Sketching Cold

Snow in the Draw

@8" by

Pastel & Charcoal

Casey Klahn

iPhone record

Cedar Shed, Sketch

Cahrcoal & Chalk

@7" x 4"

Casey Klahn

Individual Tree, Charcoal Study #2

@ 9"x 9" 

Charcoal & Chalk 

Casey Klahn

The Facebook Challenge Group for this image is found here.

Canola Field Trip

It's too bad I don't have any subject matter around here to paint.  Just joking.  I have been trying to get out and paint these canola fields in May for nine years, and finally made the effort.

Pastels Available, unframed.  $500 each/ $900 both.

Interior Sketch

l 

Barn Interior Color Sketch

7" x 6"

Pastel

Casey Klahn

 SOLD

Just thinking out loud.  In color.

Charcoal and White Chalk

WIP - Facing Right

@14' x 15" 

Charcoal & White Chalk on Drawing Paper

Casey Klahn

For a hobby, I am re-learning the figure and the head from various sources, such as instructional books and You Tube videos.  Before I took up the landscape, this was all I did on an amateur basis.  It is crazy how much I have lost over time, and it makes the road back a little bumpy. But, fun.

Sketching Right

Sketch Landscape

4.5" x 7.28"

Charcoal on Sketch Paper

Casey Klahn

I don't know if you can get more power from a methodical sketch, than from a quick one.  My vote is for the quick, intuitive drawing.  An interesting thing happened with this one.  I wanted to transfer it to a larger pastel sheet, and thought that it was close to the golden rectangle proportions.  In the studio, I always go straight to this tool to find the ratio of the golden rectangle.  I entered the short side of my sketch, which was about 4.5", and the long side was about 7.28," give or take .01".  When I plugged 4.5 into the finder, it said that the golden ratio would be 4.5 to 7.28 - what a coincidence!  I was duly happy.  The ratio for my transfer would be 9:14.56.

A short article on the Golden Rectangle at Pastel: Gimme Five.

For no particular reason, I'm needing some music with the next few posts. "Can't this train outrun those kids?"

Color Prairie

Color Prairie Sketch

Small

Charcoal & Pastel

Casey Klahn

Here is a charcoal thumbnail sketch and a color study.  The finished painting will be posted in the future.

Free Blog

I'm still blogging, and while I'm at it the studio has been in full fiddle.  Above is a studio on-the-easel image, and I want to begin posting from my sketchbook, as well.  Here is the first of these.

Eddy Out River Sketch

Eddy Out River
Graphite
@ 5" x 7"
Casey Klahn

The sketch is a place to think through one's picture idea - the image you want to bring forth. Many times, the drawing cannot be improved upon by paint or pastel - color may or may not add anything to the story.

So, the questions begin. What will color add to this image? If anything more can be said by developing this into a painting, then which colors to start with? Will I change the idea too much by evolving this image? If it changes, will that new image be better than this?

What are your ideas on the transition of an image from a drawing to a painting?

Yellow River Rose

Yellow River Rose
Small
Pastel
Casey Klahn

"(Woody Guthrie's) influence on me was never in inflection or in voice. What drew me to was that hearing his voice, I could tell he was very lonesome, very alone and very lost in his time. That`s why I dug him." Bob Dylan

Watching the River Flow

River Pilings, Hoquiam
@ 4" x 3"
Graphite
Casey Klahn

The river of my studio life flows on. Thanks for stopping here to watch the progress.

Brian McGurgan has provided us with a review of his visit to the current exhibit at the Ameringer-Yohe Gallery in Manhattan: Wolf Kahn, Toward the Larger View: A Painter’s Process. I found the following quote inspirational: "...color and tone are pushed to their extreme," Wolf Kahn. Note the pdf catalog at the gallery web site. A feast for the heart and the eyes.

Color and tone are
pushed to their extreme,
Wolf Kahn


That WK quote about his recent work is like balm to me. I struggle with the blown-out look of extreme value ranges, but still go there like a moth to the flame. Such is the attraction of pure color in all of it's permutations.

National Day of Prayer. My prayer is to be looser in my art, at the same time as my technique is improving. My God is certainly the God of paradoxes, and so I have faith that He'll answer my prayer!

Incidentally, Twitter Casey Klahn is here.

Watching the River Flow

Rainy Day River Sketch

Hoquiam River in the Rain
2.6" x 4.6"
Charcoal
Casey Klahn

The river series' continue to keep my interest in the studio. I am having a grand time and wanting to steer the series back toward the first Hoquiam River scenes that got the whole thing started. Here is a sketch of the rainy waterway, with emphasis on the gray scale.

Pastels will be posted, soon.

Climber Sketch

Sketch WW II Climber
11" x 9"
Charcoal, Pastel and Compressed White Charcoal on Rives BFK
Casey Klahn

Yesterday's post on the Medal of Honor.

I am proposing an illustration for a memorial to my late father's World War Two army division. I will post the roughs and sketches here as I get them completed.

This guy has a ways to go as a sketch, but he's on the path. I want to re-render the hand, and maybe add some more grace of movement. That used to be a big deal for me in the days when I drew the figure lots, and it has extra meaning when rock climbing is involved. I did enjoy taking the extra effort to model the figure, especially since it will stick out (if this becomes the final image) from a marble flat as an etching.

Next, I want to render a ski trooper as another proposal for the etching.

For you oldsters out there: remember Tom Lea? I certainly thought of his seminal on-sight drawings from WW II. Must have rubbed off on my psyche.

This book, The Two Thousand Yard Stare, covers Lea's WW II art and writings about his work. I once asked my late father, who saw heavy combat in North Italy, about this phenomenon of the "two thousand yard stare," which is the look a shell-shocked infantryman "gets" when he comes off the line. His story was a keeper. He said that he recalled one guy in particular who had that look coming off the front in the North Apennines (revered as one of the worst places to be in WW II) and he was also rather tall. Maybe 6' 6" or something like that. Years after the war, my dad picked him out of a crowd back in the states - quite an unusual circumstance, but he certainly remembered that guy's face.

I spent a number of years in the infantry, and later as a mountain climber. All subjects deeply held, and good content for my illustrations.


They Drew Fire. PBS documentary on war artists of WW II.
Tenth Mountain Division Association. My father's army unit. I am working up illustrations for a memorial plaque in their honor.

Charcoal Jetty

Jetty
4" x 6"
Charcoal
Casey Klahn

I made an unexpected trip to the coast this weekend. See my painting set-up and how I handled the image that this sketch begins at Pastel.

In response to requests to reveal my lessons learned from another artwork, the Kahn copy, here is what I wrote:

(In short-hand)

1. Atmospheric.
2. Plastic, with a blue-black element that pulls one in.
3. Black trunks on blue-white.
4. Divided perspectives, like in Stan Miller's Venice "gate, canal and court" image.
5. High key ultra-marine "highlight" behind center of focus.
6. Gestural willow trunks.
7. Gray paper shows through as lane or roadway.
8. Cool paper tone/warm foreground is enough to counter-act this.
9. Back-light, but no cast shadows.
10. Apply this technique to new snow scenes?
11. "Winter Towpath, After Wolf Kahn".
12. Window-pane effect.
13. On sanded ground, not cold press.

Others have written to urge me to move on from WK, and I appreciate the input more than can be told. The thing about blogging is, an artist reveals much of his back story. Does it harm one's professional appearance?

If you think about it, we all have influences and artist mentors. I make no attempt to hide mine, but the flip side of artist blogging is that a public in-depth record is being revealed of the artist's methods and growth.

Italian Olive Grove

Olive Grove Sketch
9" x 11"
Pastel & Charcoal on Sketch Paper
Casey Klahn

A dear cyber friend allows me to do work from her photos. Here's draft one. Keep an eye on this space for updates.