Welcome to week 4! I can’t express how much fun I’ve been having this past month, or how overwhelmed I am with all the positive response. Everyone has been incredible and I am in a place where I feel so inspired every morning to work on art!
This past week I started some new 5″x7″ paintings. Once I cut the illustration board I prep the surface with several layers of gesso. I then lay down a layer of acrylic just to cover up the white. I use acrylic because it dries quickly. After it dries I start in with oil.
This Yoda painting has gone through several layers already and I’m happy with its progress. The great thing about painting is that you NEVER know how a piece is going to turn out. It’s exciting but also scary. I know a lot of artists are afraid to ruin something they’ve captured early on, I personally try not to let fear dictate my work. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to… well you know the rest.
I’m working a bit on Maul today. These 5″x7″ paintings have been perfect to get me comfortable with oils quickly again. I tend to jump from pencils to acrylics to digital to oil very often and it becomes easy to forget what works best. This usually means I have to re-learn things over and over. Eventually the ideas become ingrained (hopefully).
The Rey painting I’ve been working on is slow going. I got really annoyed with the acrylic process this week and decided to paint over it in oil. I have no idea how this will turn out, but I’m not giving up on it! I think I’ll be able to achieve a much wider array of tonal values with oils, I’m just not entirely sure where to start.
Last night my Facebook fan page reached 500 likes, which isn’t a HUGE deal per-say, but it means a lot to me. I’ve only recently started promoting it, and to see it grow this quickly is great!
Here’s my batch of weekly sketches. These are usually meant to help me unwind at night. Generally I’ll sketch whatever pops into my head, or what I’m watching on Netflix/Youtube. I like to try to capture likenesses quickly, but I won’t spend a lot of time refining them. Trying to measure exact proportions can be very daunting and technical, and if you focus too intently on it then your drawing can become very static and lose any energy. It is a balance between the two.
Next week I’ll be in Phoenix for their Comic Con! I’ll be attending as a guest and I’m looking forward to walking around and seeing the show. I won’t get any painting done, but I will still be updating Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter with photos from the show and sketches done throughout the week. I also plan on maintaining my Saturday update here, so… I’ll see you next Saturday!
The Art of Brandon Kenney 