Red Region Inferno

I have been pumping out an average of three erotic themed paintings a week since the beginning of the year. My mind is going soft from it. Sexy stuff brain fry.
I tried putting a few unfinished large canvases up on the easel to get away from it, but they are unfinished and piled against a wall for a reason it seems.
Good stuff that needs done when the feeling hits is what they are.
Most the crap I just paint over with white and then do something new.

I needed to release myself from sex themed hell.
I needed to just whip something out that didn’t matter and could suck.

So… This is what I made.

It is my wife. She doesn’t like it it and not just because I did it super fast in a cheesy illustrative, fantasy, romance graphic novel or card game style.
Nope, she doesn’t even hate it because it is so small and she says my small stuff all sucks.
She hates it because of the overall feeling and her expression.

I asked if she wanted me to rosy it up for her, but she said that wouldn’t have help. Even when I told her it would only take ten minutes or so to completely re-do her flesh tones into something not so ethereal she said no.
I said it would take me another ten or fifteen to warm the background and re-curve the mouth and eyes resulting in a whole new look… nope.
My cheesy little break from sexy art got a bad review. I should have just tossed it in the garbage after I was done, but my daughter had seen it and loved it “That’s mommy!” so I didn’t.

The Painting:
8″x10″ on a stretched canvas with acrylics.
I first did a rough pencil sketch on the canvas of my wife’s face and then painted in the background.
Didn’t really know what I planned with the background so I started with a river scene. You can tell how that went over I’m sure.
F the river… I painted over it real fast with the branches. I never even got rid of the river first.
I then painted her a little shirt and did the flesh.
I’d planned on wasting just a couple hours, but Mary Poppins had started right about when I started the painting and now it had finished. (My daughter was watching it)
I blame my time wasting on the river fiasco. (It was a fiasco to me)
Anyways… I finished up the flesh and did the hair and pretty daisy chain. I love painting hair. I love drawing hair. It is just fun as can be. It is so fluid. Painting water isn’t fluid, but hair is. Ain’t that strange.
Overall I ended up pretty much wasting half a day making this stupid picture that my wife disliked so much.
Yup… just to clear my mind.

Back to painting pictures of foot kissing.

Along with my new found quest to conquer the world of erotic art and mess around on tiny canvases comes some general studies.
Figurative ones mostly because I will be mostly doing figurative work for this project.
Composition and paint handling are my main priorities with these studies.
My usual painting methods don’t apply well in such a small area so i have been experimenting and playing around.
This was the fourth figure study on an 8″ x 10″ canvas.

The oddity here is for my eyes only I think.
My finished product looks to me as if someone else has created it.
I did not notice this until a week or so had past when I pulled it out to apply some varnish.
Varnishing a little painting that I new I had created yet looked like it was the work of another was queer indeed.
I hope this project gives me many more such experiences.

Another tiny painting of an erotic nature.
Just ten inches across and eight inches in height, done on cotton canvas.
I have been managing to find time for at least one of these little erotic paintings each week, but have also had to step up the size and do some a bit bigger.
These tiny things are really constraining.
I paint twice as fast at a larger scale. My wife is really hating the finished products too. She says my stuff looks unnatural at a small size and though I don’t exactly agree with her… I do know that I can’t find my natural flow when working tiny. The public rules though when you are a working artist and I shall find out I suppose if my working tiny has merit when the series is done.

I ended up calling it starry kiss as a descriptive title when I needed to save file, but when painting it I was thinking something between the stars of the sky and the magic of passions. The stars are as much creation of the kiss as they are a setting for the moment. Imagined, but real I suppose.
“Starry Kiss” is not an official title for this. I think I shall maybe not title these (or very few) small erotic paintings at all and leave it up to the collectors who end up buying them to title them.
Sex, love, lust, etc… is very personal. It is viewed differently by all and art is participatory in my mind much the way sex is. Letting the original owner title each work as they see it seems fitting for such a subject.
Still not sure on how I am going to handle that.
Still not sure how many I shall do for that matter.
We shall see.

For those not fallowing along:
My first post of the year (see it here) was called “New Year Art Endeavors” and explains that I usually never work on small canvases and that I have decided to tackle art of an erotic nature as my years goal.
Once I have conquered working on tiny canvases I will no doubt jump back up to canvas sizes at three to four times this scale at least for my art erotic.

Since my biggest goal this year is to push the erotic with my art I thought I should have my first post of 2012 be some art of an erotic nature.
I have also been screwing around with tiny canvases. I am doing it out of stubbornness to tell the truth. I am really not suited to such tiny painting surfaces. I will not stop until I feel comfort though.
Once comfort has been achieved I will most likely move back back up and avoid anything under 24 inches in any direction again for some time.
Heck… I may even take some mural commissions to un-cramp my brain from doing these tiny canvases.

Anyways, without further ado…

Just for the fun of it I shall say that in the case of this particular little painting the model ‘of my minds eye’ was my lovely wife, and my vision is one I am very fond of.
I love it when she rides me from this direction as I am very much an “ass guy” and she has some great moves.
Though I have not seen her red/pink nighty in a long time my imagination created it because I have very fond memories involving it.

I have been a painter for my entire life.
My work has mostly been in oils through the 80′s and 90′s until I switched to acrylics in the late 90′s.
A brush and canvas are my tools.

Watercolors have never gotten along with me though.
They just don’t do what I want. Classes, friends who only work in the medium, books, etc… have done me no good.
I learned all the tricks. I hate tricks though. Watercolor doesn’t allow for freedom of expression like oils and acrylics do.

Erotic art is the toughest market in art I think. The collectors are limited.
Not everyone feels comfortable displaying such things on their walls, no matter how much they may personally love it.
I’ve done figurative work since I was a small child, but I have never done erotic paintings.
I don’t know the market or the people in the erotic art world. For some reason though I decided to start meddling around with it though.
Since I don’t know the scene, and have no expectations to live up to in the world of erotic art I decided to do a watercolor for my first experimentation.

Here it is.

Watercolor on paper and it is just ten inches wide.
Working small with paint is also not my thing. A twenty four inch canvas is about my average/small, and I am usually working at double that.

Yes, I have stepped outside of my painting comfort zones.
Watercolor, erotic subject matter, and keeping it small.
I am not sure what to think of the outcome.
For a first endeavor it is o.k. I guess.
Shall I do more?
I’m not sure.
Maybe a few acrylic works are needed in this small size before again attempting the use of watercolors.
Maybe some larger (and looser) watercolors are needed before attempting another small work in this restrictive medium.
We shall see.

As for the erotic art market I will look into that as well.
Unlike many who play with paints… I can not afford the luxury of painting JUST for fun.
I am simply to flaky to hold down a real job.
My source of income is art. I have a family to support.
Art that I cannot sell is not an option for me and I refuse to paint lame ass landscapes just to make ends meat.
So… I am excited to delve into something new, but also anxious at the prospect of failure.

Maybe fate will deal me some good cards on this one.