I find this both disturbing and amazing

When we got back from a couple of weeks off I got on the computer and found an AI application called MidJourney. You simply feed it a phrase like ‘A male robot color corrected’. Not my phrase be a found image on MJ.

This is amazing in several ways. The insanity of the idea and the construction. The quality of the render and the color choices. This could be a artist’s reference for a painting or building a prop or even creating a character for a story.

I did not think I’d see the level of AI driven imagery in my lifetime. Let alone on my laptop. The images are created in just a few minutes!

Here is an image I asked for. A characture of an old man. Here is the result . The color choice is harmonious. The character is a story. A novel. The lighting from above is realized correctly. The color choices!

More discoveries…

Joe Rogan as a steampunk gorilla

A man in the style of James Gurney

For the Birds

This ceramic bird is from my grandmother’s house. It used to sit on the kerosene stove in the kitchen holding wooden matchsticks in it’s mouth hoping for a treat. I was always drawn to it as a kid. I placed it in this Robin’s nest amount some dried reeds. Mostly neutral color as I like it.

View fullsize

Untitled ‘22

Watercolor and gouache on illustration board 10.5 x 12

More painting with neutrals

It was a cold winter afternoon and I saw this rock outcrop near my house. There were many effects of light and shadow. There's open light, reflected and transmitted light. Warm, warmer and cool light. Wrapped in a white package. It only lasted a moment.

Painted loosely wet in wet using DMP medium and Lukas 1864 colors. I use a combination of good bristles and out of control bristles. Finishing with some small synthetic sables. The underpainting was laided down in March. Finished it this week. About 6-8 hours total.


This is the 'neutral palette'. Red violet, Blue Violet, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine and Yellow Orange full intensity colors.
Semi neutral Blue (BG+BV), sn Yellow (YG+YO) and sn Red (RV + RO).

On the way to Kevin's Place

This piece was from just before covid hit. I got hurriedly put away. I pulled it out recently and though that it was finished and why was hidden away. ? I signed it and here it is. A color interpretation of a cornfield coming out of winters sleep. A small community exists at the end oof the field built around the feed mill that plants and harvests the field.

When good brushes get hard

It’s time for a little whimsy.

Little rusty's

Stockpiling sixes for the DVAA Sixes show in November. Soft focus bright bellied pears. It seems I paint a lot of pears. Looseness abounds.

High Water

In the spring of 2021 a log had gotten jammed in my favorite boat launch on the Delaware. When I discovered this it was still a bit icy about so I put it in the back of my mind to check on later. A couple of weeks passed an things started to green up a little. Then the rain started. Heavy rain for days. I thought of the big log and wondered if it had moved out of the ramp. The river was high but the log was still there. A bit disappointed I took a little walk on River Road and discovered the entire hillside along river road was draining into the ditch. I only had my iPhone with me. I shot a few images. I made a composite of the scene in this painting. It’s the early spring green still competed with the winter browns.

This a bit fussy for me but that was a challenge.

View fullsize

High water 20 x 12 oc 2022

Reflection in Motion

I love rowboats. I love Maine.I love finding different ways to paint water. This is a small harbor surrounded by big rocks and trees. Every ripple is it’s on reflection. Painted in many thin glazed layers.

Reflections in Motion ‘21

24 x 18” oil on panel

See Spot Run

We have a new puppy. His name is Spot. I wonder why.

He’s grows so fast I thought I’d do a painting of hime from the day we got him. Mostly earth fones with a little tinting here and there,

View fullsize

Spot

12 x 9” Oil on linen ‘21

The beginning of the end

We are starting to see a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Vaccines in my county have begun.

I am making this post in celebration of my getting the second Moderna vaccine shot 2 weeks ago. Last February I swore I wouldn’t cut my hair or beard until this pandemic was over or I got a shot. Being a steaming pile of co morbidities I stayed home. Only visiting with a few friends and going fishing a few times. I don’t care what they say the outdoors is the best place to be.

Today Sylvia cut my hair and I trimmed my beard. I found it funny that is was so similar to to this painting. I did this for an evening class I took at SVA back in 1975 with Milton Glazer. Psychology and Illustration. This painting had something to do with ones persona. What doesn’t. I chose to do a sequential paneled story inside a bathroom mirror. This is me shaving my beard and loosing my identity. Left with nothing but a cigarette butt.

Hello. It's me you're looking for...

Below are a series of props for the process of painting my latest self portrait from February 5th to to the 15th. Overall about 20 t0 25 hours of brush time. Painted on Fredricks 18 x 24 sheet canvas. Very cheap stuff.

The sketching was done with Burnt Sienna and a small brush and ‘turps’. Then a quick stain block in. Layers of paint and correcting the drawing and values. With each pass the brush strokes became more evident though there are a lot of scapes and scumbles.

I am happy with the illustrative feel.

View fullsize

I have done many self portraits over the past 50. years. In charcoal, pastel, pencil, water color, pen & ink, acrylic and oils

A few years ago DVAA had a virtual show on the subject. Here’s a link to a blog post with my result.

https://jimkingston.com/wetpaint/2016/1/24/personal-evolution

Little treasure

Little Roadside Treasure 2021 8 x 8 Gouache on watercolor paper

I haven’t painted in watercolor in several years. It’s been probably 30 years since I did a gouache painting. I want to be doing more outdoor painting this year but all the crap you have to carry to do oils is a cooler. I’ve seen several painters on the web painting with minimal watercolor and gouache gear. Creating very handsome solid painting.

So. I gave it a whack. This little apple came from the River Road an the fallow remains of an orchard. It wasn’t even 2 inches tall. Loaded with color and flavor. This years crop of wild apples was not to good . A late summer drought. Trees that looked promising in August were barren in September. It was painted with a variety of gouache branded colors. All new to me. some detail was finished in color pencil. I like it. I’ll do more.

Resurrecting a forgotten sketch

Mill Field in Winter 2021 10 x 10 oil on panel

This is painted on an old sketch that was lost in a box lost in my studio. In a vain attempt to clean up found this scraped down panel. “I’d better finish that” I said. So finish it I did. Forget the clean up. This is a phone pic but gives you the basic idea.

This is bottom land along the Delaware River. The Cochecton Grain Mill is across the street from the very big field. Every year they grow feed corn all around this rural area to make their feed products. One of two large grain operations in the area.

The undulating field. was hard to get in this little panel. This little composition was part of a bigger demo on finding a composition in a photograph. I hope to do that as a video this spring.

It's no secret that I like wooden rowboats

Waiting on the Tide 2021. 9 x 12 oil on panel

Below is the visual process of making this painting. Fist it starts with taken a photograph. This was taken in 2017? Using my Canon EOS D5 Mark iV. A full frame 24mp sensor. I shot it in RAW format.

The image was processed in Lightroom adjusting for color and value distribution. Camera lens correction applied. Then it is exported to photoshop. Various filters are applied to help see the value ranges. Eventually prints are made on my 14 year old Epson 7800 24” ultra chrome printer.

A 112 color spectrum palette is layout out on the glass along with 3 dual primary colors, white and two neutralizers Yellow Ochre and Transparent Red Oxide. From this full intensity palette recipe colors are ‘found’. Note that they are pretty neutral colors.

A quick drawing is made with charcoal and the aid of a homemade proportional divider. Excess charcoal is air off. Workable fixative is sprayed applied.

Real painting begins. first the point of focus. Colors derived from the recipe are mixed and expanded. The ‘under painting takes shape. The temperatures get balanced. Highlights and last minute indication

The whole composition took about a year. First the negative space had to be as powerful as the boat. Horizontal and vertical intervals had to balance. A complimentary rectangle had to be agreed upon.
A 3 x 4 format thus the 9 x 12. A three by four foot canvas has been made so that may one day soon this boat may be painted on it with the knowledge found from this small painting.