What's New

continuation of sketch requires deliberation

On Site 1 Plus - digital art - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007

I believe this is the last finished painting - it is a continuation from an on site work which I did a couple of weeks ago. I had seen so much more than I had had time to put into the original 40 minute sketch.

Having said that, I am not sure if this is a method I want to continue or not. There is something quite pure about the original painting - the continuation - with developed texture and depth is certainly more thorough; but I am not sure it adds anything essential to the original fresh sketch.

I handled the paint in a way reminiscent of Bold Glimpse because I have been looking at the piece a great deal and feeling like I had something special there.

Though I do like the finished work above - perhaps it is because I was taking too many directions here - following an on site feeling, developing, and perhaps mimicking while trying to remain fresh and bold at same time.

See Also

• Bold Glimpse - availability of original prints for piece the bold painting style was inspired by
  
• Digital Art - discussion of the varied possibilities this art form takes
• Wu Guanzhong 吴冠中 (b. 1919) - found this gentleman’s work through an image search - its original simplicity appeals to me plus born the year of my mother

Forgotten Sketch Shows Its Colors

Sunset Sketch - digital painting / original prints - Dan Beck 2005

I had totally forgotten this painting - don’t remember creating it - don’t remember the evening it was inspired by - it had kind of slipped through the cracks.

This was a digital painting that had made it into the last round of pieces to go on the website end of 2005 - but didn’t get included. I went looking through all my original prints and came across this one and was quite taken with the way it looked so much like a tissue collage.

Perhaps a little too evenly balanced to be a really wonderful piece - it still has some magnificent qualities - the sun and clouds in particular and the texture in the vegetation on the horizon and the more detailed yet not exactly lettuce in the front.

I guess I do remember something - because it was romaine I was portraying but I would never have known that by just looking - it was a representation like most art - enough to evoke a feeling and a time but hopefully be its own original place to get lost inside.

See Also

• Experimental Field - notice how romaine lettuce was portrayed here - both more detailed and more abstract - it’s not easy being green
• Original Art - discussion of different meanings and understandings or what original art really is and isn’t
• Tissue Collage - a page filled with examples - no enlargements here but one can get enough of the idea of why this seems so reminiscent of the above work

transcending the confines of canvas stereotypes

Sky Over Mountains - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007

I wrote a page for my website in which I go into detail about what digital painting is and how it differs and is in many ways the same as other types of painting.

Much of my focus was in pointing out the painterly similarities. Composition, color, and form as well as a clean canvas to start with are all the same. The above is a good example, because it too is much the same as traditional painting in its gradations and intensity of color - but it differs as well in the way lines and texture are created.

To me the computer connections and origins are rather apparent. I am not out to hide the nature of these works, but I am more concerned with what they are trying to communicate than the language of digital or even the language of art.

Feeling and beauty are meant to transcend technique and for that matter transcend the art - their success is not something which can luckily or easily be measured.

See Also

• Digital Painting - discussion of how it is same and different - insight into how it is viewed at Outhouse Studios and part of why it is such an exciting new medium
• What is Art? And why does it Matter? - open house questions - Yale University Art Gallery - thought these quotes rather enlightening as far as some across the board thinking

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

drive by landscape - fields, sky, and texture

Valley Colors - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007

There is a spot which this is loosely based on - I drive by it fairly regularly and it has a good view of the valley extending to the Santa Lucia Mountains and Mount Toro.

Like a lot of my work, it is more of a drive by impression - I saw color, and a few barns or houses, a few trees - but mostly the colors of sky and fields.

This is not a piece which knocked me over when I was finished - I wasn’t really sure about it - but there are many things I like: the short field growth in the front, the way the cloud twists like a ribbon, and the beautiful texture in the green field.

My eyes and mind move around the landscape well - so I guess I did ok.

Like all but a couple of my pieces - I started with a blank page and painted and created the digital painting by the strokes of a mouse.

See Also

• Big Valley 1 - another digital painting taken from an impression of pretty much the same spot

• UC Vegetable Research & Information Center - several good images of Salinas Valley plus some information about agriculture

• From the ground up - an image of the Salinas Valley brought me to this site - good article about small organic growing in the area and the group ALBA

new texture, fun, experimentation, comes through all aspects of life

Textured Tree - digital painting / art prints- Dan Beck 2002

This was one of the very first pieces I did utilizing texture. I had explored the overlapping color gradient fairly well - but the texture here was new.

I used stock textures and basically painted with them in the same way I would have done with the gradients.

The piece is both innocent and uncaring - nothing to lose just experimenting - having fun - a great state to be in to create.

I truly believe that when one looks at a finished work or finished art prints, in my case; one can feel some of the artist’s state of mind. I am one who believes that state of mind comes through in all aspects of life.

See Also

• Textured Tree
  availability of art prints for above digital painting
• Wired News: Art as a State of Mind
  State of Mind is not only critical to this artist - it actually becomes the art - to my point and moreso

progress of piece reflects development of technique

Next stage in making of digital painting: Mound 2 Mountain

I am not sure what inspired me to take some screen shots as this was in development - but I think it was because it had an interesting look from the beginning.

Without even looking back, I can see this has changed by the addition of a great deal of texture. Some of which looks like it was painted on and other parts look like they were more gently added using a paintbrush with a tint setting.

I had worked with the program a couple of years before I figured out how to do that. I just recently figured out something new and keep thinking there may well be a lot more I haven’t discovered - even though I am not bashful about experimenting.

The sky with the texture in it is most unusual for me.

See Also

• Material Mount View
  another piece with textured sky
• Textures in the Sky - Noctilucent clouds by timlu - DPChallenge
  I had thought my textured sky whimsical - perhaps it isn’t? Nice photo anyway
• Allison Marles - Computer Graphics Project
  Someone else documents progress of work - different type but I found it interesting and somewhat related

fun, play, balance, texture, overlap, sculptural digital painting and art prints

Nework 2 - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2003

This was the second piece I created after acquiring a new computer and painting program with texture capability. I am pretty sure I have written about this piece from a creative standpoint - because I had no expectations while doing it - just play.

So what comes through is fun, overlapping, rather 3-dimensional, and balanced with different texture. There are no unique textures here - just stock program options - but a very nice balance between areas which have and areas which don’t.

There is no way to share an art print without your viewing and or purchasing it - but be sure, texture and color are both more intense upon printing.  And even though this was new a few years ago, looking at it today, I still find this digital painting fresh.

See Also

• Nework 2
  Options for Art Prints and printing availability for Nework 2
• My Zen Life » Blog Archive » no expectations
  what I find pertinent is that he is right - if there are no expectations at all - why do it - I think it is more what kind of expectations

new work brings up the power of the actual art prints

Pick Aside - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2006

As I am typing, this digital painting is working its way out of the printer in the form of a full to an eighth of an inch of the edge, art print - printed on Japanese watercolor paper.

I can see just the first figure at this point, but I can tell the strawberry fields themselves are going to be quite scrumptious. Doubt one will actually smell the strawberries, but the layers of color and texture make this art print more interesting than even what one can see in the larger version.

Like every image on the net, nothing can do justice to being there.  Because this painting was created digitally, it might be more accurate - but I am beginning to think that digital art may not be - every time I look at one of the art prints I see so much more, whatever the piece.

For art prints of the above digital painting, please email:  specialorders@outhousestudios.net.

See Also

• Figures Art Gallery
  Most similar work on website - Try “Experimental Fields” for same size prints
• What is digital art?
  another artist’s take

same song, new interpretation, abstract and back

All That Jazz - digital painting / art prints - 2006 - Dan Beck

Though in some ways, this is the same type of piece as Jazz 1 - perhaps even just a different version of the same piece. It is conceptually the same thing - an abstract collage of instruments - a hand or two playing and a backdrop with the energy of jazz itself.

In another way, it is appropriate to be so much the same - since jazz is frequently about playing the same music in new ways - making it a new piece each time - if successful.

This piece is more sophisticated in its use of texture and digital painting technique, but it also has a nice balance between abstract and representation - again almost like jazz itself - coming back to the melody and tone centers no matter how abstract it tends to get.

For art prints for the above digital painting, All That Jazz, please email specialorders@outhousestudios.net.

See Also

• Minimalist Jazz
  another new digital painting in this genre by Dan Beck
• Jazz - Wikipedia
  good discussion of origins and history or jazz itself
• JSO - Review
  Review had me chuckling and shaking my head - quite the name to this publication - Jackson Citizen Patriot - to top it off - plus reviewed program named “All that Jazz”