Inked in Pink painting progression

Here we go with the second painting for the upcoming "Outside In" exhibit at Art Whino. This one is being called "Inked in Pink", as she will have pink tattoos covering her arms. The cherry blossoms and airplanes are being painted pink as well.

For these "Outside In" paintings I am using a technique different than my usual one where I paint the entire background first. Since I am doing all of these pieces on gessoed basswood, I am making somewhat detailed pencil drawings on the wood first and painting over top of the drawings. So far I am pleased with this process as it allows me to really plan out a piece in advance of attacking it.

This process is also much closer to what I am used to as a dry-media artist. I have been working exclusively in pen-and-ink and colored pencil for nearly my whole life, and just really started using paint in 2006. This cell-shading style of getting the paint on the board is much more like I am used to and seems to have me painting much faster.

You may notice a slight change to her wardrobe in the above photo. Once I started adding the tattoos to her arms I really wanted to have some across her chest as well, so I painted over the dark grey tank top she was wearing under the blue and black stripped one. Now she is "Inked in Pink". Time for a background.

Now that I am laying in the background and adding all the special details, this will be the last preview I will show until the opening night of "Outside In". I have to save some surprises for the exhibit!

"Outside In" will be a two-man show with Aaron Jasinski and opens June 23 at Art Whino.

God bless,
Bryan

Original art and prints available in my Etsy Shop.

Skunk Punk progress 2

Day 2 of this painting and I have most of the difficult detail out of the way. Being that this is just an 11"x14" piece, the lettering in those patches almost made my eyes burst.


"Skunk Punk" - acrylic on 11"x14" cradled basswood


For my 2-man show with Aaron Jasinski. "Outside In" at Art Whino - opens June 23th, 2012

Originals, prints, and more at www.bryancollins.etsy.com

God bless,
Bryan

Caffeine Illustration in Progress

It was so much fun sharing the progress of my last painting with you here on the blog I thought I'd do it again with this colored pencil illustration. This piece is one that I am doing for the "Caffeine" exhibit at Rendition. The illustration board I am working on measures 11"x14". I began by drawing out the girl with her to-go cup of coffee, tea, hot cocoa, or whatever. The next phase was writing out a list of coffee-related words and printing them from the computer. The next step was to trace them all with pencil and tracing paper, and do a reverse rubbing on the illustration board so the font would be how I wanted.

Once this tedious part was over I moved on to color. Worried about the light pencil rub fading as I worked, I started by coloring the lettering first. In this photo there is already about 7 hours of color work. This one is going to be a time monster!

Now with the background finished I am able to move on to working with the main form in the piece which is the girl holding her to-go cup of coffee. This is where the artistic challenge comes in. Since the background is so colorful, I have to make sure that she does not get washed into a psychedelic ocean of confusion. I have a color scheme planned out for her, but I won't mention it here because I want the freedom to adapt or manipulate the plan if the piece needs me to do so.

Now the roses in her hair are finished, and the hair is getting all colored up. I'm down to crunch-time now and this piece really needs to be finished today, which means all the unfinished work you see here needs to be completed in one sitting. That will probably be about 10-12 hours of work. I better get back to it.

Here is the poster for the "Caffeine" exhibit at Rendition Gallery -

I will update this same post with more progress soon. Stay tuned.


God bless,
Bryan

www.bacstudio.com
Twitter - @useeverycolor
Facebook - www.facebook.com/bryancollinsart
Shop for art at www.bryancollins.etsy.com

Pine Squares Project 3

Now that the backgrounds have dried on these first four pieces of wood, I have laid down a silhouette on each. I drew the outlines with pencil of two moths and two beetles, then filled them in solid black with acrylic paint. Lately I've been painting this way, where I put down a solid black image of my subject, then build up the detail from the dark base. The detail will come next in these four pieces.

I chose insects for the first four "Pine Square" paintings because although bugs have always been a major inspiration to my work, I've never really painted them. I regularly watch TV programs about insects and even keep a few books about them in the studio, but I usually just incorporate some of their characteristics into my monsters, robots, and patterns. I thought it would be a good study to paint the actual creatures so that I can develop an even more in-depth understanding of their forms and textures.

The next post for this project will most likely be of the finished pieces. Stay tuned.

God bless,
Bryan A. Collins

www.bacstudio.com
Twitter - @useeverycolor
Facebook - www.facebook.com/bryancollinsart

New Studio Part 2

I've been performing a juggling act this weekend; Staying on pace with commissions and exhibits, painting my daughter's new room, painting my new studio, and squeezing in a band practice. So far I've only been able to paint one of the three walls in my studio. Yes, I know a room has four walls, but I've decided to leave one how it is. I mentioned in "New Studio Part 1" that I was thinking of painting one wall black. That is the wall where I will run a strip to prop large format work. Since that wall will have paint splatter and gesso remnants on it over time, I think I will just leave it the color it is and let the nature of art have its way with the wall as pieces get created there.

In the above photo you see the first color to get finished. It looks very pink in this picture, but it's actually fuchsia. I will eventually get some night photos so there's no light coming in the windows and the source light will be directly on the walls. Next will be purple, which you can see a swatch of in the photo below. The last wall to paint will be orange. I will then work out the stencils.



The internet is being connected on Thursday so I hope to be totally moved in to the new studio this coming weekend. Although I will be able to work there, the studio won't be finished at that point but I will keep the updates coming. Those of you who are waiting on commissions, rest assured I am still on schedule and working on your pieces 8-10 hours a day to keep up. The house stuff happens in the evenings. Thank you for your patience during this transitional process.


God bless,

Bryan A. Collins

www.bacstudio.com
Twitter - @useeverycolor
Facebook - www.facebook.com/bryancollinsart

New Studio Part 1

My wife and I have been looking to buy a house for about a year and as of yesterday we have succeeded. We purchased a 1922 home in the Old Town area of Fort Collins, just one mile from The Gallery Underground where I've been exhibiting for a little more than two years. In this house I will be setting up a home studio, as I've mentioned before. From here I will start painting live via Stickam from time to time, and I will also be video blogging again when my new computer is delivered.

The photos you see here are of the room that I will be turning into my studio. I will post in-progress shots of the plan unfolding. I have an idea to paint each wall a different color. Maybe one orange, one fuchsia, one apple green (or aqua-teal), and one black. On the fuschia wall I was thinking of doing a huge stencil of my dog "Seven". On the black wall I would mount a strip of wood the full length of the wall where I can prop large pieces to work on. The orange wall might have a stencil of my family. The green wall may be the one with the large windows, so just a few small shelves would go there. I also want to remove the light on the ceiling and install an LED fixture with pivoting arms. LEDs use less energy and put out a ton of light. These are just ideas at the moment, so your comments or suggestions are more than welcome. This should be fun!







God bless,

Bryan A. Collins

www.bacstudio.com
Twitter - @useeverycolor
Facebook - www.facebook.com/bryancollinsart