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Times Square Can You?

Times Square Canyon - digital art - Dan Beck 2008

Visiting the East Coast this week …

I had been asked a couple of years ago to do a digital painting of Times Square - I thought about it - even googled some images but knew I hadn’t been there in so many years I couldn’t do it justice.

In general I like to work from my own impression and feeling of a place and then use the language and vocabulary of the digital medium which is at my disposal.

In this case, it is using the mouse pad and finger painting in an abstract manner to capture the feeling and enormity of the show of technology ads and bright lights of the city at night. In particular - looking up Broadway in what feels like a canyon of buildings and lights - jagged, beautiful, and bustling with moving lights and people.

It is a couple of days (or a couple of years) later - but this is also sometimes my custom…

See Also

• Digital Art - what does it mean - and the outhouse studios interpretation
• Other Artists’ Takes - some New York artists’ impressions of Times Square

seeing for the first time

Rooted Tree - digital art - finger painting - rendering from memory impression - Dan Beck 2008

There are trees like this at one of the places I frequent with my exercise craving dog - it took me a while to notice them.

But like with most things - once one finally sees something - one starts to see the same thing more frequently. Even though I am an artist and probably more observant than most, I am keenly aware of how much of life I miss, until I become finally aware.

Perception, attention, and understanding are all fascinating subjects - I paint from an impression - a memory - quite frequently - knowing that my understanding plays an even bigger role in what I project when painting.

The intention here is not fantasy, but fun and freedom to portray the essential double rooted nature of these trees on the hillside - blasting with my own color but attempting to convey

the beauty and oddness that strikes me and makes me smile when I see them.

See Also

• Composite Nature: A Conversation with Stan Brakhage - an image search result for double rooted nature - found the work rather interesting
• Celebrated Poets - another interesting search result - the top poem seems to even relate
• Digital Art - a look at the wide definitions and usage for the digital art term - and what it means at Outhouse Studios

digital digits

On Halloween, I thought for a costume, I would shave and pull my hair back - was planning on putting on a suit too - not my normal look - if there is such a thing. In any event, it is getting to be time to put the beard back - not into the daily shaving routine and my partner likes the less scratchy beard.

So the above is a laptop snapshot - I used it for a model for the finger-painted digital art below

This digital painting - not the way I normally work, was painted using a photo model. Digital art like digital painting could mean a lot of different things. My work starts from a blank page but the field is wide open - it is new and wide reaching in possibilities.

I know many people who might have taken the photo and altered and painted on it in photoshop and quite likely come up with something quite cool. I am in favor of all creativity - but I simply used the image as a model to challenge my abilities to render an image using my fingers as a mouse to paint with - a new challenge for me - and I think a pretty good likeness. But of course I’ve seen myself.

See Also

• Figures Art Gallery - last years innovative gallery - figures
• Digital Finger Painting - article I was emailed today - not at all what I mean by the term - but these are new terms, new technology, and everyone has to coin his own terms at this point

Creating Changes Rules

Self Portrait - digital art - finger painting - Dan Beck November 2007

I have not been writing much - rather formulating some next moves - next art - next music projects. Too much of the blogging time, we write just to write - to bring attention to our work or simply share into cyberspace.

Whether I am able or not - my hope from here is to write when it is right - when I have something new to share.

My previous self-portrait done earlier this year was done the way I do most of my work - from my head with some tweaking from visual inspection (when available).

This self portrait - also an exercise - of how well can I paint with my fingers? utilized the camera of my new laptop.

I don’t really like the idea of painting from a photo - seems a step removed to me - but I couldn’t resist the technology. And although it is a perfectly acceptable practice in digital art to paint and alter a photograph - that is not the tact I took here - just used it as a model.

See Also

• Art Not to be Sold - recent artwork, work for other purposes, and work I am undecided on how I want to sell or am simply saving for local purchase only - a guide to blog articles
• Creating Changes Rules - whether the verb is “Changes” or “Rules” - I am not the only one who has noticed

exercising the movable medium

On Site 1 - digital art - laptop finger painting - Dan Beck 2007

This is a sketch - on site - still working out the bugs for plein air - where to sit - place the computer - have enough shade? etc.

In some ways embarrassingly, this was done from the passenger’s seat of my car - it was dark enough to see the screen and the wheel wasn’t in the way - so sketching what I saw in 30 to 40 minutes prior to an appointment.

Like a lot of my recent work, this was an exercise - not a bad thing - just trying to get a feel for painting with a laptop and using my fingers instead of a mouse. I subsequently took this piece and worked on it in my normal fashion - sketched turned to fully textured and more developed digital painting- but what a challenge to actually make the digital art better.

This captured what I saw - in a way that couldn’t be done at a later time. I am trying to understand the differences and possibilities here.

See Also

• Three-Finger Exercise - TIME - a review of a 1998 play called “Art” - the language of the reviewer and the content of the play are remarkably in tune with my own
• Another Sunset Sketch - though not done on site - the same kind of quick rendition of a scene - done within moments of viewing
• The subjective truth - article title (My Camera World: What I Saw, My Camera Captured and What My Mind Thought it Saw) - but all art including photography requires interpretation

closeness to finished art - spin of abstract

finger paint 1 - Dan Beck - digital painting / digital art - 2007

Things happen sometimes all at the same time. Discussion of the distance between artist and finished product - how digital feels different than the closeness of paint. I don’t know if this is true - but it is something an artist friend and I have been discussing in relation to different work I have done.

Suddenly - a good wrench is thrown in - a laptop gift - a trade-show prize that was generously given to me by the woman of my dreams. Damn - I sound like I am blogging.

So with the laptop comes art - no mouse - just fingers - finger painting - how fun is that? Plein air to come. So my first adventure as an original print looks better sideways.

At least it seems that way at the time. I am a firm believer in the emotion of the process of creating art coming through in to the finished painting.

Digital art is not nearly as physical as sculpture for instance, but it is not without emotion. Brushes come in different lengths - an artist steps in and steps back - just like a viewer might.

And paintings should work from all directions - so they say.

See Also

• Abstract Art Gallery - examples of other abstract work at Outhouse Studios
• Can Computers Be Creative?- sometimes a related search leads to the crux of the digital doubt - not how close to the finished product - but who is really doing it