The Learning Curve

Right now, as far as painting goes, I feel like I'm pretty inept. I've spent most of my "art time" these past 5 or 6 years doing digital commercial art, and now I feel like I've forgotten how to move oil paints around a canvas. But I'm hoping to change that this coming year. I'm planning to return to school to pursue a Masters degree at the University of Utah. If accepted into the program, I will begin classes Fall 2009. In the meantime, I have been accepted as a "non-matriculated" student and plan to begin a couple of graduate courses in January. It seems a bit nuts to go back to school at my age, but I can't seem to kick the idea that maybe I'll actually become a good painter.

Here's a recent painting. I'm not thrilled with it, but they say you learn to create good paintings by doing a whole bunch of bad ones.

Small Works (very)

The other day I was given a trial set of Golden's new OPEN brand acrylics. The set included only three colors: red, blue, and white. I had not painted with acrylics for a long time, but thought it would be fun to test out this new product, and even funner to do it with such a limited palette. I painted this small portrait on a 2.5 x 3.5 inch piece of Strathmore Artist Trading Card acrylic paper. For info on OPEN acrylics: http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/color/open/index.php. For Strathmore ATC paper: http://www.strathmoreartist.com/atc.php.

Changes

As you've probably noticed, kevinwasden.com is going through some changes. The new website will focus more on my efforts in "fine art" instead of illustration. My illustration work, comics, and other similar projects will be found at www.splintered-mind.com. I haven't worked out all the details yet and will probably be making a lot of changes to both websites. I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks.