CynthiaDesignStudio: PAINTINGS

In class, Peter Chan jokingly suggested we paint these guys--however, in doing research, I discovered that this is probably the only band in the world where the fans study their color palettes rather thoroughly...this is a great testament to their costume designers, pr people, and music video directors--that their public image is so well art directed.

Via Peter Chan, I learned to think about composition in an almost completely abstract way--to push color to an extreme--and to describe forms by "color stepping." Chose a moment from a The Black Keys concert I attended a couple years ago at The Forum to explore these compositional and color ideas

Usually do a lot of very architectural/technical line art...started exploring eclectic color combinations, bizarre shapes (such as these surreal sculptures from Coachella a few years ago), and different mark-making. Using a choppy brush customized by Peter Chan made everything more lively

Saw these cool oil can guitars (possibly made by Bohemian Guitars?) a couple years ago at the annual Make Music Pasadena festival. Studying with Peter Chan made me aware that I could be less literal about colors, in order to control the focal area a bit more (hence the non-orange Orange Amplifier...!) Changed some hues, and organized the values.

Here's a Schoolism/Tonko House exercise, that's also been submitted to Warrior Painters/Streets of Color digital magazine

Schoolism/Tonko House exercise - the same location painted in two different color palettes.

Later-on, tried a blur technique suggested by Mike Hernandez:

Black and white environment studies in flat/even lighting.

The first painting is of a portion of the grand garden at Chinzanso in Tokyo.

Painting of the Queen Anne Cottage at the Arboretum.

Painting of a windmill/street in Solvang.

The Chinzanso garden detail, depicted in various made-up lighting situations:

Queen Anne Cottage in three different made-up lighting situations.

Solvang windmill/street scene in various made-up, storytelling lighting situations.

Still life paintings, in black and white to study surface textures and lighting.

The teacup plushie was purchased from a DesignerCon booth a few years ago. The perfume bottle is filled with water and is usually stored in my plein-air painting kit, to help re-wet gouache on-location.

Same still life set-up, with the window curtains partially closed for dramatic lighting.

Once the shapes of the compositions were determined, the color studies of these two images were relatively quick. The objects' local color is very clear when the interior lighting is very flat and even.

The warmth of sunshine effects the overall color of the painting

Other still life paintings.

Each pair of studies show the objects in flat/even interior lighting, and in sunshine coming through a window.

Some studies of delicious meals in the Los Angeles area.

These paintings had an emphasis on depicting materials/surfaces of objects accurately.

This is from LaDuree at the Grove--the Gourmand Avocado Toast, which includes salmon on brioche, with a scattering of pistachios on their signature plate

Korean bbq, with a side of egg drop soup, melon, and various veggies

Chef Tony's in Pasadena--the Coconut Bunnies were an amazing unique dessert

Part of a tour of Studio Ghibli, included a field trip to the Tokyo-Edo Open Air Architecture Museum. There were many remarkable buildings of all eras preserved there. The studies below are of the beautiful interior of the Kodakara-yu.

The first image is a study of the local color, the second is a lighting pass.

Study of the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, done during a Mike Hernandez workshop held via the Carmel Visual Arts school.

King Midas' Forgotten Fortress on the Island of Kalydon

My emphasis is drawing, with a bit of color work during my time at Disney back in the mid-to-late nineties. I recently studied painting with Jackson Sze, Bill Perkins, Nathan Fowkes, Andrew Hem, and Mike Hernandez.

I painted this as an assignment for a Nathan Fowkes seminar.

I painted this color gouache study, while sitting underneath the Art Center bridge.

This black and white gouache study was done in the warehouse disctrict just south of Little Tokyo.

This is study of the gateway leading into the Huntington Estate.

Here is a study I did by the koi pond at Greystone Mansion. There are some very unusual orange plants there.

The following are black-and-white studies done on-location, on an iPad (using the paint app ProCreate)

Here are a couple paintings I did for Ang Lee's class. The food images are gouache on wood coasters--good eats at Pepper Lunch near Nucleus Gallery, and Red Maple Cafe near WB. The landscape was painted in the park near CDA.