Nancy Freeman Studio | Chromatic Fanatic
  • HOME
  • PORTFOLIOS
    • BEDHEAD LION
    • Primary Lines Portfolio
    • DIGITAL SERIES PORTFOLIO
    • ICE FIRE
    • Primary Lines Genealogy
    • ABSTRACT PHOTOGRAPHY
    • Early Historical Work
    • Copper Dreams
    • Reflections and Shadows
    • Paintography
  • Cabbage Projects
    • Cabbage Whimsies
    • Cabbage Art & Scarf Invitational >
      • The FINAL CABBAGES
      • CABBAGE SCARVES
      • ABOUT THE CABBAGE INVITATIONAL
  • Traditional Media
    • Pastel Portfolio
    • Speed painting
    • Pastel step-by-step demos
  • Blog
  • About Studio, Media
  • About the Artist
  • Contact

"INNER SPACE" New Step-by-Step Pastel Demo

1/28/2013

3 Comments

 
This posterized photo was taken in the living room of friends who have an eclectic and interesting art collection. It was of a small antique painting of a copse of trees, framed under glass. The glass, in particular over the darker areas of the painting, reflected the bright side window and other parts of the room. The framed and matted artwork appearing in the tops of the trees are reflected from across the room, and set up a wonderful juxtaposition of form and meaning on several satisfying levels.

Picture
Original source
Picture
"INNER SPACE" Pastel, 16" X 12"

"INNER SPACE"

Picture
This shot shows the initial sketch and the beginnings of the blocking in phase. The paper is a dark blue Canson, which worked very well for this subject.
Picture
Here the large shapes are more refined, the intermediate shapes are mostly established, and some of the smaller ones are appearing.
Picture
More colors (of the same value) have been added to the background to liven it up, and most of the smaller shapes are in play. The background is used to carve away the silhoette of the central shape, especially in the areas between the trunks.
Picture
Here all the shapes and elements are in play, but I've reworked the colors, values, and edges of the reflecting artwork to reduce their impact. I've also started in on the fine tuning phase.
Picture
Color Selection
A note about the photographs:

The steps were photographed with my old iPhone4, which  pumped up the colors and shifted them towards blue. The finished work was scanned directly, so it has the more acurate colors.

I used a variety of pastel brands both hard and soft, but the big deep red is one that I made. 
3 Comments

Award of Excellence

1/25/2013

0 Comments

 
"Approaching Light  III"

Taken on a beautiful clear blue sky day, this is one of an ongoing series of headlights and taillights. It's always a  challenge to keep myself out of all the reflections and refractions. Accepted for exhibition. It won an Award of Excellence in a large juried show in Washington DC, juried by Christopher With.

Subject: Mercedes SL 500  headlight
Camera: iPhone 4S
Apps: a touch of Percolator, 
a bit of  photoshop
Picture
Approaching Light III

Observations by Chris With :

"Nancy Freeman  is a versatile artist, skilled in the use of pastels, oils, watercolors, and, above all, the computer. 
Through the magic of pixels, the computer becomes tubes of paint capable of placing a little pigment here and more pigment there.  The results are evocative hybrids with the look of photographs but the soul of paintings. 
The rich layers and subtle textures obscure the images’ origins while providing a visual compositional feast. One marvels at the arrangement of shapes, the balanced placement of colors, and the calculated use of space. 

The images transport the viewer from the physical world of simple looking into the realm of revery and ecstatic discovery."

Chris  With has worked with the National Gallery of Art for 32 years, the majority of that time as Coordinator of Art Information, fielding a host of art-related inquiries from the public, whether or not they pertained to the Gallery's collection.  Chis is one of the curators for the Arts Club of Washington.  After retirement in 2010, and lecturing on
art history for the adult education division of George Mason University, the focus now is in lecturing widely on a broad array of topics and writing essays and catalogs, largely on 19th and 20th century German art. Chris With has a Ph.D. in modern European history from UCLA.
0 Comments

New Virtual Oil Painting, Step-by-Step Demo

1/22/2013

3 Comments

 
Oil Sketch in
Green and Pink


Painted in virtual oil paint
with ArtRage on the iPad.

ArtRage has been around now for several years, and is a very strong multiple media simulation program. I especially like the oil paint. The iPad version is an excellent adaptation, although it is still very low resolution.

Click on each picture for full size version
Picture
Oil Sketch in Green and Pink
Picture
Original source photograph
Picture
Blocking in, starting on a dark green background
Picture
Mid-development
3 Comments

Catch of the Day - Earth, Wind, and Water

1/19/2013

1 Comment

 


Earth, Wind,

and Water


Camera: iPhone 4S


No filters or special effects.

Picture
Earth Wind and Water, by Nancy Freeman
1 Comment

Catch of the Day - Another Cabbage

1/18/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
"Deep Pink"

This image or an ornamental cabbage makes me think of clamshells and ruffles and  confections, all at once. This was also the model for a quick sketch demo in my Pastel Techniques class

0 Comments

Grumman Warplane Greenhouse - Catch of the Day

1/15/2013

0 Comments

 

Grumman Rivets - Three Interpretations

Picture
Grumman Rivets I - Original
Picture
Grumman Rivets III
Picture
Grumman Rivets II
We spent last weekend in Philadelphia, immersed in art.
First, many happy hours in the new Barnes Collection Museum, an immense and ecclectic collection. Piles of Renoirs and Matisses that I'd never seen before, piled three or four deep. On top of each pile was an old steel utility object - fancy antique door hinges, kitchen implements, mechanical ringers, mystery items.

The next day, many more hours in the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art's magnificent building, gazing at their wonderful collection of paintings and sculptures. In the side street next to the PAFA we found a "crashed" WWII warplane that had been re-purposed as a greenhouse as an art project.

These are three interpretations from a small section of the fusilage.
0 Comments

Cabbage Catch of the Day II

1/11/2013

0 Comments

 
Winter Cabbage Leaves,
Ruffles and Flourishes


I have binders of cabbages!

Truly, there are so many cabbage leaf pictures in my files that I could post new ones every day this month. And if I run out of options, there is a constantly changing progression of new photo compositions growing on the deck, and all over the neighborhood.
Picture
0 Comments

Cabbage Catch of the Day

1/10/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Winter Cabbage 01-10-13
Winter Cabbage
 01-10-13


The decorative cabbages provide brilliant color and lush form all winter long, especially if the winter is mild. No more bare, gray winter gardens! This one is quite striking printed at very large size.

Camera: iPhone 4S
App: camera 360
0 Comments

Catch of the Day - Photography

1/7/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
"Lobos Rock Sprite"

Subject: a rock at Pt Lobos on the California coastline. Accepted for exhibition.

Camera: iPhone 4S

No filters or special effects, some color and value adjustment in Photoshop. 
0 Comments

The Hill Digital Quilt Project is Finished!

1/2/2013

1 Comment

 

Hill Digital Quilt Project
November 1 - December 31, 2012

Picture
First three panels
Picture
Quilt in Progress

Picture
Last set of candidates
Picture
Final Hill Digital Quilt

Hill Digital Quilt collaborative project

I like viewers to have a say in some of my artistic decisions, to be an active part of the creative process.  So a very big "Thank you" to all the participating viewers who chose the winning photos from the dozens of candidates. These winners were transformed into the final panels, then printed, framed and installed in the Quilt Matrix located at the Hill Center on Capitol Hill.

Of course the project took longer to finish than anticipated, but I am very pleased by both the process and the outcome. It was quite interesting to see which images gathered the most votes - not always the ones I would have expected. My favorite transformed panel was always the one I had just finished, so the final few panels are my final favorites.

This project was also a prototype for future collaborative art projects. I've been working with the concept of evolution for many years now, how images can morph into other images, or start whole families with generations and siblings and cousins. In the past I always had to provide the forces that transformed the images, as well as determine which would surrive to the next generation. With the internet, this survival-of-the-fittest decision can be crowd-sourced, providing a more natural force to work with. This project proved the concept to be viable.

So again, many thanks to you all. I have many ideas for future projects, and hope you will participate again.

Hill Rag Mattrix

Of the 21 quilt panels, one broke away a few weeks back, and generated it's own digital quilt, which was an exploration of the distortion tools in the iColorama App.

See more about it here:click!
Picture
1 Comment
<<Previous
    Picture

    About the Artist

    Nancy Freeman has a decades-long fascination with digital art which she supports by painting portraits and teaching various art subjects. Right now she devotes most of her creative time to digital art because it's so satisfying.

    Archives

    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    August 2017
    July 2017
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Abstracts
    Apps For Artists
    Cabbage Art
    Catch Of The Day
    Demos
    Events
    Garden
    History
    Other
    Painting
    Paintography
    Pastels
    Photography
    Reviews
    The Hill Quilt
    Thoughts