Alright, so I have neglected to be very active on The JAR lately and I feel bad about it... So, since I have something new that I am working on and can show, I decided to reveal some of my imperfect, ever-changing process.  Please, bear with me on this.

In reality, everything starts on paper with random, unfocused sketches and doodles.  None of which are pictured here.  I have a few pages of heads and faces that I was playing with before becoming interested in one that had an old, worn, and rather royal feel to it.  So I drew it some more in different angles and positions until finally deciding on a simple profile.  I wanted to keep it simple since I intended to try out some new brushes in my work.

Once I had a rough idea, I jumped into Photoshop and continued where I left off on paper.  I redrew the head again using my pencil drawing as a reference.  Only this time I planned out a body for it as well.  I had trouble deciding on a pose and what style armor he should have.  At one point I played around with a sci-fi theme but I quickly dropped it.  Eventually decided on something more basic like what a barbarian might wear.

Two of the better body sketches.

Once I made a decision, I then worked on refining the pose.  His balance was off and the legs seemed somewhat stiff and unnatural.  Adding more/darker lines to what I liked and whiting out areas that I didn't want worked well for me here.  I also noted what I need to take reference for, namely his hands and ears among other things.

Refining the sketch.

Next it's time to work out a color pallet.  From the beginning I wanted something cool and blue so that's where I started.  I tried out several shades and hues before settling on a muted teal as a base.

Picking out a base tone.

From there it was a matter of deciding on a skin-tone and other color shapes.  I liked the idea of red skin in an icy environment.  This stage is very rough and messy.  Staying inside the lines is not a priority: I just want to work out what colors work well and where.  Once I have a basic understanding of what I want I then start laying in blocks of value.  I decided that a gradient going from light to dark helped focus the eye on the sword and his head as well.

Playing around with shapes and colors.

In order to help me pay attention to value groupings, I place a black/white filter over top the image and periodically turn it on to get an idea of what the image would look like as a greyscale.  I also add a dot of black and white and move it around for comparison.  Proper value depth is a problem of mine that I still struggle with so I tend to check this often.  I also regularly flip the painting horizontally.  This is to aid in spotting defects in the painting such as poor figure balance, lopsided anatomy, or a lopsided composition in general.

Value comparison.

Finally, this is where the painting stands as of this post.  I recently edited a brush to give me two-tone and really speckly strokes to help add some texture since most of my paintings turn out looking really smooth like clay.  It's not a perfect integration yet, but I rather like it and think it's something that I am going to stick with.  Now it is time to take a break from working on his head and move to other areas to help prevent the risk of over-working his face.  I still need to add the darkest-darks and lightest-lights to the painting.  Those will come later.

Where I am as of this posting.

Head detail showing texture brush.

Alright, so here is the 'finish'.  It is pretty likely that I will go into this again some time in the future, but for now I am moving on!  Check out this and other works of mine on my blog: Zachary Wojnar Illustration.

Final result.

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To start, my name is Jeff Sant,  I graduated from FHS in 2010. Now I live in Chicago and I'm about to go into my final semester at American Academy Of Art. I'm majoring in illustration, which I love passionately, but when I started school I wanted to study oil painting, and focus on fine art.
I was unedumucated about what illustration was and could be, and so it seemed like a lesser of the arts to me.

However I have come to find out all the images I grew up loving are illustrations. I'm happy with my decision in majors because I really enjoy the process of solving visual problems that a client would be coming to me to solve, and of course I love to draw and paint.

Also, I felt that I was not ready to become a fine artist, I feel young and naive. I didn't want to be producing work that had no purpose. Later in my career I plan on doing more personal fine art type work, but not until I have something in particular that I really want to say.

I currently work in both oil and watercolor, depending on the project. I guess if I had to sum up my work it would bad corky humor with a stylization of the figure. Within the next year I should have a completely new portfolio, so i'm really excited and I'll post some progress with ya'll as I go. 

Next post will be on portrait club as Ro requested. 

Woot woot! 

jeffsant.com

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Advanced Art Techniques Assignment February 2010

These were carpet rolls that were cut and piled in a box that another teacher had offered up at a professional development meeting I remember.

I had the box for quite a while, always in my eye site in the room, until I came up with the assignment.  I had been drawing on one at my desk and ventured towards an environment, and there she went.  

Here's a secret:  I call "landscapes" environments because an environment can be anywhere and I feel students can be more creative with that instead of always being on the planet earth or just outdoors on land.

I remember they were strong pieces in art show that year, placed on a centered round table of the show.  They are seen in the 2010 Franklin Art Show movies.

I did not photograph the pieces.  I remember asking a student do so, and get multiple angles.  Was it Mary, Rachel or Jeff?  The pictures were very balanced and similar so I thought  they looked good as a moving slideshow movie. read more

I have spent the last ten years of my life trying to create the cleanest, flattest, shiniest, least brushstrokey paintings possible. I have been more inspired by the front of a dishwasher, a gas station pump, the sign at Kroger, a lunch tray, than anything in a museum, nature, or issues in politics.
I am still tongue in cheek. I am still flat. I am still plexiglass. I am still countertop laminate, masking tape, spray paint, and polyurethane.

But I have discovered the drip.

I have known about it for years. Always rejected it.
Abstract expressionism? Stop it.

But then I dripped.

It started by accident.
Not the Jackson Pollock "I just dripped paint on the floor, OMG it looks so cool I have to try this on a giant ass canvas and make some totally amazeballs, completely moving paintings" type of accident.
But one of those "I have a student who is a senior and going into UofM's design school who is really good, has a great eye for composition but is totally restricted and scared to get out of her shell, OMG lets collaborate and I'll do everything to your work you would be too scared to ever do like spray paint, stencil, drip paint, and cover your work with drawings" type of accident.
It looked like this.

It excites me.
Excited like I haven't been in a while about anything I've done.

So I had to try it on my own.
I'm uncomfortable.
I'm unsure of myself.
It's opposite of what I'm used to.
I'm not in control.
I'm in progress.

It's still me...

But weird alternate universe me...

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