Journey of an Absolute Rookie: Paintings and Sketches

[MindCandyMan]

MorteM - This thread is such a monster...I don't know how anyone can read through it. I hardly look back at the initial pages. Yuck...so bad hehehe.

Chermilla - Haha...well I'm certainly not rich that's for sure. My wife can attest to that. It's in Whitewright, TX (no one's ever heard of that place) so it's much much cheaper than renting in dallas. The rent I pay for this studio is half the rent I would pay for a 750 sq foot studio in dallas. From the heart of dallas it's about 1 hour and 10 minutes. So that's why it's cheaper to rent. Dallas can keep its traffic and noise...give me the quiet calm country.

Bojee - Thanks man. I'm really excited to actually be able to work in proper natural light! I'm also really excited to be able to give my students the proper studio to study in. I didn't have this kind of light and studio space when I was studying and it would have been much better. So I wanted to find something that suited my needs and also helped my students. Things are definitely going well...I'm having a blast.

ashrumm - Thanks! I'm really excited to be doing what I'm doing.

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Ok so I told you guys that I would update you with the palette I just finished. Nate (Blackhawk) gave me some tips about what wood to use...how to sand it down, etc... So we both came up with some designs and I just finished putting the last layer of tung oil on my palette. I actually used it last night for the first time and I loved it. I wanted to make a cool design but it ended up being really utilitarian as well. The added space by the thumb hole allows me to hold a lot of brushes and my mahl stick really easily. Anyway here's the palette...it was really fun to make it. I think I am going to have all my students make their own palettes...it's kind of like a samurai making his sword heheh. It's really easy as well...much easier than you would think.

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Here is a picture of Nate working on his new cast. He is doing superbly well already. He will be painting before he knows it.

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Good old lefties!

[Jason Rainville]

I think I am going to have all my students make their own palettes...it's kind of like a samurai making his sword heheh.

That, along with the palette itself, is so fucking cool :$ If anyone can get me excited about traditional, it's you :)

[jester]

I'd love to see your palette in action. Way cool!

Jester

[voxelfog]

This is a truly amazing thread, just seeing how you've progressed from your first posts to your latest stuff. As someone who's currently struggling with painting, it's a nice reminder that hard work pays off.

The studio and palette look sweet. Looks like an awesome environment to be creative in.

P.S. If you have any tips for an aspiring oil painter, I would love to hear them... ;)

[MindCandyMan]

Rhineville - That's awesome. I'm glad I'm at least representing traditional painting well hehe. The funny thing is that I know a lot of people painting traditionally who HATE what they do. It's mainly because they don't have any individuality...instead of painting the way they think would be fun. They paint exactly how they were taught. I have been painting more loosely because, frankly, it's just more fun. When I was training I had a hard time getting myself to work hard. Now I love every day...my teachers probably don't like my work now though heheeh. I can imagine them calling it sketchy.

jester - It's really fun to use it. It weighs a lot less than my other palette which is really good. After 8 hours of painting it can really wear your arm out that's for sure. Maybe I should post a tutorial of how to make your own palette. Might be fun.

voxelfrog - Thanks! The studio is awesome...I love it. Especially now that students will be joining me. When I have to teach I am constantly reminded of the basics which is really good for me. Painting is definitely a struggle at first. No doubt about that. I guess the advice that I would offer is that in order to oil paint well you have to have a full grasp of everything. You need to know how values, edges, color, etc...relate properly. If your drawing ability (by drawing I mean seeing angles...value relationships...edges) is lacking it will most definitely come out while you are painting. Painting well is all about control and patience. You should be looking and figuring out things WAY more than you are actually painting. Feel free to send me some of your work and I can help however I can.

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Well I submitted information to Art Renewal Center to become an ARC approved atelier. We'll see if that goes through. I can't see why they would reject it but you never know hehe. I really enjoy teaching so I'm really happy the new studio can accomodate that.

Another piece of news as well. I received a full scholarship again this year from the Scottsdale Artist School. The contributors were the Wright Foundation for the Arts. http://www.wrightfoundation.org/ They put your profile on their website and they monitor your career and everything. I am going to be taking Clayton Beck Jr. III's painting workshop. He does a lot of alla prima figure studies. I can't wait to pick his brain. He studied with a bunch of individuals...Schmid being one of them.

[Gorromog]

your stuff is so great, the oil paintings are wicked, they really make we want to get up and learn more... damn, keep posting! the palette is great to!

[gorgnut]

The studio looks wonderful! Best of luck to you!
Also made myself a palette and had some layers of shellac on it, really nice surface, especially after a few uses when you build up a bit of left over paint/oil.

Thanks for being inspiration #1 to me, will be starting at an atelier in January myself :)

[Blackhawk]

That guy doing the cast drawing sucks. You should kick him out and let me study with you.

[Aardvarkphil]

Just finished going right through your sketchbook. WOW. This is going to be a constant source of inspiration to me in my efforts to improve. I'm so pleased you've got so far so quickly. I hope the studio is going well. Maybe someday when I'm good enough I will come study with you. Wishing you all the best for the future Phil.

[JustinBeckett]

Jon,

I can't believe the progress you have made, it is absolutely outstanding. I remember when i first joined these forums in 2002, i posted as (warhead82) I remember watching your progress right from the beginning. Then, checking back a couple years later and seeing you kept with it and just blew everyone away, and now, now i check back again, even later. You go from beginner to pro, and now you have the craziest studio ever, and you are even teaching, and have wrote your own book!! Man, i just have to say congrats on everything. You have gone a long way man and you are still going further. I am so happy to see someone pushing themselves so hard like you do.

Props man. Props.

~JB

[GriNGo]

Nice updates, and I'm loving your new studio! Hopefully I'll be able to go through there some day, since everything looks professional and awesome? I'd love to know if you have thought more deeply about those online courses for international students... i still it's kinda difficult to make it work. but anyway's, nothing is impossible (you, more than anyone I've every heard is a living testament to that remark). Hope everything goes well with Art Renewal as well!

[Mohd.N]

very fine work and u got really comfortable environment too for work.

[Idiot Apathy]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? You're teaching now? Man what's in another 5 years? World domination?

cheers man!

[atmos]

Rookie you say, hmmmm. Then what the hell must i say, nevermind :)

Great paintings you got there, truly inspiring

[HunterKiller_]

Most insightful SB I've seen yet.
I can't believe the amount of improvement in just four years! :O
Your oil paintings are beautiful. In comparison, I wouldn't have believed that the beginner works were yours, had you not post them yourself.

This is also kind cool, that there a whole spectrum of a gradient of increasing skill here. If I compare my own works... I must be at about page 20 or so on the MindCandyMan scale. :tihi: Still a long way to go!

Nothing but amazing effort and work here. Much respect to you, Sir. :yayca:

[Justin.]

My favorite part about Fine artists is the lack of NDA!!!!! :D

[life on the sofa]

Got a little frustrated hehe

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HAHA...this made me chortle-after having seen your latest work.


man, you do for traditional media, what jesus did for christianity.:P

[Jushra]

why i didn't see this thread before baffles me. anyway, your work does too, as does the insane amount of progress you've made over the years. whenever i feel like giving up on my endeavor, i will visit this thread to remember that it is possible! thanks.

[AmontilladoAg]

Gah! I finally made it through your SB! :teeth: And what a fantastic journey it was... you've made more progress in five years than I've made in my life, man. Since 2002, you've gone from feeble attempts to mastery. :bow:

Seriously, I get frustrated and feel like I'm not improving, and I think of your SB -- your perseverance, dedication. It helps! :)

*Salutes* Honored to be one of your forum-padawans, sir.

Cheers :teeth:

[ciots]

wow, thanks for the inspiration, and i'm off to make me a pallete, kickass!

[chrishly]

what a journey looking trough your sketchbook..
truly inspiring, thanks!

[MindCandyMan]

Gorromog - Thanks so much! I'm glad my stuff makes you want to get up and learn more. If I can help inspire someone to keep drawing and painting then I have accomplished something. That palette was really fun and has been getting a lot of use that's for sure.

gorgnut - That's so great that you will be starting at an atelier! That's awesome. Which atelier will you be going to? Also that's awesome you made your own palette. Nate (blackhawk) has his palette sanded and everything and is going to put a shellac finish on it as well. Just don't use denatured alcohol on it I hear though hehe.

Blackhawk - It's not really that he sucks...it's that he's not committed. He spends too much time posting stuff on conceptart.org ...instead of working at the studio. But all in all...he's doing well ;) hehe

Aardvarkphil - I'm really glad this thread could help inspire you but I have to say...don't wait until you are good enough to study! If you are interested in studying with me I will take you from the ground up...in fact it's easier that way since you haven't built up bad habits. But don't let your lack of ability deter you from seeking training. Every one of my students started with no training at all. If you want to come study with me just contact me and we can start talking about it. But certainly don't wait until you are really good...then you won't need me anymore heheh.

JustinBeckett - Thanks so much for the kind words man. It has been quite a journey that's for sure. It's been fun every step of the way though...except in the very early stages when I could do nothing...that just sucked hehe. From the beginning I have just been trying to take steps forward and maintain my momentum. Sometimes it has been easier than others. But I just thank you for encouraging me and supporting the whole way. Thanks man!

GriNGoLoCo - Thanks for your encouraging comments. I have often thought about the online lessons. It would definitely be difficult. Instead of doing that I probably would just write a book that outlined how to proceed with self study. It would outline everything that I teach in my training. It would be an overwhelming task but I think it would really help the artistic community as a whole. I am always making mental notes when teaching about what is effective and what is not.

Mohd.N - Thanks! The studio is definitely very comfortable. It has truly been a blessing to work in the studio and the light has been fantastic!

Idiot Apathy - Haha...world domination would be awesome except that I would have to get into politics. If I ever become a politician...please shoot me.

atmos - Thanks man! Sometimes I do feel like a rookie...there's so much to learn that's for sure.

HunterKiller_ - Oh man those early things I did. Wow...yeah...embarrassing to say the least. But I had enthusiasm though hehe...and I wasn't aware of how truly bad they were...which helped keep me going heheh. I'm just really glad this thread can still help people.

Justin Oaksford - You mean non disclosure agreements right? Hmmm maybe I should have you all sign them!

life on the sofa - Oh man when I looked back at that digital painting it brought back a bunch of memories. I remember doing that one! I almost threw my wacom across the room. I still feel like painting is hard except I don't write it across my paintings anymore heheheh

jushra - Glad I could help inspire man. If you ever feel bad about yourself as an artist just visit my early pages heheheheh...instant self esteem.

AmontilladoAg - You can definitely be one of my padawans but you have to grow that long girly braid in your hair. hehe. Seriously though I'm glad this thread could help keep you going. Learning to draw and paint is so hard already that feeling discouraged makes it even worse. And you are too kind...my original attempt weren't feeble...they were dismal hehehe

ciots - Awesome! If you wanted any advice on what woods to use or what tools you need just lemme know. We did ours without any power tools so maybe you are lucky enough to have some hehe.

chrishly - Thanks! Thanks for taking the time to stop by and post a comment

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Ok I finished five still life paintings in the last couple weeks and once they are varnished and framed I will post up pictures of them. I varnished this self portrait I did a while ago too. It was sitting in the drying area of my studio for a long time. I cropped the canvas down and varnished it. It had been a while since I looked at it. Of course I see all the problems with it now. Thought you guys might be interested. I will post up more stuff soon. I am also working on a big series of paintings that I don't want to talk about yet until they are done. If I can get them to look right they are going to be really cool...but we'll see. At any rate here's the self portrait problems and all. It's a really bad picture too...bah...enough excuses:

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[emily g]

Jon, I am so excited to see all the stuff you are doing! Congratulations on getting that great studio space for you and your students. I'm looking forward to see what work you will be posting in the future. :)

[MindCandyMan]

emily - Thanks so much! I will be watching for you on the art scene as well. Your work is looking stellar!!!! You are a force to be reckoned with no doubt about it. Bill is a fantastic teacher but it also takes a dedicated student to produce what you have produced. We definitely have to stay in touch.

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Here's two of the five new still life paintings that I completed recently. I am waiting to varnish the others. I am in discussion with another gallery in California right now so these paintings are going to be sent to them for evaluation. We'll see what they say.

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[Call0ps]

again, beautiful oil paintings, those brush strokes is amazing. good luck for the evaluation to the gallery in California ^^ a big successful journey until here i think, at least looking this book from the very first.

[Gilead]

I love your work. Those blue petals against the dark background catch the light like little gemstones. Beautiful stuff, one could look at these all day.

[voxelfog]

Those still lifes look fantastic. :)
You've got quite the eye for color and value.
I like how in the second still life you used really loose brush strokes on the surface the flowers are resting on, but it still looks like a physical surface instead of just random brushstrokes. You did the shadows just right to make the flowers rest on the surface. :)

[gorgnut]

The still lifes are rocking!
About the atelier; I'll be going to florence art academy, they opened up a studio in Sweden, Gothenburg (http://www.florenceacademyofart.com/Introduction-Location-GBG.htm) under Joakim Ericsson's lead. Working my butt off to afford it :dead:

[Diphallia]

That's one hellofa journey!
Great work, really great.
Love your still lifes.

(I've just recently started my own journey, check my sig if you're feeling for it).

[thinairart]

First off, a truly awesome and inspirational thread! Believe it or not, I've managed to read it from start to finish over a period of a few months.

Although I've painted off and on for several years, last July I put the brush aside to focus on my drawing skills. I've doubted from time to time if I did the right thing, but your thread has really inspired me to keep going on the academic path. Right now I'm working on my first cast drawing, and so far so good.

However, I much prefer the style of Sargent & Zorn to a more academic polish, and it seems your favor a looser finish as well. So I'm wondering how you have gone about training/transitioning to a direct painting method? When it comes to academic drawing/painting, there is a ton of info out there, but info regarding direct painting methods has been much harder to find.

Keep posting, and good luck with the new studio space!

[Ellingsworth]

Always an inspiration, man. Keep it up. Just a quick question were did you buy your casts from?

[alesoun]

Wow! I read the first 31 pages of this before realising how much time had run away.... I'll catch up with the rest later! What a great journey you've been on in the past 5 years!

[hurricane]

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=194070&d=1188397699

that one is beautifull!

fantastic!


cheers

[Idiot Apathy]

Woo, very nice floral stills; I usually don't like those :O

[BurntUmber]

That is a truly stunning progression. I've also developed............... repetitive strain injury going through this thread :) kudos to you

[emilpaun]

I haven't been on this forum in years, but it's great to see you still going strong, MindCandyMan.

Keep up.

Emil

[MindCandyMan]

Call0ps - Thanks so much! Everything went well with the gallery in California. He liked my work and wants me to keep sending him my new stuff. We'll see how that relationship turns out.

Gilead - Thanks so much! I get tired of looking at them hehe.

voxelfog - I'm really glad you noticed that. I was doing that intentionally with this painting because I've seen Schmid do the same thing. I love the effect and I wanted to explore it. Thanks!

gorgnut - That's fantastic! Keep me updated with your progress.

Diphallia - Thanks so much. Good start on your sketchbook thread as well. It's certainly tough to keep going that's for sure. It's even harder to begin I think. Stay strong and keep pushing. Don't let yourself stop.

reidaj - Thanks so much for the comments. You are absolutely right about there not begin much information on direct painting. I intend to change that. I have focused my painting instruction to be centered around the direct approach. There are a lot of tangible concepts that I can pass on now after thinking and working through everything for a while. The academic route is definitely the best one to start off with because that gives you the control. And you need the control in order to paint directly. I made that transition basically by studying schmid, gerhartz, morgan weistling, scott burdick, sargent, zorn, boldini, and a myriad of others. I am now starting to really get ahold of what they were doing. Now I just have to practice it till I die hehe.

ellingsworth - Thanks! I got them from statue.com in the "drawing" section.

alesoun - Wow you are a braver individual than I am! This thread is too long for me to go through hehehe. Plus it's embarrassing for me heheh. I'm honored that you took the time to go through. Thanks for stopping by.

hurricane - Thanks man! That means a lot to me coming from you. Your work is amazing now man. Your progression has been so amazing to watch. Now it's you who is inspiring conceptart!

Idiot Apathy - Thanks haha...i know what you mean. I am getting tired of them.

BurntUmber - Thanks for going through my thread! But please...I have no money so don't sue me for your arthritis hehe.

KR33P - Glad to see you back! Thanks for stopping by the thread.

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Ok so I wanted to update you guys with what is going on with me recently. I also wanted to ask for all of your opinion on what I am planning next. A bunch of things were brought across my path that I found interesting. The first one was my brother taking a Don Seegmiller online workshop that was really cool. He told me all about it and he learned a ton from it. I also recently was contacted by "form n focus" from concept art to give him some advice on painting. I wrote him back a lengthy response giving what help that I could. I have also received a lot of emails in the last couple months from individuals interested in studying with me. They were all interested but said that they couldn't make the move to Texas. I feel bad for those individuals who really want to learn this method but have no way of accessing an atelier in their area. Then it hit me...why not do an online atelier...in the same manner that Don Seegmiller did his workshop.

So this is my idea. I have setup a private forum on my website that only students can access. Each student would have their own private heading where all their threads are created under. There would also be "public" areas where they could talk and interact with the other students studying with me...but I thought it was important that each student had their own area that no one could look at but me.

There are, of course, inherent difficulties in trying to teach the atelier method long distance but I may have found a way around them...with technology. So each student would have to have access to a digital camera and also a scanner. For their bargue drawings they would simply have to scan their drawing and post the image for my assessment. Casts would be a little more tricky since they would have to take pictures of what they are working on, but I have been able to get it very close with my camera. Another thing I have found is that I can usually critique people without even looking at the cast as much now. I have progressed to the point where i can see their flaws without seeing the original which will help in doing it online. When people start painting they could scan their painting (on a panel) or take a picture of it, etc...

This certainly would not be the ideal way to learn...but it also might make it accessible for individuals who can't learn any other way. It would definitely have to be more of a instructed self study...but I still think it could be extremely beneficial for people. Students would be able to ask any questions they want and get lengthy and full bodied answer anytime. I am also thinking of setting up a video system in my studio so I can distribute video to all my online students of me working and other things. So in other words...every section would have a pdf write up of what you are going to be doing...a video instruction...and personal attention and instruction from me via my website forum.

You guys are a lot smarter than me so I am wondering what you guys would think about this type thing. I am already starting to work on it and I'm guessing I would charge anywhere from 100-150 dollars a month. Students could pay via paypal...etc...so they could be in any country. I charge 350 (which is cheap for ateliers) for my "in house" atelier students so it's a much cheaper alternative.

Let me know what you guys think and if you have any ideas. I think I could definitely fill a need. Here's a screenshot of the forum I started creating:

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[alesoun]

Sounds a great idea! Unfortunately just now I'm busy and broke (usually it's one or the other, not both), or I'd be right there.

How many students are you going to take at a time online, and how many months will they study with you for (on average)? I'll get my piggy bank and start saving........

[MindCandyMan]

I'm not sure how many I would take online but I wouldn't want to overcrowd it that's for sure. I'm thinking that I wouldn't want more than 8 - 10 students. It's really important to me that everyone receives personal attention and if the numbers started getting crazy I just wouldn't be able to do that...or I could do it but I just wouldn't be able to paint hehe.

The fortunate thing is that people could study for as long as they wanted. All the way up through creating body of work to take to galleries with my help...or just getting all the foundational training. Depending on how long they could study...the program would shift to suit their needs. Of course if someone has two months...I would just stick to foundational drawing issues...6 months advanced drawing issues. 2 years and you are talking about getting deeper into painting, etc... This method of study would take a motivated individual though...the faster and harder you work the faster you would progress. The nice thing about individualized training is that you can move faster or slower if need be.

I think I also have some future plans that I might implement as well. If I get a full load of students I may take some of the money and pay some other artists to do little demos that I distribute to my students...like Bill Whitaker...or people like that. Even if I got them in for a live chat session where my students get to ask them questions or something like that. I am even thinking about offering one student a scholarship for a certain amount of months every year or something like that. I've always wanted to give people the chance to learn to draw who are serious about it...who haven't had the opportunity or money. I am blessed to be in the situation I'm in and have had tremendous help from others. It's important to keep that going.

[Aardvarkphil]

when do you think you'll be in a position to start Virtual Atelier.

[alesoun]

So what would you do? Take 2/3/6 months in advance? *shakes piggy bank*

[MindCandyMan]

aardvarkphil - I am working hard right now getting all the materials together into a cohesive unit. I am already in the process of doing it for others who are very interested which is really what got the ball rolling. I'm thinking in another 2-4 weeks I could have it ready for students beginning the drawing portion. One of the things I want to do is have a section of the forum that is just a demo of me doing the whole process. So there will be a very detailed walkthrough of me doing a bargue drawing...and then a cast drawing...cast painting...etc...The more advanced demos will take longer but I am planning on getting the initial demos done within the next two or three of weeks. I spent most of today writing up the materials list and process for a bargue drawing. I still have more to write but I'll get that done soon.

alesoun - I'm not sure about that yet. I am thinking of doing it on a month to month basis. I will ask students how long they are planning on studying and then arrange the curriculum accordingly...but i think paying by month is the best way. So the first of every month a student pays for the next months training. If the student doesn't pay then I'll assume they are stopping and they won't get any help the next month. Eventually they would just forfeit their position...if there are others waiting.

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I'm glad this is appealing to you guys. One of the things I have found is that I really like dvds as opposed to workshops. Dvds allow you to rewind and play again and again and again. Which I have with mine. This way of training I think would allow you to do that as well. You will be able to look at the critique and instruction as much as you want and digest it over a long period of time...as opposed to hearing it once and then it disappearing into the ether. Students in my studio get to watch me paint anytime and hear me say the same things over and over...it's a much better situation in person...but in my opinion this would be second best.

[Evxyza92]

Wow nice sketchbooks man alot of stuff and progress

[N1ck]

so impressive your progress… and now you are making so much beautiful work. very inspiring.

just a little question cause im curious: do you make some drawings from imagination from time to time?

[Coen]

MindCandyMan, the 'virtual atelier' is an amazing idea and I'm really interested in it. You've helped me before, a while ago, when I e-mailed you about learning to draw and paint, and you've always been a really inspiring artist. I've had some personal crap coming down on me lately and it's been pretty hard to get everything going and train myself (since there's no decent education out here). But, I'm getting things organized now and I'm trying to work my way up bit by bit. If there's any possibility for me to participate in this one day, I'll be more than happy. I've been looking for something like this for so long!

[thinairart]

A Virtual Atelier is an awesome idea, I would definitely be interested. The subjects of cast painting and direct painting are of particular interest to me. Technology certainly would help to overcome the limitations of remote study, although like you said it would be the type of program best geared to self starters who can work independently. I'd also have to agree that I have reaped a lot more mileage out of DVD's then short workshops. I think a lot of aspiring students look far and wide for workshops that will teach them the 'secrets', when what it often takes is hearing the same good advice over and over again until it finally 'clicks'- which is much easier when you pause & rewind a DVD again and again.

[MindCandyMan]

Evxyza92 - Thanks! It's been a long and fun road for sure hehe.

N1ck - Thanks for your kind words! I actually do draw from my imagination a little bit now. I can't spend as much time doing it in proportion to my other work but I do. Doing some imaginative work has actually led me into the next projects I am working on. I am going to be doing a series of paintings that combine iconography or illumination/mucha/sargent/bouguereau and some other influences all rolled into one. There's going to be gold leaf on the paintings and some other cool stuff so we'll see how they turn out. Should be fun nonetheless.

Coen - That's fantastic to hear that you are interested. Your story is exactly why I want to do something like this. I want to give people the training that can't get it otherwise. I've been working hard the past two days to get the bargue drawing information all solidified. I've had to take a lot of pictures and write up a lot of instruction but it will be good when it's done I think. I also want to do a video describing everything as well so we'll see how that goes.

reidaj - Yes you understand exactly what I mean! I have felt the same way about dvds. I'm glad you are interested in the atelier studying online as well. I will be updating constantly here and soon I will work out all the details and be up and running. I will let all of you know on here as soon as everything is good to go. Technology is certainly opening the doors for this type of thing.

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Hey guys I am about halfway done the bargue drawing demo and information. Then I need to record a short video explaining some of the concepts and compile it all cohesively and then I will be ready to start people in the training. It will take me longer to get the cast drawing/painting demos going but individuals will be able to start the method now and I will have those demos shortly after that. I also have some other issues to work out as well. I need to make sure I can backup the forum appropriately as well. If for some reason it was corrupted I would need to be able to recover the information easily. I will be manually backing everything up as well each day but I want to make sure I have a secondary backup as well.

In the meantime here are some paintings I've finished recently. The study of the hand is something that I am doing again...I'm just doing some color/anatomy/etc... studies to refresh myself. I also am going to start selling some of these studies (like this one) online for a much cheaper price than my other paintings. Instead of just hording them in my studio...I figure someone might want them for a modest price...so we'll see how that goes. I also have a still life that is dry, varnished, and framed. Also I have an example of one of the pictures that will be used in my bargue drawing demo/instruction that I am creating. It's about preparing your pencil...etc... All part of the process...there's a lot to cover. I'm excited to get things rolling with that though.


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[Rohan]

hey MCM congratulations on your fantastic progress, quite simply amzing.
the oils really show your sensitivity and ability to reach far
beyond the fundamentals you've honed with your training.
I'm still chippin away at a multitude of media, in and out of uni
(*pulls hair out). I had an accident a couple of months ago
and nearly lost my face!

Glad to say I'm now recovering extremely well post
reconstrucive surgery. I am feeling strong inside
with plenty of belly to burn so your bound to see me up here
sooner or later now that the life component is going well.
Wish you all the best with your new endeavours mate!

~Roh :confident

www.myspace.com/rohart

[Craig D]

Jon
I would be really interested in the online thing. Time and distance conspire against me for in person training so let me know when you're going to start up. Hopefully we can work it out for me to be a part of this.
Thanks, Craig

[AphexTweak]

Your work and your artistic journey are truly inspiring. I've gone through this thread a few times when feeling down and making little progress and its always been an uplifting experience. Thank you for sharing your journey with us...

Your online atelier idea sounds promising. I wish you luck with that project. I too would be interested in entertaining the idea of participating... any idea as to how much time one would have to commit? I already have a full time job, family etc. so physically attending classes can sometimes be a bit of a scheduling nightmare, but I think self paced learning could probably be squeezed in.

[Bojee]

Always kicking ass an taking names in here Jon! I love the new paintings...and the new ideas. :)

[PaTXiNaKi]

Stuning! wow, i cant find words to express what i felt when i saw such an amazing progress.

Now i know i can reach my own goals, in some way u ll be my lighthouse.

Gratz

[sve]

Hello, I'm interested in your on-line art class... please let me know when you are ready to start it.
Sveta

[aquamarina2]

wow, all i can say is wow. this thread gives me hope. every time i look at other people's art i almost die with envy. i have half a mind to break my pencil and give up on drawing, but i love it too much to.

the progress you made is just amazing. i tip my boston red sox's hat to you. oh, if you don't mind, i want to write about you or this thread to be more correct.

i'll start drawing in my sketchbook everyday. i might not be able to reach that amazing level, but maybe I'll be better.

[MeTaL-Mike]

Man your progression is amazing!!! respect dude!

[Konstruktion]

Hey, really nice paintings. Got to say I love the portraits where the figures almost melts with the background, and with only one (well not many) light sources. Like these (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=111858&d=1180115090) portraits. Sure, it's photos of them, but still. Your latest update is extremely nice too. The veins in the hand... Keep it up

[PyroMania]

What a totally inspirational thread. Thank you so much for sharing.

I just spent the better part of today reading and watching your progression. I know many have said this before, but what you have become is just awesome, considering the time it took - a mere 4 years :xpld:

Thank you thank you thank you :yayca:

[Lot]

I like your work, very inspiring, your a master, i used to do oils, not so much, and seeing your work reminds me how good is this kind of art, congratulations

[MindCandyMan]

Rohan - Wow man I'm really glad to hear that you are ok. That sounds like it must have been awful. No one can tell you you're not going to be a successful artist...you had a bad accident and the first thing you are talking about is getting back to drawing. That's dedication! I'm really sorry about the accident but I'm certainly glad that you are doing well now.

Craig D - Awesome! I am glad you are interested. Time and distance conspire against so many people. It always comes down to time, location, and money. In almost every case people can have two of the three...but rarely all three. I feel very fortunate to have been able to study in person, but for those who cannot I really want to help them out. I am working really hard and things are almost finished. I am having to learn how to edit in premiere and do a bunch of other things but I'm really excited about all of the possibilities. Look for my updates here when everything is ready to roll. It will be very soon. Most likely in the next couple of weeks.

AphexTweak - Thanks for the kind words! And I'm really glad you are interested in the online atelier idea. As far as time commitment, it would be entirely up to you. You would pay a monthly fee and would have access to my teaching any time that you wanted/needed it. I plan on the online atelier eventually taking the place of my private lessons right now...so I am planning on spending 3-4 hours a day (probably at night), if necessary, answering everyone's questions and recording video responses. So really the time you would have to invest would be up to you. The more you work the faster you will progress in the program. I hope that answers your question. If you need more info just shoot me an email or respond on here.

Bojee - Thanks man! How are things going for you? Good I hope!

PaTXiNaKi - Thanks for the kind words. It's really encouraging to me to see that this thread can help inspire others. If I can reach my goals...you most certainly can. I think it takes me twice as long...and I have to work twice as hard to learn what everyone else does hehe.

sve - That's fantastic! I'm glad you are interested. I have completed the first bargue study demo and I am editing the final videos. The forum is up and running and I think I've worked out all the paypal stuff as well. It most likely will be up and running in the next couple weeks. I will let everyone know on here as soon as it is fully functioning.

aquamarina2 - I know what you mean about envying other people's work! I feel the same way! There are painters that I look up to...dead and alive...that just kick my butt every time I see their work. Keep working hard and let your art lead you...you will be kicking butt in no time!

MeTaL-Mike - Thanks man...respect right back at ya!

Sarcophagus - Thanks man. Yeah that's definitely my preferred way to paint subjects. I love a simple light source with strong shadow masses. Rembrandt certainly led the way painting the way that he did. I'm a firm believer in keeping the lighting simple and beautiful. Too many light sources can kill something quickly.

PyroMania - Absolutely...you are welcome. I should be the one thanking all of you though. You guys encouraged and critiqued me all the way to where I am right now.

Lot - Thanks so much for your comments. I definitely love working in oils...I even like the smell of my oil paints.

___________________________


Ok guys so I have a quick update on the Online Atelier progress. I have learned how to edit properly in adobe premiere (and put a voice over on top). I finished the Bargue Setup tutorial and will be finishing the other ones soon as well. This first video has taken a while because I have been learning how to do everything, but now I know exactly what I need to do. I have completed the bargue drawing and filmed the entire thing. I am now just editing it all together into bite size chunks. I have decided to encode all my videos into .divx format. The reason for that is because quicktime creates nice files...but they are huge in size and I don't want people overseas to have to sit for hours downloading something on a slow day. Also divx is free and is one of the best compressors I have used. I could make the files wmv's but not everyone has windows and divx is a little better anyways. Here is a picture of the finished bargue I did for the demo:

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I also wanted to post up another one of the studies I completed recently. I love doing these and I will be doing a bunch more as well. I've finished a still life and some other things since my last post and as soon as I can varnish them they will be up here:

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I also wanted to brag about one of my students as well. Nate just recently finished this cast. This isn't the finished version but it's pretty close. Look for the finished version soon on his website: http://www.snitzerart.com

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[Art_Addict]

That top right ear study is pretty nice

Do you know Philip de Champaigne? He has a painting in the Louvre of hand studies which are exquisite ! That page reminded me of it.

**Edit** : Woops, forget that. I meant Nicolas de L'argillierre.
But Philippe de Champaigne is realy nice as well. You can see where Bouguereau got his beautifull rendition of flesh from.

**Edit 2** :Ok lol, I promise this is the last edit. But now you can see the painting in my avatar :)

and here's the link to it. I just drooled over this for half an hour or so when I was at the Louvre, just gorgeous : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nicolas_De_Largilli%C3%A8re-%C3%89tude_de_main.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nicolas_De_Largilli%C3%A8re-%C3%89tude_de_main.jpg)

[paperX]

great updates man! about your online atelier...i was wondering about some issues such as what about people who dont have access to casts? (from personal experience its nearly impossible to find a cast easily here in new zealand)
also, i have also found that the sculpture busts for example can vary through out the world depending on how many times they have been cast from the original, when i was in china i compared some not so high quality ones with photos of casts used in Repin academy in Russia and the difference is astounding.
just some suggestions for potential problems down the line since you're taking this to a world-wide scale :)
keep on rocking man! :yayca:

[Coen]

Wow, nice updates, these face studies are awesome. It's cool to read you're atelier plans are getting along well. Did you receive my last email (october 22)? My e-mail acted kinda weird so I hope everything went well hehe.

Good question paperX, I was wondering about that as well. :)

[AztcFireFlower]

I love the smell of oil paints! - A gut feeling of something good about to happen - sadly more studies are turped than not:) - but the experience of an honest challenge is wonderful.
The evolution of your skills is amazing. From start to present day. Never could get motivated to try the atalier, cast drawing route, but I admire the dedication and skill involved. You are yet another example of incredible discipline to achieve what you set out to do.
Very motivating sketchbook here.

[Sepulverture]

Good God MCM, the improvement throughout this sketchbook is just breath taking.

[iatriki]

wow! what a great learning journey!

[o00o0o0o0o0o]

Legendary thread.
Inspiring.

XD

[Thujon]

Greetings Mr. MindCandyMan

I am totally impressed....I wish I will also look at such progress one day....

In the meantime....C U

[Razorb]

wow its amazing to see how much you've improved :) nice work

[Pascallo]

Wow man, its just amazing looking at your first page here and the couple of last mind-blowing things you uploaded. I take you as my motivation how things can work out if you try hard.
BTW your studio looks awesome, now I know how you get motivated:)
Thanks for sharing! I should come back here regularly...
Cheers!

[vlad74]

I knew anything was possible. Respect.

[stalsby]

Really nice paintings! You have some skill man! I checked out your site! Thanks for the pdf! I will be looking forward to seeing some new stuff from you in the near future! 2 hairs and some air brother!

I am from Dallas too! I was wandering, are there any oil painting groups or sketchgroups that meet up in the area? I would really like to join if so! I want to get better at oil painting!

[Moai]

Incredible sketchbook. Your growth since the first page is amazing and fills me with inspiration.

[Elissimo]

I have recently rekindled my passion for art, painting and illustration, after reviewing all the pages of your sketchbook for the last 4 hours it has really put my head in the right place.
I do grahic design but I felt my creativity was becoming stagnant, but from your process I've realised I jsut need to get back to the fundamentals and my creativity should flow from that.
a refined book of this would be inspiration for a broader audience, definately.

I totally agree. Was shown this thread by sciboy and have been showing fellow illustrators since... all have thanked me and been inspired just as I was. Simply amazing MCM!

[aaro_n]

this thread is so inspirational that it should be made into a movie :>

[polydrawer]

omg the levels between your work in your first posts and the ones in your latest are such and improvement, this really shows me that hard work does pay off.

beautiful work btw

[Diphallia]

Thank you for the little "push"!
Really nice update!
But get them coming more often!

[MindCandyMan]

Hey everyone sorry for my noticeable absence. Life has been interesting lately that's for sure. I found out my wife was about a month a half pregnant and then within the next month she had a miscarriage. A lot of the complications are due to her being sick. She has been losing weight steadily for the last couple years off and on. We have investigated so many different possibilities an we are still trying to figure out what's going on. I say all that just to say my situation is changing dramatically. My studio situation is definitely going to change. It's possible I may move it to my house as well...we'll see.

So in regards to the online atelier I am going to still be doing it! But as I thought through everything I realized that it would be a lot more effective if I did it as a month long workshop online so that is the format I am going to use. My brother took an online workshop with don seegmiller and he really loved it so I thinking that is the best option for everyone. The price is going to be 150 dollars a person for the whole month. Each person will receive individual instruction and examples...plus access to all my instructional videos...etc... My goal for this first workshop is not only for everyone to have a great bargue drawing but to communicate the principles involved. The important thing is to grasp why you are doing something...so the technique and principles is what I will be focusing on during the process. There will be individual private threads for everyone via my website and there will also be a public thread where everyone can post up their drawings for others to critique and encourage as well.

Right now I am planning on having the first workshop on February 1st through March 2nd. Sorry for the lack of update. I will be keeping you guys informed.

[Christian223]

Hello mister Mindcandyman, regarding your problems with your wife, heres a link i want to share with you, it teaches a technique to cure emotional and physical problems, it helped me with many things as well as thousands of other people, try it, and good luck.

http://www.emofree.com/ (oficial site with a written manual included)
www.tapping.com (not oficial but has easy to follow videos on how to do the technique)

More specific links: http://www.emofree.com/articles.aspx?id=33

[Kai H]

Hope that your wife is going to be ok. It must be nerve breaking for you and your wife to not know what is the exact medical problem.

Btw. What is jkior (Mike Jastram?) doing nowdays? I watched his threads and the last posts were somewhere 2006 when he was studying with you. Is he still there or what is he doing? Hes work were amazing.

[emily g]

I hope everything with your wife is ok and you can figure out what the problem is.
I'm thinking of both of you.

[Craig D]

Jonathan
Thanks for the update, I'll be here when you're ready.

More important of course is your family. I hope thinks get sorted out positively for you soon.

Craig

[vlad74]

Hope your wife gets better soon.

[Aardvarkphil]

Best wishes

[algenpfleger]

an infinite source of motivation. thanks for being so inspiring, and best wishes to your family.

[Barber]

I looked everypage of this thread,twas good fun..

You are awsome life painter/drawer,I would have liked to see you continue with you imagination stuff though,you kinda stopped posting that stuff after a while.

Good luck with everything!

[Diphallia]

I hope that you both manage to make it through this alive.
Hugs and kisses to both of you.

Good Luck!

Best wishes.
Sebastian Dráb

[ODISAP]

Your improvement is incredible!!! Seeing from the first page of the book to right now, its lke comparing a rookie artist to a pro artist, wow!

[MindCandyMan]

Art_Addict - That hand study page is ridiculous!!!!!!!!! So nice. I only wish I could do half of that hehe. Amazing...thanks so much for posting it.

paperx - Hey man sorry I didn't answer your question till now. I called statue.com and asked them if they could ship to New Zealand and they said they could! So that is really nice. There casts have been good quality for the price that you pay. Giust gallery is definitely better but they are about twice as expensive. Also there are methods of making your own cast which you and I could talk about as well. It will probably take about two months for statue.com to get the cast to you when you order it. I will give you plenty of warning before I have my cast drawing class so people can have time to get their casts.

Coen - Hey man I did get your email. Hopefully you got my response...I am on a new web site server now so I shouldn't have the weird email problems I was having before.

AztcFireFlower - Thanks so much for the kind words! Most of my studies are turped as well heheh...or gamsol'd I should say heheh.

Sepulverture - Thanks man...when you start as low as I did anything looks nice hehe...that cat drawing at the beginning gets me every time heheh.

iatriki - Thanks! It's definitely still going on...I just feel truly blessed to still be doing this.

o00o0o0o0o0o - Thanks! Your name is hilarious! I love it. Although I wouldn't be able to find you in a user search hehe.

Thujon - Thanks! Keep drawing and you will pass me in time!

Razorb - Thanks so much man!

Pascallo - Thanks man I appreciate it. Thanks for visiting!

vlad74 - Respect right back at ya

stalsby - Hey man thanks and I'm glad you liked the pdf. Another dallas painter...woohoo! You are welcome to come up and paint with me when I have models anytime. Contact me on here or through my website if you wanna get together and paint some.

Moai - Thanks! I'm glad this thread helps inspire. That's my ultimate goal with this thread...to help others on their "journey" as well.

Elissimo - Thanks so much! Now I'm really nervous that you are showing it to other illustrators heheh.

staaron - Haha! That's hilarious. But the real question is...who would play me?

ravenslayer - Thanks for the kind words! Hard work definitely pay off that's for sure. I think the more advanced you become the harder it is to push forward. Think about Sargent "wanting to improve"...crazy thought hehe.

Diphallia - You got it...that's a 2008 resolution for me...keep the updates coming more frequently!

Christian223 - Thanks for your concern. We are doing much better now.

baretul - Good news we found out what the ailment is so now it's just changing our way of life. Jkior is back home in Massachusetts now. He only had a limited amount of time he could stay with me, but he learned a ton in that time. He's a really busy guy and I haven't heard from him recently. He's doing a lot of studies of which I saw a few. I need to catch up with him to find out what's up as well!

emily g - Thanks emily. Hey how are things going with maestro whitaker? Tell him I said hi!

Craig D - Thanks man...things are back online woohoo!

vlad74 - Thanks! She is already feeling tons better.

Aardvarkphil - Thanks man!

algenpfleger - Thanks!

Barber - Your wish is my command hehe. I have been doing more imaginative stuff lately. I'll post up one today.

Diphallia - Thanks! We're both still alive thankfully. Last year was hard, but it's behind us now.

ODISAP - Haha thanks!

--------------------------------------------------------



Ok everyone I am back in action. Basically 2007 really stunk...to put it mildly. My wife and were glad when Jan 1 rolled around. So we finally figured out what's wrong with my wife. She has celiac disease (if I'm spelling it right). It's basically an allergy to gluten (which is in wheat, barley, etc...). What happens is that when someone with celiac eats gluten their body doesn't like it so it starts to create a film or layer on the inside of their intestines...till basically the body is not able to absorb any nutrients at all. That's exactly what was happening to my wife and why she was losing so much weight. Who think they are allergic to bread right? Hehe. She also found out she is allergic to Chocolate and Soy...which added to things. As soon as we found that out and she changed her diet things instantly got better. She actually enjoyed eating for the first time in a while (before food would just make her feel sick)...and now she really craves food which is new as well. Apparently it takes about six months for your body to purge the lining in the intestines and then hopefully she will start gaining some weight. She already looks better but she hasn't gained any weight....she doesn't look pale all the time though which is a good sign.

Her job really sucks as well which is causing a lot of stress so I have been taking steps to try to help out in that area as well to take the pressure off.

I am not going to be teaching in my studio anymore. What I realized is that teaching was taking me away from my work(art) and was not providing the proper income-time ratio for me. So I decided not to teach anymore and to move my studio home so that my income can go towards our bills and take some pressure off of my wife. I also wanted to move my studio home so that models would be closer to me than at my previous studio.

Bringing my studio home was a hard decision but I really think it's for the best. I am in the process of hiring models (which is the real subject matter I want to paint) and I am hoping to have 4-5 model sessions a week. I will be doing head studies and nudes, etc... so that should be really good.

*****I also want to assure everyone that i am still moving forward with plans for the online atelier. The official date for the Bargue drawing class will be from Feb 15th to March 15th. The cost will be $150 per person for the full month. Soon I will be providing a sign up form. I will be limiting the class to 8 people for this first one, because I want to make sure there is proper personal attention given to each individual. Everyone has different issues with drawing so each of you will get personal attention.

Now the purpose of this class will NOT be to get a great look Bargue Drawing. That should be the product of you UNDERSTANDING the basic principles. My goal is not to teach you a rote method of how to duplicate something....that is pointless. Bargues teach you to learn to see spatial relationships and also to teach to observe and draw proper edges. Bargues also teach you RELATIONSHIPS...which is the ultimate absolute 100% key to doing everything in art as far as I am concerned. This class ultimately will be a foundational drawing class using the Bargue as the vehicle to teach those principles. So that's my shpeeel.

These are the classes I have planned for this year:

Bargue Drawing: Foundation Drawing Principles
Cast Drawing: Value Relationships Explained
Portrait Painting: Color Relationships Explained

These will all have visual examples (videos I record, pictures, pdfs...examples from the masters, etc...) So look forward to that.******

Ok on another note I just got back from a workshop at the Scottsdale Artist School with Clayton Beck III...a fantastic artist. He painted with Richard Schmid for about 9 years and his skill shows it. He brought in some paintings to the workshop and my jaw hit the floor. Some of them were just flat out amazing...I was floored because his website is not up to date. Good paintings always read better in person anyways. I learned a ton throughout the week and someone took pictures of some of the stuff I did there...so I'm waiting for them to send those.

I've also started doing some freelance illustration work that I can't post for copyright reasons, but that is also going on for me. I am also working on a painting right now that is inspired by a mixture of Mucha, Klimt, Sargent, Medieval Illumination, and some other things. I am going to be doing a series of paintings like that...I'm really excited. I am going to be using gold leaf on the canvas as well...hehe...we'll see how it goes.

So I can't post what illustration I have been doing recently, but I can post this digital painting I did for fun. My nephew wrote a funny story about a rogue fairy named "Stinkerbell" instead of Tinkerbell. I hadn't done a digital painting in about a year...or an illustration for that matter. So I decided to do a quick sketch of what I thought Stinkerbell should look like...here it is. I know there are problems but it was just a fun sketch ;) :

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I also got a nintendo DS for Christmas and one of the freeware programs you can download for it is called "Colors"...and it's a digital painting program. I have been messing around doing digital paintings on the DS because it is a touch screen. Sparth is the one that turned me on to it...I saw it on a blog where he was talking about it. It's really cool!...his sketches are of course much better than mine hehehe. But literally these sketches were done in the mall and in the car in about 5-15 minutes. I did the skull one while in jcpennies waiting for my wife to finish shopping. Now going to the mall can be fun guys hehehe.

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I am going to start painting from the model soon and I will update you with what I am doing. I'm completely tired of still life paintings that's for sure.

[Victor B]

Great to see a new post from you Jon, glad things are looking up for you and your wife. Best wishes to you in the coming year. Looking forward to seeing what your new paintings look like.

[archipelago]

great to hear that your wife is getting better :)
the year 2008 is going to be the year 2000-great!

I know those last ones a fast sketches but you should try and use the biggest brush possible for whatever it is that you are doing! get some smooth patches of paint in there!

cheers man, looking forward to seeing those mucha/klimt type illustrations and more model work!!!

[sve]

I would like to sign up for the on-line class of yours if it is not late.
Really glad your wife is better and you found out what was the reason of her feeling sick. Hope your both will be fine from now on.
Sveta

[paperX]

hey man great to have you back, im glad to hear that your wife's condition is getting better, hope 2008 will prove to be a more satisfactory year for you :)

I went to that site you linked and holy sh*t!!! i knew there was gonna be differences in cast reproduction but daaaaamn, that bust of david looks so different from the cast i did my cast drawing from in china :O I'm honestly astounded....

btw, cool to hear that you're getting into colours, i've been messing around with it recently too, nifty little program indeed :)

[cupidsart]

I just started this thread but I am amazed at how your abilities have grown over the years. I hope it works out as well for me as it has for you.

Cheers,
CA

[Maestro Andres]

Hey sir, I know this has been a lot of times, but I am glad I found your sketchbook and look through how well you have develop in your journey. It's amazing where you started and how far have you go and I am sure there is still great things ahead for you. Very inspirational SB and journey, glad you are updating it now. Thanks for keep sharing your work in here.

On a side note, that COLORs program has become something of a sensation among everyone around here. It is very addicting because of how portable it is. There is DS color thread on the Lounge section where people are sharing their works, experiences and tips with this software if you are interested in checking it out. Cheers

[thinairart]

Thanks for the update! I'm definitely still interested in the Bargue class your planing for next month, I'll keep an eye out for the signup form.

[Lana]

I'm so glad you and your family are doing better. Looking forward to your updates!

[Barber]

wwwoo! nice updates,i like the last head!

[MindCandyMan]

vctr- Thanks man things are much much better now. Hopefully the new paintings will look good hehe!

archipelago - Thanks man. You are absolutely right about the brush size. Sargent said, "Think about what brush you need to make the next stroke and then pick one...one size bigger" hehehe.

sve - Thanks! You're not too late by any means. The sign up is happening right now! My wife is definitely doing a ton better thanks again.

paperX - My wife is much much better now. It's really great. Thanks! Yeah those casts are much better there. They aren't the best casts you can buy but they certainly aren't the most expensive either. Colors is so fun. I am having a blast doing little sketches here and there. It's really cool. Wes posted one in the colors thread that was really good! Sparth has been doing some amazing ones as well.

cupidsart - It definitely will work out for you the same way it has for me. There's definitely nothing special about my situation. Just trying to learn like everyone else and still getting frustrated heheh.

Maestro Andres - Thanks for the kind words and thanks for the link to that thread. I posted in that thread and saw some great paintings people did with their ds. Super fun.

reidaj - Here comes the bargue class ;)

Lana - Thanks yeah things are much better now.

Barber - Thanks hehe...that little program is super fun to just mess around with. A lot like painting in photoshop.

______________________________




*****OK Everyone well here's the official announcement for the Bargue Drawing class. Go to the link below to see more information on how to sign up:*****

http://www.jonathanhardesty.com/bargue_class.html


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Jonathan Hardesty:

Online Bargue Drawing Workshop

Introduction to Drawing using the Bargue:

March 1st 2008 - April 1st 2008
(Class will be limited to first 8 individuals)
________________

This class will explore the most basic (but most often neglected) structure of how to draw. Using the bargue drawing as a vehicle, you will learn to judge spatial relationships, simplify shadow shapes, and control value and edge relationships. None of you will be just "copying the bargue". This workshop is about changing your understanding of how light acts in nature.

This class will also be an experiment on my part to see if teaching long distance like this will work. Because of that fact, if anyone wants their money back within the first two weeks I will refund it fully. If this class goes well I will have more advanced ones in the future!

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I will be giving personalized instruction to each individual taking the class. I will also do my best to provide answers to questions throughout the rest of the week, but for sure on each of those days. I figured that those days would be best considering that people can work over the weekend and ask any really important questions while in process and then the full explanations and critiques can happen on the beginning of the week.

Cost will be $150 each person for the full month. That includes all the instruction I can give to each individual, access to the training videos, materials, and examples I have created. Each individual will have a private thread where they receive all their personalized instruction...but there will also be another thread where you can show off your skills to others hehe.

The forums on my site are not intended to compete with conceptart.org just in case anyone was wondering. I will be creating threads for each individual workshop and then deleting them after sending out the transcripts to the students.

If anyone else has any question you can contact me through conceptart or by email at jonathan@jonathanhardesty.com .

First come first serve, but if I get enough people that are interested I may hold another class right after this one for the others.

[LifeWontWait]

This is just awsome Jonathan... I sure I am not too late to get in.

[sve]

I sent the needed information and request. Hope you received it.
Regards
Sveta

[MindCandyMan]

LifeWontWait - Yes you are definitely not too late. Thanks again for being interested.

sve - Hi Sveta. I did receive it. So you are locked in. I'll be sending out all the additional info today.

_____________________________



****There are 5 slots left for the Online Introduction to Drawing Workshop*****



Head study I did at the workshop that Clayton Beck III taught. It's not that great of a picture but you'll get the idea. I gave the painting to the model because i couldn't take it on the plane...too wet hehe.

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[Barber]

I sent an email...hope I got a place..probably didn't..i gave real quick answers cos i wanted to send the email as quick as possible lol.....probably screwed myself.Nice new portrait!

[thinairart]

Email sent, looking forward to the class!

[Diphallia]

Great to hear that it was "just" an allergy.

I'm getting a bit teased to buy a DS just because of the "colors" app.
Nice portrait btw!

[hurricane]

great stuff man!
wonderfull paintings (as always)

if you want some feedback, let me know and i'll happily provide some!


cheers man and i'm glad you're back!!
my best wishes to you and yours!


/Björn

[JamesF]

The transition was amazing, i always thought art was natural talent

[MindCandyMan]

Barber - Haha...there'll be room for you don't worry. I sent all my initial responses so if you haven't received an email back from now at this point then I haven't received your email for some reason.

reidaj - Got you locked in...thanks!

Diphallia - Haha true...it isn't just an allergy. It really has disrupted her whole life having to eat all these special things. She pretty much needs to bring her own food with her wherever she goes because EVERYTHING has either soy or gluten in it. It's amazing. But we are just glad to know what the problem is now so we can get her better.

hurricane - Hey thanks for stoppin by man. I check your thread every update. Your progress is fantastically undeniable man. Awesome! You don't have to ask permission man just rip my stuff to shreds. The wounds of a friend are better than the flattery of an enemy right? hehe

JamesF - Luckily my beginning stuff was bad enough to prove that I had virtually no talent to begin with heheheh. Thanks for stoppin by.

-------------------------------------------


*****Ok guys 2 more slots left for the Online Drawing Instruction Workshop*****


So I am practicing my brush work and yesterday I did three paintings. One of them I scraped off to use the canvas again. It wasn't worth keeping hehe.

I am working on efficiency of stroke. I have realized that my paint application is really sloppy a lot of times...or at least it is not as intentional as it should be. So I limited the amount of strokes that I could use to complete these paintings.

These are not meant to be finished paintings...they are strictly just times to learn. I have needed to do these types of exercises so I am glad to be back doing them again.

293696

This banana one was limited to 25 brush strokes. I think I actually did more like 20 strokes.

293697

This head study was really limited with strokes too but I was teaching at the time so I don't know how many I did. Probably about 35-40 or so.

As clayton beck says...whatever you are thinking is going to be there on canvas. The canvas is an extension of your though process so in order to have a better painting you need to think differently.

Check out the purple underneath the eye on the right...wrong color right?...looks like the purple is too strong?....well that's not actually what the problem is. That's your first inclination is to think that the color is wrong but it is actually that the value is wrong. That what causes the breakdown in that area. The color would be fine if the value was right. So next time I paint I know I need to pay more attention to the values of my paint mixtures before I apply the stroke. Those are the types of things I use these studies to flesh out.

[Barber]

Check out the purple underneath the eye on the right...wrong color right?...looks like the purple is too strong?....well that's not actually what the problem is. That's your first inclination is to think that the color is wrong but it is actually that the value is wrong. That what causes the breakdown in that area. The color would be fine if the value was right. So next time I paint I know I need to pay more attention to the values of my paint mixtures before I apply the stroke. Those are the types of things I use these studies to flesh out.


This reminds of some of the stuff schmid says in alla prima..what a genius...nice to see your able to figure out your own issues.

and YES! i got the email...:steph: i'm in baby.

p.s. r u only promoting ur class in this thread?

[hurricane]

nice paintings!
it's a very interesting concept of limiting brush strokes!
it's something i've been thinking about as well but not really forced into my way of painting but kinda floating in the back of my mind.

I don't really have any critique on the last ones as it's more of a experimentation.
Some minor edge and value issues but that comes with the territory of experimenting :)

Ever tried using a shape to mask an area when you paint? Like airbrush artists do to get that crisp edge?

i definitely gonna do the limited brush thing at work on monday!

:yum: cheers man!

[paperX]

oh man your last post is full of words of wisdom, sadly I'm going to be busy next month with uni but hope the class goes well for you man :)

[MeTaL-Mike]

Amazing works man. love your studies and theories man.

[HunterKiller_]

Glad to have you back, Sir.
Wish this year will be a good one for you, and hope the class goes well.

[MindCandyMan]

Barber - Awesome yeah you are locked in. Yeah I have only promoted in this thread so far. I wanted to give you guys the first crack at it. Do you think I should post it in the lounge as well or something like that?

hurricane - Hey dude. We all bow to your skills here man. That's the truth. Thanks for stoppin by. I have never actually masked an area but I am going to have to do that on the large format painting that I am working on. I am adding some design elements into the painting that will require me to mask a lot of edges. Loved your limited brush work practice that you did as well btw.

paperX - Thanks man I'm glad that it helped out! Don't worry about the class as well. If it goes well I will be offering it again.

MeTaL-Mike - Thanks! Trying to figure all this stuff out is difficult...that's for sure.

HunterKiller_ - Thanks! It's definitely good to be back that's for sure. This year should be a lot better than last year I think. Thanks for the encouragement on the class too. I'm sure if I do a bad job people will be berating me in this thread heheh.

_________________


My wife was at home today resting and later on at night I did this sketch. After about an hour and some change the sun went just below the tree line and the room went pitch black heheh. That was when I stopped painting hehe.

296338

Plus a closeup for all who care

296339


I also did a quick landscape today before it rained real bad. The only place in shade was under my driveway cover thingee. So I painted my backyard. Just a quick one:

296337


*********Only a few slots left in the Bargue Drawing Class...get it while you can**********

[Victor B]

Lovely portrait of your wife I actually recognized her from the previous portrait of her! well done. As far as the landscape goes "drool" love the shed. Thanks for the detail shot as well.Thanks for posting ,hope you're well

[Captain Jackal]

This is incredible. A very positive effect on my work.

[Barber]

Barber - Awesome yeah you are locked in. Yeah I have only promoted in this thread so far. I wanted to give you guys the first crack at it. Do you think I should post it in the lounge as well or something like that?




yeh why not? you could post a thread,with some of your finished art from your website or someting incase no one knows who you are.Can't see how they wouldn't though.

or you could wait it out summore.,that might be a better option I suppose.

to be honest i just want you to get the last few quiick so I can more info's

I'm hungry for knowledge!:yum:

...................
Latest artwork is kickass,recently ordered some schmid dvds,and your work inspires me even more to paint.

[Serpian]

Wow, I've known about this thread and its inspiring qualities for a long time, but I've never been bother to actually read through it. So guess what happens when I randomly browse through it again? I discover you've studied under Szameit and Tomac! And I'm SO planning to go to atelier stockholm in the fall! So I guess the world IS pretty small after all!

[AphexTweak]

Your thread always provides so much inspiration. Nice studies.
Glad to hear your wife is doing better. Also good to hear that your on-line classes look like they are going to start off well. I'm still interested in what you have to offer, but life is a bit too busy at the moment. Good luck.

[FlameDragon]

Nice work! I'm definitely inspired by this thread, I want to dramatically improve my art as well. I guess I have been slacking off because I know noticeable results will take years to become visible, and I feel like I want to draw well now.

[metalwinds]

hey john, glad to see you've kept this sketchbook going; it is the most inspiring, if not the best, thread on conceptart.org.

danny

[monsi]

lovely speed painting of your wife :) great strokes.

[Akateros]

Like everyone else, I just can't pass this thread by without commenting. I only wish I'd found it right when I first stumbled on conceptart a couple weeks ago, so I could've joined in on the Bargue class!

It's inspiring, encouraging, and terrifying, all at once -- anything is possible, if only I choose to make it so, and put in the time.

Thank you for leaving it all up for us to see your progress. And I hope you'll keep updating... somewhere, since it's obvious that even though you've achieved a beautiful level of technical mastery, this is only the very beginning of what you're going to do with it.

[p sage]

What a fantastic journey you have been on, mcm.

Your finished pieces are astonishingly good. Long about 2 years and 2 months into your thread, the stuff I started to see from you left my jaw on the table.

I've really enjoyed your humble attitude, and most of all the little "hehe's" you throw in. Keeps the attitude light and kept a smile on my face through the hours of reading this thread of yours.

I've been wanting to do the same my whole life--starting before you were born! After about two years of your hard efforts, you surpassed where my efforts have left me in the art world.

That's not a bad thing; it's really inspiring to see where you've gone and what you're doing. Even at almost 40 years old, I feel (now) like I can "get there"--or at least get the level of artistic proficiency that will make life much more enjoyable.

One more person who thanks you.


Chad

[kaikai]

Wow your story is amazing. My drawing proffesor Scott Parsons told us your story and I couldn't believe. I'm drawing every day now becacuse i'm inspired by your progress. Thanks

[Olof]

MorteM - This thread is such a monster...I don't know how anyone can read through it. I hardly look back at the initial pages. Yuck...so bad hehehe.
That's what make this thread so damn good. I remember that your improvement was insanely good back then, to see that you're still improving is so motivating :)

I met your teachers this week, something that's made me really inspired. The only thing that stops me from applying to the school right now is the economical situation. Otherwise, I'd join in a heartbeat!

.peace

[markey2d]

hi there,
thnx to this thread, i have realised that my dreams are possible, i am utterly shocked at the improvement you have made. sometimes i feel that with the work im am doing i am not improving, because learning to draw is such a subtle thing you can't always see your imediate improvement. But looking at this thread has made improving real to me.

For this thank you

[Kfeeras]

WOW i just saw you got your own little Icon on the top of the page, next to all the other great artists. Congrats!
I have shown this sb to a lot of people and every single one was impressed (and, if artist, motivated).
Whats also stunning to me is that you find the time to reply to every single comment on this sb.

thank you sir

cheers

-antonio

PS: May i ask how old you have been back then in 2002?

[~Faust~]

Dear mr. Hardest, I really do not know whether I should praise or curse you. I come by this thread from time to time to time when I am either feeling that I am going nowhere and I am not improving being on my 18th page in my CA-SB already (only you were there in less than 3 years...) or that I have no possible future doing this.

I don't know. Is there a way to get cured by this viral urge to create? I really see it taking away the path I saw so clearly when I was still 20. This is when I could curse you for showing me an alternative that could be too good to be true!

[stalsby]

Such an amazing journey! I live near by in Dallas! I would love to visit your studio someday! Keep up the good work! Thanks for the inspiration!

[ChuanMing]

DAMN, your improvement is amazing! Keep it up man!

[hurricane]

what can i say, nothing but love :D

the painting of your wife is a bit too "wild" for my taste, colors in all sort of directions and strokes.. The backyard painting has a better focus though. Nice colors and focalpoint.

Damn tasty stuff though, don't get me wrong hehe. Everybody has an opinion :P

What's going on in your life? Too much paint not enough beer? hahaha


Have a good one and congratulations on the thumb up top! :lifedrawing: :yayca: :hugsmile:

[MindCandyMan]

Victor B - Thanks man. Yeah I definitely wanted to capture her likeness. I felt like that part at least went well. I'm glad you were able to pick up on that as well! Glad you like the shed too...just a quick sketch.

Captain Jackal - Thanks so much! That's my ultimate goal for sure.

Barber - Thanks so much for the great suggestions. Actually the online atelier ( Classicalartonline.com ) is going to be opening on the 1st of June. I am really excited about it. I finally got everything setup. I'll write a little more about it further down in this post. Schmid definitely rocks by the way. He's the man.

Serpian - Awesome! That's really cool. I've seen pictures of their school building and it looks amazing. Keep me updated with your progress.

AphexTweak - Thanks so much for the encouragement. I understand completely about not having the time right now. It takes a lot of time and commitment for sure. My plan is to publish short video tutorials and send them out on youtube, podcasts, etc... I will definitely be posting those and all my new work here as well.

FlameDragon - I know exactly what you mean. It's really hard to think about producing good art. You look into the future to where you want to be and it seems overwhelming. But the real truth is that...that feeling never goes away. I see Sargent, Schmid, etc... and I want to produce work that good and it seems overwhelming. But you just have to take it a day at a time. Work hard each day and you will get to that level. Setting daily goals really helps. (i.e. one drawing, etc.. a day)

metalwinds - Thanks bro! What's new with you man? I bet you are kicking some serious butt.

nethus - Thanks so much. The sun was setting quickly so I had to hurry that's for sure hehe.

Akateros - Thanks! I'm sorry you missed the Bargue class as well. Although I am now going to be opening the first online atelier (that I know of) called ClassicalArtOnline.com . It will be opening on June 1st. I'll post more information at the bottom of the thread about it. And you are absolutely right...this certainly is only the beginning. I have about 50+ more years of painting in me if I can help it hehe.

p sage - Thanks so much for the kind words Chad. I'm glad my "hehes" haven't annoyed you. I'm sure I do it a LOT more than I think. :) I will say that you DEFINITELY can get there no matter what age. I am teaching private lessons to a woman right now who has never sketched a thing in her life. She has been studying with me for about a year and is progressing so well. She worries sometimes that she is too old (late 40's early 50's) but the truth is that she has about 30 more years of painting in her. I told her that those 30 years could be doing what she loves...or wishing that she did it. There really was no choice. If you have that desire pursue it with everything in you because the desire won't go away...trust me.

kaikai - Thanks! Oh man how is Scott doing!!!! I haven't seen him since South Dakota. He is an awesome guy and he did some great drawings while we there studying. I remember watching him do these great expressive drawings while we were doing these boring outlines. Definitely tell him I said hi.

MorteM - Yeah I guess that's what makes the thread good. Including the good and the bad heheh. I understand too about the money commitment. It's really tough sometimes. I would never want to poach students from them, but if things don't work out for you to attend their school you should check out my online atelier. I'll write more about that further down in this post.

markey2d - Thanks! Yeah I know what you mean. While I was going through all of this the change felt natural and slow. But then as you look back you can see the jumps. I know I'm going to look back on my work now and be ashamed of it in 10 years as well...but I can't think about that right now hehe.

Kfeeras - Thanks so much. Yeah I was really excited to see myself included on the artist list. This website is so helpful to so many people. It sounds real cheezy but I really am just glad to be a part of it. I've learned so much from everyone here.

~Faust~ - Haha you can curse me if you want. It's ok hehe. I curse myself all the time. Well I can say this with confidence. You definitely have a future in art. I went to your sketchbook and looked at your work and you are headed down the right path. A lot of your shape lighting studies show that you are gaining a lot of understanding. It's not too good to be true trust me. Part of my big jump was from my training that I was receiving so remember that as well. I was getting help all along the way...I wasn't doing it alone that's for sure.

stalsby - Thanks so much. You are welcome anytime. I've moved my studio home but you are welcome at my home/studio anytime. I love to meet local artists.

ChuanMing - Thanks! :)

hurricane - I understand exactly what you are saying. I love to hear comments like that as well. I'm glad you feel comfortable saying them. Yeah I was definitely practicing color saturation with that painting. Also it was my goal to place a stroke and not to adjust it. You are absolutely right about stroke direction...I wasn't paying enough attention to stroke direction. Also paint thickness is off in some areas as well. I'll get em next time right hehe. I was really happy to get the thumbnail up there as well. It's an honor to be next to those guys that's for sure.

______________________________



Sorry I haven't updated in a while guys. Here is a drawing I finished from a session with a new model yesterday. 2 hour session this time. I was experimenting with stroke application. I am learning to use my charcoal studies as practice for painting. Charcoal is a really quick and fun medium to use. I am going to use a similar pose to this one for a painting I think.

377495


So I have been really busy lately and the reason is that I have been getting my new teaching website ClassicalArtOnline.com up and running. As you guys know I gave a workshop back in the month of March and it went fantastically well. It actually went much better than I thought. I was really impressed with the dedication and work of the students that took part in the workshop. Everyone was enthusiastic about the prospect of having an online atelier so I decided to move forward with the idea.

ClassicalArtOnline.com

HOW IT WORKS: It works by providing students access to daily personalized instruction, video demos, private forums, and many other materials. Through video demos and written instruction (pdfs, etc...) students get the basics. Then they work on their projects and (using a digital camera or a scanner) then upload them to the website and receive personalized instruction and feedback from me. Also, biweekly, students have a personal chat session with me to ask any questions they want. Students also have access to high rez versions of a ton of my paintings and many more things as well.

This idea grew out of the need of students living outside of the U.S. I had a bunch of people write me emails saying they wanted to study with me, but they couldn't afford to relocate and also pay the tuition, etc... So I created that workshop and eventually ClassicalArtOnline.com to accomodate that need. But the website has grown into something much bigger. I love taking workshops with painters. I have learned so much by doing that, but I realized that I couldn't keep spending the money. These were the typical expenses for one workshop:

Workshop Tuition - $650
Airline Tickets - $375
Hotel for the week - $400
Rental Car - $375
Food for the week - $150
Gas - $75
Workshop Specific Art Supplies - $75
---------------------------------
Total = $2100

So I decided to make my online school that exact price...except for a year of study. ($175 a month x 12 months = $2,100 )

THE ADVANTAGES: One of the frustrations I had when studying and/or taking a workshop was that I had no way to catalog all the information I was getting. What I found is that I couldn't remember 95% of what was said. I also realized that I didn't understand a lot of the teaching until later when I had progressed farther as well. Doing Everything online allows the student access to all the information at any time that they want. The student will receive a transcription of every chat session, and PDF's of all their online lessons with me (plus they can just log in and look through their instruction blog). They also can look at the instructional videos as many times as they want. They can go over them again and again to review the information till it sinks in.

Relocating is a major issue for a lot of students. So this fixes that as well. Students can work directly from their homes and can work within whatever schedule they want.

Because everything is online I can charge a low monthly price without students losing out on the material. Most of the costs for a private atelier are the building and the other expenses of housing 10-15 students. At ClassicalArtOnline.com I show you how to setup your home studio from which you will work. You don't have to pay for the building...you only pay for the instruction.

DISADVANTAGES: Students must be self-motivated to excel in this program. I set deadlines for students but you will not have a teacher breathing down your neck like in a real atelier. The training is serious and will require a lot of time and effort so really make sure this is something you want to do before signing up. The other disadvantage is that students must have a method to record their drawings/paintings digitally. I will give instructions to each student on how to photograph their work but they must have access to a digital camera and/or a scanner.

Here are some screenshots to give you an example of what the experience will be like on the website. You can see my star pupil Steven Fakeman here hehe:

http://www.classicalartonline.com/screenshots/main_page.jpg

http://www.classicalartonline.com/screenshots/blog_area.jpg


I have some great plans for the future of the site as well. Eventually I am going to enable the site to have guest "speakers" to give video demos and question and answer sessions. I am also looking into providing live video demos of me painting as well...where students can ask questions and get responses right away.

Above all the most important thing that I can offer a student in personal instruction and a personalized curriculum based on their strengths and weaknesses. Students will have access to ask questions and receive help any time they want. The number of students will be limited in order that I can keep things personal. Each student will be receiving "special" attention.

If any of you are interested and want more info you can email me at classicalartonline@gmail.com , reply in this thread, or shoot me a private message. I am limiting the enrollment for the first month to 10-12 students so I can be sure that they receive the time from me they need. If I decide I can take on more students later than I will but at first it will be limited to that number. I have about half the students already signed up so if you want your spot just let me know so I can reserve it.

I promise I'll be updating a lot more frequently on here as well.

[HunterKiller_]

Glad to hear your course went well!

What you have lined up sounds very promising. Hope everything will be a great success and that your classes will continue to grow. Who knows, maybe you'll be running your own school in the near future.

[MindCandyMan]

HunterKiller_ - Thanks yeah I am really excited about the new school. I think it is going to help a lot of people who wouldn't be able to get concentrated classical training otherwise.

__________________________


Here is a recent study from Hawaii. My wife's uncle lives there and he recently bought one of my paintings. He flew my wife and I out there so that I could do a painting of his land/house/etc... I did a whole bunch of studies and I am going to do a finished painting combining all of them and photo reference as well. We got to stay there 2 weeks in his house when he wasn't there. It was a great time. I definitely want to live there now. I would have to sell my soul to get the money to live there...but still.

This painting was just a study so I never stretched it on canvas bars. So you can see the ripples there...sorry about that. This one will never end up being stretched so I thought I'd take a pic before it gets destroyed:

377877

I don't think I've showed you guys this one either. A study of an old mill.

377878

Also for all who are interested you can check out pdf's of the curriculum and introduction to the training at these links:

http://www.classicalartonline.com/documents/Atelier_Training_Curriculum.pdf

http://www.classicalartonline.com/documents/Introduction_to_Your_Training.pdf

[Victor B]

Thanks for the updates Jon, the Charcoal looks great, it be fun to see if/when you do work up an oil based on it. The house studies look great . Congrats on the online atelier it looks like a great idea in fact I may... have to think about it... as always thanks for posting !

[el coro]

haha color me impressed :). nice to see what u been up to lately. congrats on the school man. i hope all is well with you. i still have your dead bird hanging on my wall. im very proud to have that. thanks again for hookin it up. next time you come to frisco ill be sure to dump something off on ya, if you want a silly little coro painting to scrape your shoes with, or to use as a doorstop or whatever. hugs-c36

[MindCandyMan]

Victor B - Thanks man. The house study in Hawaii was especially fun because, of course, it was in Hawaii hehe. The houses on Kaua'i are insanely expensive. Some houses average 1,000 or more per square foot. So a 500 square foot house is going to cost you 500,000. Insane. I wish I lived there though because everywhere you look is something that you can paint. The light is perfect everyday too. And if you are interested on getting more info for the online school just let me know. I'm really excited about it. I actually just found an application yesterday to allow me to do live painting demos while my students ask questions. Pretty cool stuff.

el coro - Thanks so much for stopping by man. Yeah I'm really excited about the school. I've been growing more and more dissatisfied with the classical community. A lot of the ateliers are very narrow minded so it will be nice to set the curriculum myself and make it more slanted towards alla prima painting. Man I would never use one of your paintings for a doorstop that's for sure. Your paintings are much more interesting than mine. If I had one of your paintings my wife would actually have something good enough to hang in the house hehe. Seriously though I take so much creative inspiration from you guys. If I only looked at atelier work I would end up painting apples and casts all day. I'm glad that you still like the dead bird. That was really fun to paint. I am working on a new series of paintings and I want to give one to massive black when I'm finished. It will be a while till I'm hoping when it's done it will be worthy to hang on the walls.

[hmanafi]

when i get disappointed to continue my art,i always remember your journey.thank you
outstanding sketchbook

[BeautyGirl1510]

Wow, some really lovely stuff. I wish I had an entire day to just look through your sketchbook. I'd take my hat off to you (if I had one that is). But really, I will have to visit until I see everything. As others have said, truely inspirational. Thank you, and I can't wait to see more!

[Blackhawk]

Jon, that study is great, I love the color on the sidewall, you get a wonderful sense of the sun casting on it. I'm not too fond of the brushwork on the grass, but it is a study afterall and the rest of it is awesome. Nice job man.

[Benjamen Christ]

awesome!!!

[cnctdsns]

dude this thread is amazing
i know its been said a lot already... but truly inspiring
to watch how you progressed from this -

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=90144&d=1180110576

to this -

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=94289&stc=1&d=1171553706


...incredible

[Hybrid_75]

So interesting, I am so tempted to join that course, i dunno. amazing journey btw.

[MindCandyMan]

hmanafi - Thanks so much! I appreciate the kind words. If my thread can give someone some inspiration I am definitely a happy man.

BeautyGirl1510 - You are brave to visit each page in this thread. It's much more massive than I realize sometimes. Crazy. Basically I can give you a run down of the first 30 pages...crap hehe. So maybe that will save you some time heheh.

Blackhawk - Oh yeah that grass is butt styles. Really bad. I thought that as soon as I finished it hehe. I've actually been trying to work on my landscape foregrounds. I think the problem lies in the opaqueness vs. transparency and also not paying attention to value shifts. You have such a good eye man. Love your comments keep em coming.

christ - Thanks! I appreciate it. :)

cnctdsns - Oh man that cylinder hahahah. Hilarious. I remember doing that thinking...hey that's not too bad. Then a week later I was truly embarassed that I put it up online hehe. So funny. The amazing floating cylinder. Thanks for the kind words. Anything looks incredible when you are that bad ya know hehe.

Hybrid_75 - Spots are filling up fast so let me know if you are interested and I can give you more info. It's going really well so far. Everyone is doing a great job. I gave my first live painting demo a couple weeks ago and that also went really well. It's bizarre that I can do all of this from my computer...but technology has finally gotten to the point where it's possible. Very cool.

___________________


394207

This is a painting I did as a live demo for my online students. Since it was the first one I did for them I was a little bit nervous. But it turned out ok. It wouldn't have been the greatest if the first live demo turned out poorly hehe. Nice competent teacher right? heheh.

One of my galleries told me that a guy was interested in my work so this one might go to him. I was planning on doing a painting like this one and he said he wanted a small one that would fit between David Leffel's and Sherrie McGraw's in his house. Talk about pressure sheesh. I was honored and completely freaked out when she said that. So I'm waiting to hear back from him about this one. We'll see if he likes this one. Matching a person with a painting can be a crazy experience. Sometimes subject matter or color scheme will turn a person off. It's interesting to see who ends up with what paintings.

[Victor B]

Looking great Jon I can't believe its the 18th already, I'm still getting settled in , so I can be ready to go come July. Love the painting Jon thanks for sharing

[Lukias]

Stunning work mate. and yes.. "that would fit between David Leffel's and Sherrie McGraw's in his house" thats insane. Just a little pressure eh;)

[Blackhawk]

No pressure Jon, just remember, you are like a bullfighter bud, just keep side stepping and slapping that bull on the ass everytime it goes by :D

Nice job on the painting man, if I did a live demo at this point I'd drive my students into confusion with all my meddling. I'm glad that online class stuff is going well for you, your studio in Whitewright, while beautiful and perfect lighting, was too damn far. Glad everything is working out now.

Also, I found out Tuesday nights are free at Phoenix Art Museum here locally for me, and they have an awesome Thomas Moran landscape in their collection. It's badass, I found he used different colored imprimaturas underneath the different planes of the landscape, and he let quite a bit of it show through on the final and it was gorgeous. The one they have in their collection is of the Grand Canyon, and he used an umber imprimatura for the foreground and an alizarin imprimatura for the canyon. The thickest paint application was in the sky as well. Really eye opening when you get to see it in person and it was much nicer than the one in Dallas. I still miss the Sargents and Bougereau though at the Dallas Museum.

[christian.m]

I'm blown away by your work man. Freakin awesome.

It is one of my goals to someday teach as well. Do you find it harder to create your own work when you have all these other awesome art related things going on?

Ive followed your work for a long time, but I'm finally a member so now I can.. subscribe!!

-C

[princessbunny99]

you're an absolute inspiration!

That's it, I'm putting out a sketchbook.

[Untouched24]

I know you hear this all the time but this is an awesome sketchbook. Thanks for allowing everyone to see your progress over roughly 6 years. You can't usually see this kind journey all documented with all the works in between. Its very inspiring.

A great example of what hard work and determination can do. Thanks.

[momothemonkey]

ya u kinda inspired me. i need it i suck

check my sb in my sig

[reme]

Heya, good job man! Im really inspired by you :)

[Kan Muftić]

Rock solid work, makes me wanna get dirty again.
Cheers,
Khan

[Lastro]

Wow...You really inspired me to push harder. I may be 21, but I can still improve. Thanks!!

[Psychotime]

THE best thread on this site.

[P]

THE best thread on this site.

I do not agree, its more like the best thread on the internet!

[Verehin]

O_o beautiful traditional paintings...I like it sooooo much

[Aila]

I looked at the first page. Then I looked at the last page. And I damn near cried.. that's meant as a compliment, obviously :P Now I've looked through your entire sketchbook, and what can I say, it's bloody brilliant (words fail me xD). Or "omgwtfbbq" ,as the kids these days put it. Very inspirational.. need to get off my own ass and get some more studies in. I'd be over the moon if I were half as good as you've become ;D
Keep up the great work!!

[pao]

really awesome stuff man, i ever saw your website before =)

thx for sharing :)

[Serpian]

Jon! I've now been five days at Atelier Stockholm, where Hans and Sanna teach. I've finished my first bargue (it was a simple one, next one will take longer!), and already I have learned a tonne! I can only hope to have the same drive and discipline as you, so that I will be a great painter one day as well!

In other words... I'm breathing right up your neck! ;)

[ConCrete]

Highfive.

[SADCLOWN]

i really love yours work .really .

[Obstbrand]

This is with a huge distance my favorite sketchbook around here! Seeing you how you developed your skills in painting/drawing over the years onto such a high standard rejoiced my heart. Great!

[DidiHer]

This particular SB is soooo inspiring for me!!!
I love to travel thru pages and pages.... And see how you improbe to become a very talented artist.

Thanks for sharing your journey with all of us.

Cheers!

[SADCLOWN]

i really love yours work .really .

[shamandalie]

I came a little too late! Mister, your progress is totally inspiring. I'm gonna push myself a little harder this time. Thank you so much. :)

[Frankie Boy]

This thread is so.. Amazing, inspirational, all these words have been said throughout this journey of yours. Words seem to be limiting how much this thread has done for me. I just looked through it for the last few hours and I can't put words to how it makes me feel.

Watching you progress from the beginning to the end is like watching the life of a person on a movie screen while holding the fast forward button down. Just looking through this, the beginning had the simple things looking like you really wanted to learn. When I saw the first page grow into the last I've gained a new respect for you and the discipline of art.

I'm 15 years old, I enjoy art and I want to pursue it but I'm not sure I can but all my heart into it. I've been drawing for a year or 2, filling up sketchbooks slowly but steadily. But looking at your progress makes me feel like that I should be drawing more. Not just here or there, whenever I please but every day. Every single day of my entire life could have been spent drawing, it seems like lost time but now it makes me realize how much time I have left to draw.

I haven't even noticed my progress until recently, I was cleaning my room and I saw my first sketchbook. I smiled and chuckled as I looked through it, trying to be cool with an anime like style. Then after I looked through all my sketchbooks, 5 or 6 of them I noticed that the beginning of my first sketchbook was only more then a year ago. One year and I went from that to where I am today. Suddenly I feel like I can and will pursue a career in art, it seems like I have all the time in the world.

This thread makes me feel warm inside, a great feeling and you can be damn sure as soon as I submit this reply I'll grab my sketchbook and draw.

Thank you for taking your journey, a journey that I haven't even noticed that I too began so long ago.

[ceci est une pipe]

I looked at the first page. Then I looked at the last page. And I damn near cried.

Me too.

I was linked to this thread in a debate on whether artistic talent is god-given or acquired.

I feel great now.

[Katzenminze]

i was looking at your first picture on page1 then i skiped to one of the last pages and i was like.. * BLEEEP o.O * which stands for exitement and speechlessness (if that is a word) you have extremly improved, great thing! i want to learn this painterly stroke that you incorporate in your paintings. you are my role model!

[danlambert]

Im sorry if this has been asked already, but I've been going through the whole sketchbook from the start and Im only up to page 40 (I've been skipping every few pages or so) but anyway I was wondering if you knew where I could get some of those anatomical casts you are working from or something similar?
I really think just setting one of those up somewhere and just changing the light sources about and sketches could be really useful to my understanding of light on the figure. Anyway I'm rambling, awesome work so far, your progression is amazing.
Hope you can help

[ch1xx0r]

I've browsed your sketchbook and I must say you're an inspiration to all us n00bs here at CA :) :yayca:

[Arkanthor]

My, oh my...
I just spent the last 4 or more hours on here. I read through all 65 of these pages (well I skimmed many of the comments). "Lunatique" at cgsociety said that any beginner had to read through this. Now I see why.
I have been trying to better my own art for about 2 1/2 years now, and I often get frustrated. I am attending an art college, and when I started I wanted to become a concept artist or an illustrator. I kept hearing that the one I am at is the best in Canada (or at least second best). That's why I chose to come here in the first place. But it turns out they are a "conceptual art college". I have even been told by teachers that the concept behind the art is more important than how well the piece is actually pulled off. I have been feeling for a while now that I am more just working toward a degree in justifying crappy art, than I am actually learning to draw well.
But going through this forum has got to be the biggest inspiration for me, ever. I feel like just reading this is some sort of life changing experience. It's incredible the journey you have taken in just a few short years. Any time I become discouraged and feel like I am not making any progress, I will just have to think of this forum.
My girlfriend is sleeping right now, but first thing when she wakes up, I need to show her this. She is very much into traditional art, and just the other day was like "doesn't anyone care about traditional art anymore?" I didn't even know that ateliers still existed really (or had no idea how to find them). So yeah, definitely going to be showing her this thread.
And seriously, thank you for keeping up with this for so long and documenting your whole journey. For anyone who is getting discouraged, this could change everything.

[azazell]

to MindCandyMan:
Unbelievable, delightful! You have a really talent! Thank you so much! best regards from Russia.
:sungod:

[jeremygordon89]

Wow, this is one of the most inspirational threads I've ever seen. The amount of progress you've made in itself is the most inspirational thing, and it really confirms my belief in myself. Thanks for posting all this great work!

[courtyard]

I stumbled across this thread a few weeks ago and didn't stop reading until I reached the end sometime after 3am. Thank you *SO* much for spending what must have been a great amount of time preserving all of the early images and making this thread broken-link free. Your work is phenomenal.

[erik-jan v/d schuur]

awesome thread with beautiful paintings


verry cool

[nim]

wow, you're living inspiration! seeing your progress makes me very happy. thanks for working on this and keep going! \:U/

[pedramz]

You know I have had one of my worst slump as an artist these past weeks, struggling at the FAA and just feeling frustrated. I happen to stumble across this thread at the right time, and I have to say it really lifted my spirit, and just wanted to thank you for that.

Your a true testament to the human will.

Keep going Jonathan.


Pedram

[MindCandyMan]

Victor B - Thanks so much man. Hope you are doing well!

Lukias - Thanks man. Yeah you said it...just a little bit of pressure hehe. I made another painting and sent it to the gallery but he said that was too big to fit in the space as well so he must've needed something really small.

Blackhawk - You are hilarious dude hahah...slappin that bull. You are doing the same thing now man!

christian.m - Life does get crazy and things can definitely take over if you let them. What you have to do is set a specific time each day for your work. It doesn't always happen, but if you don't set a specific time you will never paint. Having a set schedule has helped me get all of that under control. Right now I'm knee deep in tax stuff...bleh. Thanks for the kind words too man.

princessbunny99 - Awesome! Yes you should definitely be starting a sketchbook. Hopefully you are still rolling with that ;)

Untouched24 - Absolutely no problem at all man. Thanks for the words. My path is here with all of its ugliness hehe. I'm still learning and certainly still having fun.

momothemonkey - Hey I took a look at your sketchbook and your work looks better than mine at the beginning of this thread...so don't worry too much about. Just keep pushing and take your training serious and you will go far.

notti - Thanks so much I appreciate it!

Chupacabra - Definitely get down and dirty with oils if you can man...there's no better way to do it!

Lastro - Absolutely...if you live to the average age you still have 49 years left...plenty of time to get better ;)

Psychotime - Thanks so much. You're making me blush ;)

pijus - Now I'm blushing even more...you guys.

Verehin - Thanks!

Aila - Thanks so much! Even if you would have just lingered on the first page you probably would have found something to make you cry...it was that bad hehe. But seriously though there is nothing special about me...I was able to get the training I needed and I had the time to be able to pursue this. I got lots of help from others so trust me there is nothing special about me.

pao - Thanks! And thanks for visiting my website as well.

Serpian - Hey! That's awesome that you are attending their atelier in Stockholm. How is that going for you? I'm sure you are breathing up my neck even closer now ;).

ConCrete - Slap it low...back at ya.

SADCLOWN - Thanks so much!

shamandalie - Thanks so much...I'm glad I could help inspire you to keep pushing with your art. I think the biggest part in succeeding is just being stubborn hehe.

Frankie Boy - You definitely don't write like you are 15...you seem much older and wiser! What you described is exactly how it is when learning art...or anything really...you look back a couple of years and shudder at what you see. But back then you were trying your hardest and that's all you could do. If you want a career in art you can definitely have one...it will take you 5-10 years of hard work, but if you want it bad enough you will get it. There's nothing special about me...trust me...just push hard and take your studies serious and there will be no stopping you.

ceci est une pipe - Thanks so much. I'm glad I got you feeling good!

Katzenminze - Thanks so much! The painterly strokes come when all of the basic foundational materials are learned. To do something in one stroke requires that you know what value, edge, color temperature, etc... that stroke should contain. Once you are really comfortable with all the basics (which is where the majority of work is required when learning) you will find that you can go as "loose" or as "tight" as you want to.

danlambert - I, and my students, get casts from statue.com or giustgallery.com . Giust gallery's casts are far superior but you pay more for them as well. Statue.com is cheaper and so you get what you pay for. If you search around giust gallery's site they have a bunch of casts that are cheaper though...you can find ones that fit your budget if you search long enough. Hopefully that helps.

ch1xx0r - Thanks so much man!

Arkanthor - I know exactly what you mean. When I first started pursuing art I took classes at University of Pennsylvania (an ivy league school) in the masters of fine art program. I was working there so I could take them for free. The classes were a complete joke and I was learning nothing. The teacher's assistant actually said that her master's thesis was going to be going to Vegas to get married...getting divorced 5 minutes after that...filming the whole thing and setting it up as an installation. So I dropped the class after a couple of weeks. That's actually why I started my online atelier as well so I could get this kind of training to anyone that wanted it...because so few universities or colleges even know how to create traditional type work. But even if your college is more conceptual you can still make the best of it and approach it differently than everyone else. They will yell at you and say you are boring, but just ignore them. If you take the hard route (working on foundational skills like drawing, etc...) then it will pay off in the end. They will be jealous of you at that point ;).

azazell - Thank you so much! Much love back at you in Russia!

jeremyg0rd0n - Absolutely no problem man. Like I've said before there is nothing special about me. Hard work + proper training + time = results....for sure.

courtyard - Thanks so much. I had a lot of help with those early links as well from Emily G. She really helped me keep this thread alive. She is an awesome person and an awesome artist and she deserves credit for that as well. Thanks for reading through the whole thread I appreciate...hopefully you got some sleep that night hehe.

`ej - Thanks!

nim - Thanks so much and don't worry...I don't plan on stopping. I'm more of train now...the only way to stop would be a wreck heheh.

pedramz - Thanks man. You know I got some wise advice from Jon Foster a long time ago. He told me that you will hate your work one day and love it another day...that's all part of the artistic process. There are days when I love painting and days when I hate it just like anything else. Frustration is all part of the game...but the better you get the less frustrating it gets because you can manage your mistakes and predict them. So there is light at the end of the tunnel. Definitely keep going and don't let anything get in your way. Success is partly about just being stubborn hehe.

_________________________________________




Well I know it's been a super long time since I updated so I will just say it, "Sorry". I have been ultra busy lately doing paintings for shows and working with my students in my online atelier. Things have been going very well. In fact I'm doing the best now that I have ever done in terms of painting sales and everything in general...which is weird because the rest of the country is struggling. I guess I was used to making so little before hehe. At any rate it has been too long and I apologize. But here are some updates for you. I gave these paintings to the gallery last week:

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This is called "Memories" and is 20 x 24 or so if I remember right.

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This one was a quick study that I did of my wife. I actually posted up a video of the painting process on youtube.com as well. It was a 2 hour painting so I sped up the process to 2000%. You can check that out here at this link:

CLICK HERE TO SEE A SPEED PAINTING VERSION OF THAT PAINTING ON YOUTUBE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIP_ACdivFQ)

Thanks again for all the great comments guys. You guys rule.

[Imaginary]

Oh man, awesome video, i love seeing how other people paint! :P

This thread is like a bottomless well of inspiration by the way, and almost no broken image links at all! That's just incredible. :D

[Josef K.]

awesome update man! the stillife rocks! and thanks for that video! pure gold!!!

[Victor B]

Sweet update Jon, I'm doing well, and am pleased to hear the Atelier and Gallery work are going well. The painting of you wife turned out great. Thanks for sharing, cheers!

p.s.- love the video!

[Marlisa]

Hey! I've been browsing throught your sketchbook and I REALLY love al your work, especially the oils.
It's great that you teach traditional art :) Here in Holland we don't have specific traditional art teachers and that really bothers me (because I would love to learn more about that from someone).
I'm doing bachelor in Art and education, but they mostly focus on modern-ish art. But when I look at your work, I feel that I could learn so much from it.

I would like to 'copy' one of your paintings, if it is ok by you :), because I want to experiment more painting-techniques, and yours is so nice and loose :^^:.

[JS Neo]

Awesome updates. Love the still life. It certainly give a slight sad but at the same time sweet feeling of memory of loved ones. :D

Recently found out about your online atelier. It is a wonderful thing. It will certainly make a lot of people who cant attend a atelier because of time or money or because there isnt any in their country very very happy. I hope I can take part in it in the future after the economy is more stable. :S Currently I am doing brague drawings too during weekends but feeling the struggle involved haa. Though I am kinda lost because of the fact I have no idea whether I am doing it right or wrong, I think I will keep at it. Something good should come out of this, i hope... Good luck to everything. :)

[Giorge]

absolute rookie my ass ^^ , jeez those last two look really nice , you are a really hard worker man

[Zebz]

Always blowin' my mind. When I grow up I want to be just like the MindCandyMan!! :D

[paperX]

...You guys rule.

no YOU RULE man....seriously I love your art but what I love more is your dedication towards it. Never stop painting man :)

PS: thanks soooo much for the youtube demo!

[Kristo Novo]

man your journey is so impressive
maybe you could pass by in my sketchbook and give me some advice
(specialy to come out of a sketch to a painting)

[Timmi-o-Tool]

wow..your progress..
yeah, one reason more to work harder!
<subscribe>

[RocketMonkey]

Awesome mate, absolutely awesome. I'm repeating what's already been said a hundred times, but this is real inspiration for us rookies.

Cheers MCM!

[Dougbot]

That still life is absolutely stunning.

[Cos Koniotis]

I'm pouring through your work and it's truly incredible MCM. Totally gobsmacked man, huge congrats. Thanks for posting the video also!

[Miles_]

Its so great to see how far you have come man. That last still life is wonderful as is the quick portrait. Continue to inspire us all please :}

[Lonomatik]

i've just finished reading this entire thread and was compelled to add a comment.

MCM, yer growth as an artist is just plain awe-inspiring.

i noted the timeframe that you were doing all this in and compared it to the artwork i was doing at the time and its not even funny how much more you improved yourself. best of luck in all yer future endeavours, man!

[MindCandyMan]

Imaginary - Thanks so much! Yeah Emily G helped out a lot with that...we went through and re-uploaded a lot of the photos a long time ago when CA allowed you to upload pics. She was really instrumental in that process...she told me how to do it and helped me and everything. Go Emily! I'm glad you liked the video...I'm definitely going to do more as well.

Josef K. - Thanks! I am definitely going to do more videos...it is so helpful in seeing the process.

Victor B - Good man I'm really glad to hear that you are doing well. I will pass that on to everyone else too. Yeah it is always fun for me to paint Marie that's for sure. More videos will be coming soon.

Marlisa - I know exactly what you mean. Unfortunately no universities really teach traditional art here either. If they do...it's not very well. Modernism almost ruined all of that tradition...but people are starting to come back around now and I think people are getting into traditionally motivated things more and more. The "shock" value of modern art is starting to wear off. You are definitely welcome to copy one of my paintings...just make sure you put "after Jonathan Hardesty" or something like that somewhere on the painting. Any painter's or artist's work that you copy...you always want to give credit. I have seen some paintings ship over from China that were obvious copies of bouguereau and some others...people bought them thinking they were originals because there was nothing written on them...that makes me mad hehe. But yeah have a ball copying one of my paintings...feel free to send me updates if you want and I can help you with the process.

Mydrako - That's exactly what I was going for...that's awesome that it communicated that to you. I was thinking of my grandmother a lot when I was painting this..she died a couple of years ago. Actually the photo in the very front is of my wife's grandparents as well sitting on the grass. It's a bit hard to make it out but you may be able to see it. You are definitely welcome to join up with CAO anytime that you want. I know what you mean about the economy things have been crazy. It's a very difficult thing to do bargues on your own as well so I feel for you man. Get as much help as you can from people around you and people on here...get them to critique it to death. Look at it through a mirror, etc... Do everything you can to see it objectively. That should help a bit.

flamable - Haha thanks man. I try to work hard...everybody gets in funks that's for sure, but I'm learning to ride them out now. Thanks again for the kind words.

Zebz - Haha thanks! I don't know what I want to be when I grow up...I haven't decided yet ;)

paperX - Np at all for the youtube demo I'm glad that you liked it. Well part of my dedication is due to the fact that I have crossed the point of no return now. I have been an artist (or an artist-in-training) for about 6 years now so I am completely unmarketable in the world of business. So it's this or flipping burgers heheh.

Kristo Novo - Thanks so much for the kind words I really appreciate it. I went to your sketchbook and your work is really good! Great job. One of the first things that I noticed was that your landscapes/environments were a lot better than your figures. The reason I think that is happening is because of how you are treating your edges. I think you have learned to simplify things into lights and darks which is a fantastic hurdle for someone to be over. That usually takes people a long time to learn to break things down into shadow shapes and lights. But I think where you need work is your edges. All of your edges are overly harsh I think. What I mean is that you are not paying attention to the form and indicating the appropriate edge. So let's say that you are drawing a shadow next to a nose...on your drawings the edge would be hard all the way across the nose, but, in reality, the ball of the nose would have a softer edge than the bridge of the nose, etc... It's those type of edge issues that you have been having. I think if you do some edge studies on spheres and other shapes like that from life it would really help your concepts/illustrations to look much more real. That's my initial impression at least...hopefully that is helpful.

Timmi-o-Tool - Thanks man!

RocketMonkey - Thanks so much man. It's weird for me to think about inspiring someone because I've taken from so much inspiration from all of you here. There's definitely nothing special about me at all. I've had tons of help along the way too...I don't think anyone can truly do it on their own.

Dougbot - Thanks! It was really fun to do.

Coz_K - Thanks for the kind words. That is hilarious...gobsmacked. I cracked up when I read that hehe.

Miles_ - I will keep trying to...hopefully I won't let you guys down hehe.

Lonomatik - Thanks so much man. Yeah it has definitely been a crazy 5-6 years. It has been a bumpy ride at times but it has been truly fun. Thanks again for the kind words man.

______________________________________



I was invited to join the Diverge Workshop (http://www.divergeworkshop.com/) a few weeks ago to do a live demo! It was a concept artist/illustrators extravaganza. Like a smaller scale version of the CA.org workshops are like. There were a ton of fantastic artists there doing live demos. You can see the line up of teachers at the diverge website:

http://www.divergeworkshop.com/

I was invited at the last minute to provide some traditional flavor to the mix. I set up in the theater room right next door to the main event and had a small but dedicated crowd of artists hanging out in my room. There were a lot of great questions I did a portrait of my wife (She is my most trusted and reliable model) over a two day period, 2-3 hours each day. It is always awesome getting together with like minds. Sometimes working by yourself out of your home can make you a hermit of sorts so getting out on these excursions is welcomed and appreciated!

I was also able to finally meet the fantastic artist we all know and love...Michael Mentler. I have seen his work for some time on CA.org and we have conversed online and via email...so it was great to meet in person. Check his "bones" thread out here on conceptart.org if you haven't. To me he is our living da vinci...just as smart and talented in my opinion as well.

My wife took some pics with her iphone so I thought I would show you guys. Plus we had a visitor from Gotham City!!!

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621548
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I am also working on the composition of a new painting too. It's going to be very large...3 feet by six feet or so. I will be showing this all throughout the process and I (hopefully) will be recording the whole thing on video as well. At the very least I will be taking pictures all along the way. Here is an updated version of the current composition. I am going to be adding more to the composition as well...especially in the upper left. There will be a stand with a vase with flowers in it. I'm still debating about the background as well. My wife will actually be nude under the fabric as well for the final...so her back and arm skin color will be coming through the fabric. And she will be wearing a necklace that will come down in the back of her neck. At any rate just wanted to update you guys with what I was working on.

621549

[Victor B]

Looking Great Jon, what a great update, love the steps in your wifes portrait interesting to see, the changes,choices you make. The Set up for your next work looks/sounds fantastic, can't wait to see how you handle the large scale figure painting. Hope you and yours are well, thanks for keeping us updated

[Aaron Death]

Mindcandyman you are evil. Fuck you, you are EVIL. All the time I thought you were dead or something, you are so fucking evil.

Anyway, you're a great inspiration. And the new paintings are amazing.

Don't ever disappear again~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[William Whitaker]

Jon,
What a delight to see you again and work alongside you at Reverie!
Your painting of Lipa was supurb. Please take a good shot of it and post it here for us to see.

Don't forget to contact Casey Childs about his studio, and do come to the mountains and paint alongside me. Save up your best stories and tell them during the visit.

Bill

[MindCandyMan]

Victor B - Thanks man. No problem with the updates. I'm glad you guys keep stopping by and still care. I will include an update on that large painting with this post as well.

Aaron Death - haha that's hilarious. Thanks? heheh. I definitely won't disappear again man...unless I'm dead or unless I have become truly evil hehe.

William Whitaker - Thanks so much Bill! I assure you it was my honor to sit next to you and watch you paint. I have some decent shots of the painting I was able to take at the workshop that I can post up here. You were definitely right about the surprise once I took it outside hehe...totally different. I am already making plans to come and visit you guys out there. Once I get something solidified I will let you guys know. I do have some pretty good "old lady at the workshop" stories that I will save up. Some pretty funny situations hehe. I'm sure you have more than your share too hehe. Thanks again for all you've done for me and for everyone on conceptart Bill. It's rare to see a professional so free with their knowledge these days. Thanks!

________________________


So here are the updates guys. By now most of you have probably seen the reverie photo thread and if you haven't definitely go check it out. I painted in a small room with Bill Whitaker, Emily G, Coro, Kevin Llewellyn, and a bunch of other artists off and on. This was portrait I made of the great model "Lipa" that we had.

The lighting scheme in that room was artificial light with a little bit of natural light. As the afternoon wore on the artificial light started to take over until everything was pretty orange in nature. As I expected, when I took my painting outside in natural light the colors looked much different! That's always something you want to watch out for when painting. Make sure the conditions you are painting under are going to be optimal viewing conditions for the individual who will be buying your work. At this workshop we had no choice and it was still a blast...but Bill and I were both glad to get back to our north light studios. His is much better than mine though...that's for sure ;).

Below you can see the finished version of the painting:

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I also did another portrait that I uploaded to youtube.

CLICK HERE TO SEE A SPEED PAINTING OF LUKE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T4YqVVqVJQ)

Below is the first step of a large figurative painting that I am working on as well. The size is 3 feet by 6 feet or somewhere around there. The whole thing is being done from life but here is the composition that I am working from. This version is completely fish eye and much much darker than the actual setup in reality but you will get an idea of what I am painting:

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Here's the work that I did on it yesterday. My wife will be posing about 2 hours each day. (When she can fit it in her schedule that is hehe).

641118

Here's a picture she took with her iphone too that is a bit closer:
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[Dile_]

i loooooooooveeee this painting http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=641116&d=1239214231

and thanks for the youtube videos.. very cool that you added your 'thinking' to them :} thanks

[Victor B]

What a fantastic update, wish I could've made the workshop. Thanks for posting the side by side of the workshop painting under the different lighting. The setup for the large scale looked great ... then I scrolled down! the large figure painting looks Awesome! I love me some large scale figure paintings. Next you'll be doing multiple full figures in a landscape (ala lipking!) if thats what you want :). I'm excited to see where you go. Thanks again for sharing.

[maldrin]

Jon -

I fired you an email today and I was thinking you were doing multiple figures on smaller scale. When you said large figure painting, you weren't kidding! Just the start of this is awesome! The blue-green head scarf against that lovely pink flesh tone you've laid down is to die for. I can't wait to see how this progresses.

You've come a long way, man. Truly inspirational.

d

[thinairart]

holy cow that canvas is huge! It looked big while you were stretching it, but seeing it stood up end on end like that I can truly understand the scale. I'm guessing two tubes of asphaltum at least for the background ;)

[Jacob Kobryn]

Oh, hey I saw you at the workshop! Only I didn't know it was you... :P Anyway, I think talked to you a little, or at least watched you work.

[JS Neo]

Awesome update... Ur reverie portrait looks so good. You must be making Mr whitaker nervous haaa... Your figure painting of ur wife is certainly starting out well and I totally didnt expect the scale. It is like almost to the roof O_O Love to see it in the finished state. Thanks for the process video too. Very inspiring to see how something evolve from a seemingly messy drawing to a work of art.

[vayne108]

WOW, what a wonderful improvment thought out your sketchbook!!! gosh, you have just inspired me!!

[Halix]

Heya, really inspirational thread man, I just tried to read (not just skim) the whole thread cover to cover. Its taken me roughly 11 hours and I've reached page 50 out of 66, the scale of this is just so epic.

Can you ever have too many asspats? hehe

I think its really brilliant how your experience pulls everything together. I've certainly found a wealth of books, webpages and resources. I reckon it might take me to the end of the year to get around to looking at them all.

I'm planning on starting my own sketchbook thread, and this is what I'll be aiming for. First I'm gonna see just how determined I am though.

Looking forward to reading the rest tomorrow.

:chug:

read the last 16 pages now, although I will admit I skipped a lot of others users comments - my eyes are beginning to hurt. Your transition to live models in your oils has been fantastic, I'm especially looking forward to the monster size one your currently making.

Do you still do Pen work? you loved it so much at one stage. Keep Chugging. Halix

[MT-Mystic]

You're my savior. Immersing myself in great artwork for years has given me inspiration. But going through the entirety of this thread has given me something that no amount of Rembrandt study would ever have given me: resolve. Experiencing your progression, your struggle, your frustration, and your determination has proven to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that what I want to do is completely possible, and that I would be doing myself a grave disservice by not following through on it.

I think on one of the posts you were talking about how Frazetta once copied an entire Bridgeman book in a day, and that he was a madman... and that's why he was so good. Well, Mr. Hardesty... witness my transformation into a madman.

[dTb]

Your work is marvelous, but sharing this whole process is so gracious, thank you very much.

And that portrait of Lipa really is fantastic, it's really her, very very well done.

[tandy1000]

Lol I just went from page 1 to your latest work and it's just apples and oranges haha. You've just inspired me to keep my sketchbook for that long or longer~ Man I need to bust my ass..

I haven't looked through the rest of the pages yet but I'll promise to sift through this book. ;P

[Josef K.]

gorgeous work man! love it!

[nikhil p]

Thanks for this, the sketchbook. It's inspired me so much. Thank you.

[a.paul]

very nice sketchbook, you had grow up a lot

[solidcube]

Wow, this thread is just completely absurd. As in, WTF-amazing.

I've looked at a bunch of these threads and I haven't seen such improvement on any of them.

[aaro_n]

nailed it
there should be a 60 minute special on you :)

[aaro_n]

nailed it
there should be a 60 minutes special on you :)

[jeremygordon89]

I totally can't wait to start working in oils after seeing your stuff, but I know I need to pace myself and become better with drawing first. I really want to see more of your work; it's like an addiction lol, I just love it

[MindCandyMan]

Dile_ - Thanks! Np about the videos too it's fun for me. I gave that painting to Lipa when I was finished. I am going to have her come pose for a painting after this one I'm currently working on. It was just fun to paint next to Bill Whitaker that's for sure.

Victor B - You are right on man. I would love to paint a 4 or 5 figure painting lifesize! That would be super awesome that's for sure. We'll see what happens hehe.

Aaron Death - I'll try not to disappear again hehe...I'm not THAT evil hehe.

maldrin - Hey man I don't know if I got your email. I am gonna check in my subfolders and in the spam and stuff today. JUst found your email and I replied...check your inbox.

reidaj - Yeah exactly haha...about 3/4 of a tube of asphaltum and yellow ochre together so you are right ;) It's definitely big. The gallery is going to send a van out for it when it is done hehe.

Jake Kobrin - Awesome man glad you make it to the workshop and that we could meet up. Hopefully I didn't say anything stupid hehe...I'm known for that unfortunately.

Mydrako - Thanks haha. Trust me I was the one nervous sitting next to Bill. The hilarious thing is that he's doing such good work and it looks like he isn't even trying...On the inside I was insanely nervous painting next to him. He's a giant of a painter and he has paved the way for younger artists like me. He was ridiculed a lot for pursuing representational art and without painters like him it would be much harder to make a living doing what I'm doing. Yeah that painting is definitely huge...it's the biggest I've ever done. It's been super fun and I am going to keep painting at this size. I love it.

vayne108 - Awesome I'm glad I inspired you!

Halix - Wow thanks for reading the whole thread! It is definitely a monster thread hehe...11 hours is a long time! Definitely start your own thread and above all...don't stop. Regardless of how bad you think your work is...just keep going. It's interesting that you mention that pen work. I want to get back into that...that love of pen work has stayed with me and I will definitely revisit it again. I am caught up oil painting now but I will find my way back to it soon.

MT-Mystic - Awesome man. I'm glad this thread could give you resolve. Making art, and doing it for a living, can sometimes be really difficult. You need that complete resolve to survive. How is the transformation going? You must be an art monster by now.

dTb - No problem at all! Thanks for your comments. It was really fun painting Lipa and I am going to have her back again as well. I am going to try to get her to pose for my next large figurative painting. It will involve fur and hopefully I can make it life size again.

tandy1000 - Awesome I'm glad I was able to inspire you start a thread. The hardest part is just keeping it going! Resolve to keep it going regardless of the roadblocks and you will do well.

Josef K. - Thanks!

Strannikolai - Np at all. Glad this sketchbook could help inspire you. Thanks for taking the time to check it out!

a.paul - Thanks! I definitely had to grow up...I still have a lot more growing up to do as well hehe.

solidcube - Thanks...it's odd for me to look back at the beginning. I am a totally different person now. Yeah unfortunately time claims a lot of artists...they quit before they can make it. Just surviving the introductory learning process is a huge part of achieving success.

aaro_n - I would be horrible in an interview. I always struggle to find the right words. I love being around people, but in those situations everything comes out garbled hehe. Would be funny at least though.

jeremyg0rd0n - Thanks man. I'm here to feed the addiction!

--------------------------------------------------------------


Hey guys just wanted to update you on the current painting I am working on. The large figurative one that is 3 ft x 6 ft. Check out the latest update. I painted the scarf and I have also moved down to the shoulder area and the fabric there. I haven't taken a picture of that yet. I also did a bit of the fur hanging on the upper left. I am going to be changing some things in the background so that isn't final...but this will give you an idea of where it is headed:

670106

[Victor B]

Wow, Jon' I'm loving the progress on this one, the scarf!Can't wait to see it all resolved. Great edges, thanks for posting an update.

[Miles_]

Haha wow, incredible stuff man, stunning progress :}

[alesoun]

The way you handled the folds of the scarf is great. Looking forward to your next update.

[Marlisa]

Beautiful!!! Ofcourse... :)

A teacher at school once asked us what the value of a painting is, when you copy a picture or real life scene. A framed in picture is exactly the same as a carefully copied painting, but less work, he said.
They force me at school to work with collages, pasting paper in a painting, and all kinds of stuff except paint.
I always try to defend traditional work, because I think you can put so much more in a painting than a photo. For example your latest work; it looks exactly as the picture you posted, but because of the brushstrokes it gets so much more value :)!

I have to figure out a way to satisfy the teachers (with pasting weird materials into my paintings) so I get good grades and my diploma in three years... but in the meantime I'll closely follow your thread and save some money to follow your trainings some day :)

(I'm still looking for a painting of yours to copy, to learn from your style)


Edit; here's an example of still life painting at my school, so you can laugh at me haha ;)
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=636403&d=1238737142

[jeremygordon89]

It's definitely headed in a good direction. Can't wait to see it finished : ]

[lilyw75]

Looking forward to seeing the result!

______________________________
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[jigje]

Hey MCM. This is the best thing on the internet. I've been spoilt as I only started reading your journey a few weeks ago so every time I got online I could read some more. Now I have to wait for you to post!! All the best and thankyou so much for your inspiration.

[Verehin]

Your awesome!

[BeckyHew]

Hi there,

Just wanted to thank you for sharing your development with us. It's really very inspiring for me to look at this and see that with practice I could become this good one day :)

I'm trying to do a drawing a day.....

I haven't read through all the posts yet, were you just doing a drawing and painting a day? Or did you do a course as well?

[rupeshtalaskar]

WOW, What a fantastic update, . It's inspired me as always!!
Can't wait to see it finished :)

[MeticoloR']

MindCandyMan Man! your sketchbook is just AWESOME. when I look at your thread, I see what anyone can do with a positive attitude and a lot of work! you progress so much it's amazing.
thanks for giving us inspiration anf hope!!

[MacTire]

Truly incredible, inspirational, phenomenal... I need more big adjectives.
Words alone become useless before such a feat, the improvement in this thread is just.... just...
mind-blowing!!

Sorry for the garbled, post. Nonetheless, I will now watch this thread with great interest!!
Thanks for sharing and inspiring!!!

[linkdude64]

You sir, are a golden god of motivation.

[Naiadrisa]

every time i feel upset over anything art related, this thread always cheers me up :D thank you!

[Victor B]

Jon... Update!

[Ivory_Oasis]

I really like your paintings! I just ran across http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIP_ACdivFQ&feature=fvw while I was looking around youtube..and then followed to your website..and then read your bio...and then followed the link to this thread (small world!!!).

Hmm, I think I should try the blocking shapes things when I paint...it looks like it works really well.... thanks! :D

[Timothy Duong]

aMMMMazing progress bro...keep it up!

[Intervain]

this thread is so inspiring!

[glasses]

This is the most amazing thread on the internet.

[mduarte]

Boy, If anyone ever doubted that anything is possible in art, just send the link to this thread.

[Riley Stark]

It took me a few days, but I managed to get through this whole thread.. It was worth every second of reading these 60+ pages just to see the amazing progress from when you started to where you're at now! Unbelievable! Definitely inspirational for a beginner (like myself) to see that, with enough hard work, anything is possible.

Kudos to you and keep it up! I've definitely added this sketchbook to my faves and will absolutely be checking in regularly to see your new works, as well as to motivate myself to keep on practicing!

[ninyanernel]

i am in awe! i'm so inspired and envious of your progress at the same time. i also want to attend an art school but i still don't have the money..

you're really impressive!

[putracmx]

very inspiring thread :)

[zimfin]

Your sketchbook is certainly an inspiration to all those out there who say "I can't draw/paint" or "you have to be born with the talent"! Next time someone says that to me, I know whose sketchbook to show them! :-) Keep up the great work!

[miycko]

WOW, inspirational stuff man :D

[Rafy]

This sketcbook gives me a lot of courage to starting my own journey. Absolutely inspiring. You are awesome... I admire your passion. maybe you are not a master but you became my personal hero.

Amazing...

[Helaine]

Wow man, your journey inspired me to start my own sketchbook...


Very inspirational, and your sketchbook motivate me a lot. Thanks a lot for posting this <3

[Victor B]

Hey Jon, was glancing thru you're book (pdf) the other day and well in short.. UPDATE! I'm Jonesin!

[AestheticMachine]

This is one of the most encouraging things I've ever seen. Virtually everyone (including myself) feels that despair of not being 'good enough fast enough', like there's some magical boat ride :) It just takes a love and understanding of the craft and the years will fly, I think.

[Marian Rowling]

Wow Jon I've just seen your finished painting 'The Dressing Room' on your blog {http://jonathanhardesty.blogspot.com/} and wanted you to know that I think it is stunningly beautiful. It does remind me of Vermeer, I guess its the head scarf hanging down, not sure if you had that in mind when you started. I think you have the balance right with the background as I'm constantly drawn to your wife's face. The lighting you achieved is lovely and really emphases her beautiful bone structure and the delicate fabric just hinting at her body beneath.
Colour and composition also seem to work so well which is a real success for such a large painting.

Well done and congratulations to you and your wife on all you have achieved your story is great and your paintings are beautiful. I also really enjoy your insightful videos and I look forward to seeing and hearing more. I'm definitely signed up to the "Hardesty Art Movement'.

[Mag-Neo]

----wonderful................. :yayca:

[Redkingz2]

You don't know how much you helped me man...

anytime I want to give up on drawing I just come back and read your thread

thanks