May 14th, 2007 by Dan Beck
rendering familiar beautiful scene
Strawberry Alley - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007
Down the road from me is a view - that has been catching my eye since I first saw it seven years ago. It changes through the seasons but always has these overlapping hills through a small window through the eucalyptus trees.
Whether it is plowed and furrowed or actually producing berries - I am drawn to it. For whatever reason - perhaps a matter of the right timing I have not chosen to paint it up until now.
Perhaps I wasn’t ready - a difficult view to give justice to - but I am happy with this rendition. I am finding that this image is translating the kind of pleasure I feel when I look at the actual scene.
I added a couple of extra hills here and the eucalyptus is kind of bamboo like - and so perhaps it is more of a “strawberry fields forever” than the alley that it is.
No matter - I find this to be a very pleasing digital painting and am looking forward to seeing a large art print for a more optimum effect.
See Also
- Checkerboard Valley - an earlier work with overlapping hills and portrait orientation - depth can be a little confusing in this piece but still quite pleasing with the quick figure in the foreground
- The Eucalyptus of California - everything most anyone could want to know about eucalyptus and more
Relevant Tags:art print, berries, digital painting, paint, portrait orientation, rendition, strawberry fields forever
May 7th, 2007 by Dan Beck
Momentarily Captured
Sunset Over Artichokes - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007
Above is my most recent digital painting - on my way home that evening I happened to take the route through the artichoke fields and glimpsed this sight.
It was fleeting - the color, the depth, the folding hills - some from reality, some from memory - but the portrayal worked.
I have shied away from doing artichokes - more jagged and painstaking a subject than I really want to get into - I generally find them other worldly. But in the light of the sunset - they were warm rows - less defined and calling my name.
And I knew I must paint what I had seen -
After one sitting I stopped here - because I really liked it - I worked on it more the next day as you will see later - but I think I captured more of what I wanted in that first sitting alone.
See Also
- Fennel Field & Sky - first day’s stopping point - captures spirit better than successive versions - this is purchasing info for art prints of a different but stylistically similar work.
Relevant Tags:artichoke, artichokes, art prints, digital painting, glimpse, momentarily, paint, portrayal, sunset
March 9th, 2007 by Dan Beck
technology’s quirks yield frustration’s art
Palette Crap - digital painting - art prints - Dan Beck 2007
As a result of upgrading my Mac’s operating system to something more fashionably late, my painting program has new and improved quirks. This seems to be the norm for technology - as I think about all the various pieces of equipment (not restricted to computers) that have such little quirks - even the locks on my car - rather mechanical - but still.
So the above digital painting was born somewhat out of frustration - it was about being able to build new texture/colors and save the palettes. In my attempts to not have the program crash, I tried removing all sorts or things - getting it to work and systematically putting them back until it failed again.
But as the way with logic sometimes - my successes did not have to do with my interventions but something different I cannot see.
But I was able to have fun scribbling and did save some new palettes finding out if I saved the piece first I had a much better chance of success - and at least a couple of fun new digital paintings and accompanying art prints.
See Also
- Process - gallery piece about finding out how to paint with paint from a section of one’s own painting - part of my current struggle to be able to save
- FUMARE: And Now For Something Completely Different - one of my blog practices is to do searches for phrases which I have written in an article that I like - searching for “something different I cannot see” this I found interesting - even though it is not otherwise particularly related - barring perhaps the human factor in all technology
Relevant Tags:art prints, digital painting, digital paintings, frustration, paint, palette, program crash, quirks, texture colors
February 19th, 2007 by Dan Beck
The Sea and the Digital Medium
Boat on an Ocean - digital panting / art prints - 2000 - Dan Beck
Not sure how this will format, which is part of the reason for choosing this digital painting today.
This piece feels like a very long time ago - a different life time. It was an image out of my mind - and from another mixed media piece.
I just wanted to see how the sea might look using the digital medium. You may or may not notice, but every section of color is outlined in this piece. At the time I created this piece, I did not know how to control the thickness of the line, let alone the color, or how to have no line at all.
But that was not why I said it was a world ago.
See Also
- Boat on an Ocean - art print options and availability for digital painting Boat-on-an-Ocean
- SeaFogged - a look at a more recent take on the ocean albeit a much calmer one.
Relevant Tags:approach results, art digital, art print, art prints, digital art, digital medium, digital painting, ocean art, paint
October 6th, 2006 by admin
sharing the excitement of digital painting
Scribble 7 - transparent pattern Scribble 8 - gradient fill/overlap
This is a demo of how colors can overlap using this program (appleworks) and this freehand tool.
The whole idea is to give insight into the process and share some of my enthusiasm.
In actuality, when I paint I use two monitors - one holds all my tools and the other allows me to view my work more fully and without distraction. I learned the idea from my friends at Vectorpoint, who do a lot of photoshop work.
So as I look at the last example - enlarged on the right - abstract, probably as finished as it ever will be - I am thinking and seeing -
POSSIBILITY…
Looking through the blog image guide or just through the website, you can see some of the places I have taken this already. But this is raw and was one of my first big excitements with digital painting.
See Also
Relevant Tags:abstract art, digital painting, excitement of digital painting, freehand tool, paint, raw possibility, sharing enthusiasm, sharing excitement
June 9th, 2006 by admin
Picking - the scene through the window
Window View 1 - unfinished digital painting - Dan Beck 2006
I was looking out the breakfast room window and had this view. I removed the little bit of yard, fence, and road and took my eye directly into the fields across the street.
There were actually a few more people hunched over quickly picking berries into flats into packages and flats that were generally unseen. But this seemed the right amount for composition and digital painting canvas size.
I was compelled - even though this has been a popular them for me. Maybe I don’t feel I have gotten it right yet - maybe it is because it is all around me right now and maybe its because immigration has been such a hot topic recently.
I like the loose swimming look that the piece has currently - it will be interesting to see how it ends up when it is done - kind of hope I can keep it simple - we will see…
See Also
Relevant Tags:canvas size, compelled, compelled to paint, composition, digital painting, paint, unfinished digital painting
May 19th, 2006 by admin
Attitude perhaps more important than Art
Grandeur from the Gorge - digital painting - 2006 - Dan Beck
The is the final in a three part series on the creation of this piece - from sketch, to filled-in sketch to the above.
I was successful in creating the majesty of the mountains in contrast to the smallness of the field workers and of course in contrast to us, the viewer. I am pleased with the way I painted the mountains and even created the grape rows.
I am pleased with a lot of aspects of the piece and some of the adjustments made to make the flow of the eye work better - the mountains on the left, the grape rows on the right, the grape rows on the left and even the big giant shadow.
But I am not ecstatic with it, not even delighted. Perhaps it is part of being too close or perhaps it just didn’t come together in the end quite as well as I’d hoped - or maybe it is because I am not feeling 100% at the moment and nothing seems that good.
Being pleased with something we have done or something we have viewed is so much about what we bring into it - our
attitude is much more telling of whether something will be received well - than is the actuality about the piece - if there even is such a thing.
So perhaps your attitude is better than mine today - if you like the piece and are interested in possibly purchasing an original art print - please email
specialorders@outhousestudios.net.In the mean time, I think I must live to paint again.
See Also
Relevant Tags:art print, attitude, creating art, creation of art piece, digital painting, eye flow, paint, positive attitude
