Last week I finally visited the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. I knew Vincent van Gogh's Irises
was there, but I didn't realize the amount of amazing and famous art I would find. It was a little overwhelming.
In one room, I stood three feet from Turner's Long Ship's Lighthouse. It was me and the Turner in an empty room. Every once in a while a tourist walked by, hardly noticing the painting. I 
wanted to yell, "Hey idiot - you just walked past a frickin' Turner!"
As I'm walking down a hallway, my eye catches a small painting of a ballerina. I thought - it couldn't be a Degas. Sure as hell, it was a Degas ballerina - Dancer Taking a Bow.
There were also a number of Monet's, my favorite being, Wheatstacks, Snow Effect.
I wish I had done more research before I left. I think I would have appreciated the experience a lot more.
Jul 29, 2008
Getty out of here
Jul 20, 2008
I Love Van Art
I just purchased an airbrush, the Vega 2000. It is a two stroke, with interchangeable pins. It rocks. I also purchased a Husky air compressor at Home Depot and it rocks. As a matter of fact, the whole damn thing rocks. My career in airbrush illustration has just begun. I just completed my first gradient. Soon I will be painting jumping dolphins over an ocean sunset.
And then, when I'm ready I will endeavor to fulfill my destiny of producing "Van Art". I love van art and here are some of my favorite examples:
This picture is from Power Studios in Australia
This is from Varuna Van:
This is from realm of the wombat.com
So if you need your van or car painted, just drop me an email. I have an airbrush and I will travel.
Marc
Jun 26, 2008
Jun 25, 2008
Can You Sea?
I am working on this painting for about a two weeks. I wanted to do a two layere piece with geometric shapes that showed the paint underneath.
I started first with a pig's hair brush. I painted highly textured vertical lines. I used a denim blue and sea foam green. I placed each color on opposite ends of the brush and lightly painted - the brush barely touching the canvas. Also, I heavily thinned the paint using Createx base.
After letting paint dry for half a day, I used common school glue and lightly poured the shapes I wanted. The school glue works great, but tends to spread out more than liquid wax. It's also harder to remove. Anyway, I gave the glue a good 24 hours to dry. I then painted over the the glue and the base color with an acrylic dark blue. I only lightly thinned the color with base. Again, I used a pig's hair brush to create texture, but used a full brush and heavy stroke upon the canvas. I painted vertical lines up and down until a fully covered the glue and base paint.
I waited another full day for the paint to dry and then carefully removed the glue. Sometimes, I had to use the dull edge of a butter knife to pop the glue off. I was surprised to see how much the glue had spread out, but it did maintain a tight seal and didn't let the second layer paint seep through.
On the other side, I painted a base teal green coat as the base layer. I used a good pigment acrylic paint - Winsor & Newton Galeria "Pale Olive". I wanted an academy level paint, because I knew I was going to put many layers of paint on top and did not want any separation.
I wanted to create a multicolor wavy effect. I used several different paints: Liquitex Bronze Yellow, Jo Sonja's Permanent Alizarine, Jo Sonja's Olive Green, Grumbacher Yellow Ochre Light, Dick Blick Raw Sienna, Folk Art Grass Green, Folk Art Pine Green, Apple Barrel Coffee Bean.
I drew verticle lines creating demension by apply a dark color first and the hightlighting that color with a lighter color. I continued this until the whole half was filled in.
So, as you can see I have created my pattern for the base layer. Now, to pour glue in the outlined shape of kelp and hope this structure looks like the textured plant. That is the plan ...
I am a little embarassed using Folk Art and Apple Barrel. Folk Art is a much better paint, but still both are only craft quality. The pigment color should not fade and the paint is from the USA so it doesn't contain lead. However, the pigment is not consistent and does not mix well with other paint. Dick Blick and Liquitex can be a little chunky - although the pigment color is pretty good.
Jo Sonja's, Grumbacher and Winsor are good acedemy grade paint. They have a smooth structure, consistent pigment count, mix well with other paint and maintain color and texture. But they're very expensive.
Anyway .. wish me luck
Jun 22, 2008
God's Speed George
Comedian George Carlin died yesterday from an apparent heart attack. Yahoo News reports:
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday, a spokesman said. He was 71.
Carlin, who had a history of heart and drug-dependency problems, died at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica about 6 p.m. PDT (9 p.m. EDT) after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for chest pains, spokesman Jeff Abraham told Reuters.
Carlin was a hero of mine. Not only was he one of the funniest comedians, but his routines had social meaning as well. An era that I grew up in is slowly fading away. I will miss George Carlin and his seven words you can never say.
Jun 19, 2008
It Takes A Village
I am slowly working on a cartoon series called, "Bring Cake". This is the first in the series. My goal is to become fabulously rich and famous from these simple cartoons. You have the distinguished honor of viewing the first one.
Bring Cake - by Kmuzu
Bottle Neck
The Science Museum in London is displaying a fascinating glass sculpture called, Klein Bottle 1995-1996.
"This is one of a series of glass Klein bottles made by Alan Bennett in Bedford, United Kingdom for the Science Museum, London. It consists of three Klein bottles, one inside another. A Klein bottle is a surface which has no edges, no outside or inside and cannot properly be constructed in three dimensions. In the series Alan Bennett made Klein bottles analogous to Mobius strips with odd numbers of twists greater than one." - Science Museum
This statement does not really convey the beautiful intricacies of the work. As you follow each tube to the inside, you realize that each leg makes up a inside nodule and that all legs are connected together from the inside. The geometry (if that is the right word) of the structure does remind me of a Mobius strip, in that there is really no defined inside or outside.
I don't know if that makes any sense. Let's just say, I think the whole thing is ... well .. really cool. If I ever find myself in London, I definitely will have to check out the Science Museum. We have a Science Museum in Las Vegas, but it is all dedicated to how a slot machine works. Ya got to teach those kids early - Slots for Tots.
