Angry Duck Studio

I just uploaded a new version of my gallery page. By default, it displays the four newest paintings. You can also filter the images by tag, like animals, people or abstract. Hopefully it's an improvement.

Exciting stuff.

If anyone reading this is interested in painting with acrylics, here are my opinions on materials:

Brushes:

• Round - Isabey Isacryl
• Flat - Robert Simmons Titanium, followed closely by Isabey Isacryl
• I don't really use Filberts - they tend to be more expensive and I don't see the point.
• And when I say Flat, I include Brights, too. Same thing really. I do generally prefer the shorter Bright bristles though.
• Quality brushes DO make a difference!
• Clean the good ones with Mona Lisa pink soap.

Supports:

• Right now I prefer stretched canvas. Small works on thin profile (like 3/4"), larger on thicker profile (like 1 1/2").
• Yupo's fun sometimes, but harder for alla prima. Use less paint!

Paint:

• Golden is my favorite. Heavy body or liquid. They vary in gloss and transparency by color. That's a good thing for my style of painting, IMHO. Expensive. Sturdy caps (sounds stupid but actually it's important).
  
• M. Graham. I love their deep, transparent reds, blues and yellows. Wimpier caps than Golden, though.
• Tri-Art. Sometimes a better deal than Golden, especially for Nickel Azo and deep organic stuff. Also good for interference colors, maybe better than Golden. Wimpy caps.
  
• Liquitex. Great strong Pop colors. Consistent semi-gloss sheen. I more often end up with cement gray goo when mixing Liquitex colors, though. Maybe it's just me. Wimpy caps. Look for a great deal on the 16 pack at Dick Blick.
• Dick Blick brand. Good enough for standard colors and great deal on iridescent gold and silver! Wimpy caps.

I hope this was informative!

Elephant Pair; Acrylic on 24" x 20" x 1.5" stretched canvas

This is like a mashup of Torchlight Elephant and Two Weims. I think it's my best painting to date. Sorry, Two Weims!

It's loose and interesting and just flowed easily. I tried to capture the light and shadow that follow the contours of these great beasts. Instead of careful shading, I used chunky swaths of diverse color to imply gradients and form. But I also outlined some of the shapes. It's just my style.

Note that these are Asian (Indian) elephants. My previous works featured the African variety. They were painted alla prima using a pre-existing painting as the background.

About that background... Remember when I got all those shiny, glossy, metallic products? Well I had tried to use them to create something like a shiny Rothko color field abstract. But it sucked and languished in the corner. Now it's the background for these guys. It works in my mind.

I usually leave the edges of my canvases unpainted, save for accidental drips. But in this case, the bright white just didn't work for me, so I painted them an earthy, raisin-y brown.

Again, I think it may be my best piece so far.

Thanks for reading.