Painting in progress

painting in progress, early views, final at bottom:

I found these teddy bears in the free area and they reminded me of my best friend from childhood. I missed her. I put them on my sofa and tried to paint them. I knew a rabbit would end up there sooner or later. As it turns out she wouldn't pose long -- normally she is pretty good but she didn't like being up  on the sofa.

This painting has been sitting in my apartment for months. I worked on it a few times but could not figure out what to do with it. The actual sofa when drawn correctly went completely off the left and bottom side and just looked weird. So I redesigned it. 

I added nubby bits to the teddy bear, worked on pillow and couch, added darks, brightened the rabbit, fixed her eye. I work in thin layers and just keep going over and over areas with more color.

I dulled out shadow on sofa in the foreground, brightened sofa overall.

Added furry carrot and stripes on left. I have stripes on many other paintings. I like them. It flattens out the side of the painting. Originally I was going to cover up the left of the sofa with it. The colors are the same pigments used in the painting but mostly greyed out a lot. They still look super bright. At this point I thought I was done.

I decided the rabbit was too prominent in the last one and the sofa was too dark. Repainted lighter and more yellow (though you can't tell that in the morning light), repainted carrot, got rabbit back on the couch and redrew the leg area, darkened rabbit, lightened darks of rabbit in highlight areas, added shedding and fixed some of the spots.

This is the final painting at this point though it needs a better photo. The rabbit blends in better with the scene, carrot looks better. Yes, it's an odd painting for sure!

You'll be able to see this one in my two fall open studios in November -- one at G2 and one at Hunters Point.

Drawing rabbits

Some of my newest paintings contain a portrait of my pet rabbit(s) painted at home, from life. I think these portraits are pretty good.

Folks keep telling me "Hope you can find some people who like rabbits to buy those paintings."

rabbit with papaya and apples, acrylic on canvas

And it's funny, but I don't think I need rabbit people. Since I don't have kids and live alone, I think of them just as figure paintings or life studies and would think that anyone would like them. I thought art history buffs would like them (since they are sort of a riff on the tromp l'oeil paintings that have dead rabbits in them.)

And I have a book project about a rabbit that I am working on, and just opened up another old project, "Dumbbunny", a story about the Easter Bunny that my best and most long-time friend, Mary, and I started many years ago. Her mother wrote the story originally in the 50s or 60s. It was sort of mostly done but we had problems with the plot (for the 21st Century). Mary just fixed it and now I am making final drawings and trying to figure out color and layout.

Anyhow a day drawing rabbits is a good day.

I have rabbit models at home, and now with the internet, it is easy to find models in the poses I need. Well maybe not easy but I can find poses lose enough to extrapolate the rest in my head. It was so much harder before as I have never been good drawing out of my head. The book "Rabbit Language" and the first version of this one was really hard for me to draw. Also having digital cameras is huge -- I can take photos whenever I find a rabbit in the pose I need. I can put various things together in Photoshop to help me think about the composition before I start. And I will probably do the color in Photoshop (not sure yet).

The idea is the hardest thing. Once I have it, it's easy to just try to draw it freehand. There is a very high fear level. It is even harder than painting because in painting you can go over it again if you have to. A messed up drawing you need to start fresh (although there may be some Photoshopping). It is funny after all these years of drawing that there is so much fear, that "I can't do this". And then really it's one drawing at a time.

Am procrastinating. It can be really hard to sit down to work! I could go to the gym, look at Facebook, or do a million other things. I guess that's why I have an art studio in the first place!

However, I find once I get started, it really helps to have some uninterrupted time such as a really long weekend. I now understand why novelists book hotel rooms to get away and work on their books. Every interruption (such as going to work, going to the gym, a Giants game) can completely stall me in my tracks.