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where is the hair?

Digital Artist & Musician - Dan Beck

digital photo - dan wearing digital painting self-portrait on t-shirt - the spirit of caricature

As of today - if there is one thing I would like to pass on - it would be the joy and flow of life

when we are not bogged down in our mire of obstacles, self-doubts, disappointment, envy, anger, jealousy, resentments, or simply self absorption

_________

To develop as an artist or maybe just the person that I am - I have isolated myself from many people I both love and care about

I don’t think this was a conscious decision; but like most people, I don’t know how to do everything I want to do - let alone what I feel like I have to do

I didn’t think through the place I am at - I have lived my life and find myself here - going with the flow and not always living consciously

____________

I submit a song - written and recorded last spring - in the context of being sick - alone and contagious - feeling my fragileness - writing about the love in my life - but really all the love in my life

Listen or View

• So Much of Life We Do Unconscious - SONG - Dan Beck | 1danband - the lyrics pertinent to the above article - the melody or at least part sounds like a James Taylor song, but not one I can identify - please let me know, if you listen to music and recognize … and yet we always borrow unconsciously …
• James Taylor - November release entitled One Man Band
  
• 1danband - really I’ve been using the term for my recordings as early as 2002

new techniques can spin out of control

Hillside Spin 2 - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007

Like many of my digital paintings, I started out playing a bit with the medium. It kind of amazes me that I can keep learning new techniques, but I don’t know why since that is the way most things work. I’ve been playing guitar for years, but I haven’t stopped learning.

So the above started because I was playing around with a curve tool - the tool creates smooth curves but not particularly tight - I had always worked within its confines or used freehand.

I figured out if I stopped and started - I could get a tighter curve - so I went wild.

The above digital painting is fun - but it is probably not a direction I will continue to go in - but the technique I can and will apply - but probably with less abandon.

See Also

• Process - gallery page for work which was clearly about taking a new technique to the nth degree - pretty cluttered small - but pretty interesting enlarged
• Solutions: How do you spin out of control? - found this comic kind of enlightening - since the joy of a new found fun is a lot like these kids - I remember - “Let’s do it again”
• The Painting Environment - just a quick look at some of the tools I use - program was simple to begin and more open ended than I think the appleworks creators even knew

expression leads to copy commonality

Symbolic Language 3 - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007

Here lies the rub, and by this I don’t mean a rubbing ’cause these I think are cool. Despite being a tracing, (see yesterday’s article) or a copy - rubbings can be lots of fun like digital paintings.

So the issue here is more a quest for when the piece should be considered finished or rather which version I like better. I created art prints of both just to be able to decide.

The above is the last stopping point - last finished version. I had stopped previously - signed the digital painting - and wanted to see some texture in the piece - though I think it’s a little more interesting I tend to like the other version more.

Tomorrow’s article.

See Also

• Gravestones - good example of the connection between stone and rubbing - doesn’t have to be grave stones - any textured surface.
• Margaret Peot, Make Your Mark, rubbings, leaf - a good example of how versatile rubbing can be
• Abstract Art Gallery - example of many other abstract work at Outhouse Studios

exaggeration as explanation

Blue Clouds at Evening - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007

I haven’t made art prints available for this yet - of course, with a brand new piece, I can’t tell if anyone will groove on it like I do. Plus I have yet to get a good print - my first attempt had some unwanted printer lines in it.

I actually saw this! I’ve exaggerated some - to create the drama that was really in the evening - sharpening the sky’s color and making the clouds more dimensional and clear blue.

But that is what makes art - it is about conveying what one sees - what one understands - with the confines and enhancements of the medium one uses.

So having said that, I think it is a fun digital painting.

See Also

• Crazy Light - in lieu of art print options for above piece - another crazy sky

• Green Clouds and Thunder Storms - thought these were some interesting photos - it was an unusual sky last night