Archive for August, 2006
Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006
playing like the first time
Flipped Out Jazz – digital painting / art prints – Dan Beck 2005
It is getting to be the time of year when the Monterey Jazz Festival comes to the area. Last year I created this digital painting for an area art show competition in conjunction with the event.
I didn’t actually enter this piece, but I am pretty pleased with the way it came out – pleased enough that I have a framed art print hanging over my piano.
I don’t really see myself as a jazz musician even though I improvise a great deal – but it fits there. What I like the most about the piece is you can see I had fun.
I had never really flipped sections of a piece over the way I did here in the center. Even though I knew that option was available, it was like I was playing with it for the first time.
And that of course is the jazz feeling.
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Tags: Art, music, painting, prints
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Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006
Arts Council and Gallery to feature work
Compressed View – Enlarge – Digital Painting 2006
I don’t have a lot of time to write, so I thought I would quickly show off a piece that will be featured in the Arts Council for Monterey County’s 2007 calendar.
I don’t know how many artists sent in work, but the competition is open to any artist residing in Monterey County – it is beautiful here – there are a ton.
So my piece is going to be "Miss January" perhaps not pc but I sure think it is funny. A framed art print will be hanging at The 417 Gallery in Monterey – but I have no idea whether it will be there longer than the opening on Friday August 25.
I am probably a little more easy going than I should be.
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Tags: Art, painting, prints
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Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006
single row sighting inspires quick digital painting
Break Line Hoe – digital painting / art prints – Dan Beck 2006
It has been weeks since my last digital painting. I was away on vacation and this was my first chance. I wasn’t planning on painting – I have many other things on my plate.
But I spied this line of workers – hoe in hand – making a b line to the edge of the field – and I assume a break. Although it might well have been they were just moving in unison to another field to hoe.
When I saw them this morning I just thought it looked awesome. I wasn’t sure if I could make it work as a painting and knew I didn’t have time to do anything detailed – so the above slight step up from a sketch is what I came up with to capture the scene.
See Also
- Figures Art Gallery
most similar work currently on website
- Online Etch A Sketch
Did not know this existed – works with arrow keys – can’t do angles like you sort of could with manual model – but cool nevertheless
Tags: Art, painting, prints
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Monday, August 21st, 2006
hugging the inhospitable mountains
More Warm Hills – digital painting / art prints – Dan Beck 2005
Perhaps a bit more symmetrical than I might have done in hindsight (today’s topic), but a digital painting I still really like.
I am always fascinated by landscape which I know is not hospitable, but from a distance looks incredibly inviting. In a case like the warm hills above, those hills despite being a dry mess of weeds and grasses look like you would want to go roll on them or give them a hug.
That was the quality I was looking for –
With luck having said that you might see it that way as well if you didn’t already.
Needless to say, an actual art print brings it home more.
See Also
- More Warm Hills
Availability of art prints for digital painting More Warm Hills
- Bear Mountain
Even granite from a distance can look hospitible – click on image
- Leh’s Mountain
Another cold mountain – but from distance somewhat warm
Tags: Art, hills, mountains, painting, prints
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Monday, August 21st, 2006
viewing and processing life – creatively
In my mind the three images above of digital paintings were created around the same time. Whether it is true or not, I am not going to research.
Promoting the Creative World is about observations particularly in regards to the creative process, but it is also observations about viewing and processing life. How could it not be?
Associations are more real than the way things happened. Our memories and how we categorize what we have experienced take on a life of their own – truth is they become our reality unless they are shattered. And many folks won’t budge from their reality even when confronted with facts.
There is no critique here; but just like "hindsight is 20/20" and "the older we get, the better we were" so much of what we perceive is wrapped up in our own perspective of the world – worth mentioning I think.
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Tags: Art, creative process, hills, mountains, painting, perspective
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Friday, August 18th, 2006
favorite images work printed small or large
Art Prints starting at $95
I was looking at this page of original art works starting at the above price. I have been in the process of making sure all my website pages are coded correctly for HTML and this one I was cleaning up today.
That process is not so related to art – but I thought looking at this page that the works are very pleasing as a group together. They comprise many of my favorites from the last year.
Part of what I like about them is that each of them looks good whether printed small or large. This is something I always strive for – but don’t always succeed.
I am proud of the images on this page – and I suppose it would be a good place to start if one were looking to own a piece of art and needed help narrowing it down.
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Tags: Art, composition, painting, prints
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Friday, August 18th, 2006
early exploration expresses concept and aesthetic with ease
Rain Over Fall – digital painting / art prints – Dan Beck 1999
This is a piece from my personal archives – it is was one of my earlier explorations with the medium.
I like this piece conceptually as well as aesthetically. There is little form. Mostly color expresses the concept of autumn rain and autumn leaves.
I would estimate that I created this piece in about an hour or so. Most of the digital paintings I do now take closer to four or five hours.
The time spent doesn’t necessarily make a piece better. But it does indicate that I have developed a larger vocabulary with the digital medium and can therefore say more.
The thing that most people don’t take into consideration when judging how long something took to make – is how many hours of work it took to get to the point to make that piece.
There is nothing wrong with judging a work of art by its complexity – but I think it is a shame when people miss out on appreciation because of a conceptual framework.
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Tags: Art, color, digital medium, music, painting, prints
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Thursday, August 17th, 2006
different feelings from views from west and east coasts
No Particular View- digital painting /art prints – Dan Beck 2006
I’ve been out of town for a couple of weeks and didn’t have a way or time really to digitally paint. This was the last piece I created before I left.
It was created using a template so that the piece fills a 13 x 19″ watercolor paper to within an 1/8 of an inch of the edge. That isn’t so important, but it looks really cool when it is printed – a lot like the border on some printed photos. It immediately gives an idea of what the art print would look like matted and framed.
I am pleased with the piece because it feels like this land. Having just been on the East Coast and seeing the rolling hills there, I know how different it is here on the central coast.
For art prints of above digital painting, please email: specialorders@outhousestudios.net.
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Tags: Art, color, hills, painting, prints
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Thursday, August 17th, 2006
observations and benefits of the creative process
Beyond the Mirrored Veil – digital painting – Dan Beck 2005
Lucky me, I took a vacation. I didn’t paint, didn’t blog – just toured and visited. Back – I’ve found it very difficult to begin any sort of routine and therefore decided to write a song – about what I learned on my trip.
I am not sure I learned much that is new, but I did observe a number of people I know holding on to hurt, holding on to grudges, holding on to the past. I am illustrating, if you will, with a painting of different dimension, but the closest I have to this subject.
It is easy to resist change and difficult to let go – I am a firm believer that the creative process can help us to do so.
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Tags: Art, creative process, painting, prints
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Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006
working differently to keep things fresh
No Particular View – digital painting – Dan Beck 2006
When I started painting this morning I didn’t have any particular scene in mind – no scene burning inside me and no real concept. But as quickly as the first mark I found myself taking things differently. This is not an uncommon practice for me -
in fact, it is my
practice in both senses of the word.
It is important to keep things fresh – for me, it is often something simple. In this case I started with single lines to define the piece. I used a combination of freehand color gradient drawing, lines, and fill-in’s to make the fields and mountains what they are.
It is not a complete departure from how I normally work or a complete departure from my other work. What I was able to do without a specific scene in mind, was accomplish the feeling of hills, sloped fields, and mountains that is the Salinas Valley.
For art prints of the above digital painting – please email: specialorders@outhousestudios.net for quotes and options.
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Tags: Art, color, digital medium, fields, hills, mountains, painting, prints, Salinas Valley
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Sadly – hard work doesn’t always make something good.
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