them as I could! This painting here is acutally of his girlfriend, Cheryl, who is an artist and model, and that day the model didn't show up, so she generously offered to pose for us instead:)



















"Cheryl," oil on panel, 10 x 8 inches, 2007

"Mother's Day" - Step by Step

This is a painting I did on Mother’s Day, of one of the daffodils that we grew in our yard.

■STEP 1: BLOCK IN THE BASIC SHAPES

This painting was done in a more “direct” approach, meaning that instead of starting with a burnt umber under-painting, I “drew in” the image with color, to achieve a more spontaneous result. At this stage, I was mostly just thinking about blocking in the basic shapes, but I was also thinking about the “big form modeling” as well. This means describing the larger, overall forms, such as the cylindrical nature of the vase.








■STEP 2: REFINEMENTS

I wanted to preserve a lot of the initial brushwork that had come out of the first session, so I primarily focused on the smaller details of the vase at this stage. First, I solidified it, by sharpening up the rim. I also refined the “big form modeling” of the vase, adding highlights, and making sure the edges feel as though they are wrapping around the form. When I first added the calligraphy on the vase it was much too tight in comparison with the looseness of the daffodil. I wanted to keep the painting loose, but accurate, so I went in and softened some of the edges until I was satisfied with the result.





■STEP 3: FINAL TOUCHES

Although I liked the looseness and transparency of the background up to this point, I decided that it was a bit too distracting, so I darkened the edges of the painting first, to frame it, then carried the paint inwards around the daffodil. I felt this did a better job of framing the daffodil and helped it to stand out from the background.

"Mother's Day," oil on panel, 6 x 4 inches, 2008

Voting for Ogrant has Begun!!

Yaaayy! So voting has begun for the Ogrants! As it turns out, only students can vote, so if any of you out there is a student, or knows a student, and wants to help, they can go to the O-grant website, and register in the top right-hand corner (I think you need a student email address to be able to vote), then, after registering click here to vote for my application (just click “SUPPORT,” in the top right-hand corner). They take the number of votes into consideration when they choose the recipients, so I would really appreciate any votes I can get!!! Feel free to email me if you have any questions along the way!

Kristy