Azathoth Continued...
As you can see here, our "Chaos Incarnate" friend is starting to take some form. This is a hand-held digicam shot, as my scanner is not big enough to take it in one pass (the image is 11 x 15-1/2"). In reality, the painting is much darker than what you see here, but I have adjusted the levels in photoshop so you can see something. The next step will be to start adding the lighter values with tinted grays.
While painting this, I started thinking more about what the epitome of chaos would truly look like. It's kind of a hard one to bend one's mind around (at least for me). Did Jackson Pollack already do this? Should it be a mix of every conceivable form and surface, or would that even-ness be actually too orderly and not random enough? I suppose there would be no sense of perspective and gravity, too... and Newtonian physics? Where does one draw the line? I think to ultimately make an interesting image, there really has to be some sort of logic or order. Well, it is interesting to think about, nonetheless. I'll use it to my advantage, allowing me to exercise my artistic license.
On a sadder note... I got an email from a friend yesterday telling me that another friend and fellow fantasy artist, Thomas Manning, suddenly died at the age of forty. I feel awful for his wife, friends and family, and I extend my heart out to them all. As I worked on this painting this morning, I thought of Tom (I think he's like this painting) and tried to search for a glimmer of positivity in all of this. Thomas was a gifted artist, he put it to good use, and shared it with as many as he could. A lot of people deny their gifts, but Tom made it the focus of his life. That's more than most people can claim in much longer lives. My father was an artist, yet he compromised his time trying to build a nest egg in order to paint what he really wanted. And, unfortunately, he never lived long enough to do it. But, Tom did, he spent his time well! That's something we should be grateful for. And, as a fellow starving artist, it is something that I find very inspiring.
~Paul
P.S. Thanks for the comments and subscriptions, I appreciate it.
While painting this, I started thinking more about what the epitome of chaos would truly look like. It's kind of a hard one to bend one's mind around (at least for me). Did Jackson Pollack already do this? Should it be a mix of every conceivable form and surface, or would that even-ness be actually too orderly and not random enough? I suppose there would be no sense of perspective and gravity, too... and Newtonian physics? Where does one draw the line? I think to ultimately make an interesting image, there really has to be some sort of logic or order. Well, it is interesting to think about, nonetheless. I'll use it to my advantage, allowing me to exercise my artistic license.
On a sadder note... I got an email from a friend yesterday telling me that another friend and fellow fantasy artist, Thomas Manning, suddenly died at the age of forty. I feel awful for his wife, friends and family, and I extend my heart out to them all. As I worked on this painting this morning, I thought of Tom (I think he's like this painting) and tried to search for a glimmer of positivity in all of this. Thomas was a gifted artist, he put it to good use, and shared it with as many as he could. A lot of people deny their gifts, but Tom made it the focus of his life. That's more than most people can claim in much longer lives. My father was an artist, yet he compromised his time trying to build a nest egg in order to paint what he really wanted. And, unfortunately, he never lived long enough to do it. But, Tom did, he spent his time well! That's something we should be grateful for. And, as a fellow starving artist, it is something that I find very inspiring.
~Paul
P.S. Thanks for the comments and subscriptions, I appreciate it.
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