Detail #1: Glass Beach Decalcomania, 2012

The above is a very small section near the center of the grayscale digital drawing project titled Glass Beach Decalcomania.

The entire drawing took just under three months to complete, putting in several hours every day, seven days a week. I will post a few other selected details over the next week or two then I will post an unfortunately small scale version of the complete image as well as the source photo I took of an eroded rock bed at Glass Beach, Fort Bragg, California several years ago. I will also post the prepared distortion of that photo that became the immediate inspiration for this drawing.

Thanks to the subscriber who gave me a gentle poke today. It served to remind me to continue to make the effort to post content a bit more frequently and regularly.

Forest Painting, acrylic on canvas, 31" x 51", 1976

The header image for this blog is taken from a painting I did in 1976 of a section of forest immediately to the east of our cabin on Covelo Road in Mendocino County. It now hangs in the hall outside my studio (“The Putterworks”). In future posts, I may discuss this image and related works if I ever get around to writing about the drawing and painting method I dubbed “Realart” back in the early 1970s.

Thirty years later, I found that I still loved the density of shapes, the underlying composition, and the directional forces in this painting enough to want to use it as inspiration for a new digital drawing.

So I photographed it, converted that photo to black and white, then, using the Liquify filter, the Pixelate > Crystalize filter, and several other randomizing processes in Photoshop, created the following image for use as the decalcomania inspiration layer for a new drawing:

"Forest Painting" mangled for use as decalcomania inspiration

Here is the completed digital decalcomania drawing titled “Forest Mangle” completed in October, 2o11.

Inspired by a 31" x 51" acrylic painting on canvas, this digital drawing is titled "Forest Mangle"

Here is an enlargement of a small section of the finished drawing:

Detail: "Forest Mangle", digital drawing, 2011

There are a couple more digital decalcomania drawings in this series still to be presented. Those posts will be coming soon.

Did the dog bite someone's pants?

Detail: Bay Bark Blur, August 2011

Detail: Bay Bark Blur, August 2011

We have a huge and very old Bay Laurel tree right outside our kitchen window. I used a photo of its bark to get me started on this digital decalcomania project.

Detail: Bay Bark Blur, August 2011

The finished drawing is very dense with details so I thought it would be fun to post several enlargements of some of my favorite parts of the drawing. The image at the end of this post presents the entire drawing.

All of the drawings in this series have surprised me with the little vignettes that arise in various nooks and crannies. I especially like the little figures in these vignettes. I might copy all of them from each drawing and create a line-up of my favorites.

Bay Bark Blur, August 2011. The complete image.

Coming soon: posts of a few more works in the recent digital decalcomania series.

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Lil' Feet: a quick digital paint test, May 2011

Lil’ Feet is a project I did when I first loaded my new version of the software Painter in May 2011. I wanted to get the feel of the digital brushes and processes again, so I painted it directly and quickly.

No plan, no underlying decalcomania layer, I just quickly applied some digital paint with a few different brushes until I spotted something to develop and before I knew it, this surreal vista was done. Although it was casually and crudely executed, it was sufficient to make me eager to start developing more involved and complex projects, which I have been doing almost daily ever since.

detail: "Decalco Pine Foliage People and Places", June 2011

When I was able to start making marks and images again, I was delighted to realize that this time I was welcoming anything that arose in my mind as I looked at and worked with the random source images… my internal censor is definitely taking a break. For technical explanations of how I make these images, see the previous post.

another detail from : 'Decalco Pine Foliage People and Places'

The words “Decalco Pine Foliage” in the title refer to the random image (a photo of pine boughs) used as inspiration for this piece.

The following detail showcases a caricature of William Burroughs that arrived by surprise in the painting:

detail: "Decalco Pine Foliage" (William Burroughs Pays a Visit)

The completed painting is presented below:

"Decalco Pine Foliage People and Places", June 2011

A few more works from this series will be posted soon. Then I plan to dive into creating more digital decalco. It is SO much fun to use these tools and processes.

I have a already prepared some sound and sound generator posts that are just about ready to offer. They will be filling this space while I am busy working with digital decalcomania.

It’s Not Really Decalcomania

Faces, a detail, digital decalcomania, July 2011

The term decalcomania refers to the transfer of a crazed image from one surface to another as used in faux furniture and other decorative techniques, and by surrealist painters, such as Max Ernst, who used the crazed surfaces to excite their imaginations.

I refer to my process as digital decalcomania because traditional decalcomania was the process I used for more than 20 years when I could still work with media such as acrylics and oils. The digital process I am using now is very similar: allowing random textures to excite my imagination, giving form to what I see, while retaining as much of the essence of the original random texture as possible.

In those days, I would cover canvases large and small with liquid decalcomania, stare at the results sometimes for hours, even days, until I decided which of the many images I was seeing would be locked in. I am doing the same thing now only with pixels instead of pigments.

The word decalcomania, as I am using it here, refers to the entire process of making a creative response to a found texture, in any medium, by using the found textures to excite the imagination resulting in the creation of new and hopefully surprising images.

Here is the random source image I prepared to use as inspiration for the digital painting “Faces.” By carefully comparing it to the finished version of “Faces” below, you can see some shapes and figures in the finished version that are almost exactly as they appeared in the source image, while others have been enhanced to varying degrees, and some are entirely new.

Source Image for the painting "Faces"

Below is the completed digital decalcomania painting titled “Faces.” It was one of the first projects in the recent series and was completed in July, 2011.

"Faces:" The first digital decalcomania project, completed in July, 2011.

When I finished the grayscale drawing phase of this project, done in a separate layer directly above the prepared random image, I added color “glazes” in separate layers to liven up the composition.  I printed it to see how it looked off the computer monitor and immediately disliked the color version. I then added an additional overall “glaze” layer consisting of a very transparent yellow ochre. Now it had the mood I was looking for.

Preparing Digital Decalcomania Images

Below is an overview of the techniques and tools I use to create the digital decalcomania source images in my process. Topics include:

• Random Textures with Photoshop Filters
• Creating Variety and Surprises with Liquify and Masking
• Blending Modes and Edit > Transform
• Grayscale vs. Color
• Painter Tools
• Creation is Destruction – Locking in a Likeness

I start by creating a New Image in Photoshop setting the resolution, usually to 300 or 360, and set the document or print dimensions large enough to be able to make big prints without pixelation. I like knowing that I will have the option later to print hard copies of my images even if I mainly view them on computer monitors. Converting old color photos into black and white is another way I have started digital decalcomania projects.

Random Textures with Photoshop Filters

I begin by using various Photoshop filters such as:

• Filter > Render > Difference Clouds
• Filter > Pixelate > Crystallize
• Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (softens hard edges of the random imagery, when needed)
• Filter > Liquify   (there is a vast world of possibilities with this amazing tool)
• Filter > Noise > Add Noise

There are many, many other amazing filters and effects built into Photoshop as well as some great third party effects. The above list presents the filters I have worked with in this recent bunch of digital drawings and paintings and so far are the main tools I use to achieve random textures.

Creating Variety and Surprises with Liquify and Masking

It is fun to play with any image in Photoshop’s Liquify filter. It is like watching a surreal, psychedelic movie. I like the way it disturbs the overall sameness that some of the other filters can create in an image.

Masking sections of a random image before applying a filter makes it possible to restrict the effect of a filter to specific areas of the image instead of an overall application. Liquify includes masking possibilities within its own set of tools.

I use the above filters on new empty layers or in existing images and photos. Sometimes I just quickly slop some black and white marks on a new layer to get things started.

Blending Modes, Opacities, and Edit >Transform

I sometimes copy a layer of randomness that I like, put it above an existing layer, then play with Photoshop’s Layer Blending Modes and Opacities. I will then flatten the image and start to destroy it again in Edit > Transform by flipping layers, or portions of layers, vertically and horizontally then adjusting the blending modes and opacities until something neat happens.

Grayscale vs. Color

I use black and white or grayscale images most of the time knowing that I can add color later. The visual hallucinating that is part of the decalcomania process seems to work best for me with black, white and gray (or with a full range of values of a single dark color). Colors tend to create mental labels and thereby can limit the interpretation of an image fragment. When there is only one color in all its values or just the black-to-white range of values, my mind has an easier time seeing things in the random textures and patterns.

I keep messing around, trying not to think very much until I have a rich, but random image of darks and lights, and a variety of textures and shapes. Sometimes I am tempted to stop at this stage of the process with the final result being abstract – no hallucinated figures, no identified objects, or named symbols – just texture, form, rhythm, pattern, and possibly color. However, my restless mind always spots something in the random image and once I start giving form to it I do not stop until the entire surface has been activated, touched, modified, and integrated. For me, in the struggle between abstraction and figurative, the figurative approach almost always wins out.

I have also used similar sequences of filters, etc. on photos that I have taken of random textures such as stains, old linoleum, flaking and chipped paint, torn weathered signage, and other random surfaces.

Painter Tools

The final images of faces and body parts and other recognizable structures were all created in Painter primarily by using its “Just Add Water” brush and various “Airbrushes.” I also love Painter’s “Blender Stump” brushes. The “Just Add Water” and “Blender Stump” brushes are amazing for pushing pixels around and softly mushing them into each other as if the pixels were made of wet paint or soft pastels.

Creation is Destruction – Locking In a Likeness

Picasso once said something like: Every act of creation is an act of destruction. In my experience this is especially true when working in the decalcomania process. The hardest part of this process for me is in deciding what to destroy in order to create a form that I can be fairly sure my viewers will see as I see it.

My next few posts will feature other completed digital decalcomania paintings with very little related technical information.

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Leda: A progression from inspiration to completion.

Left: the original digital decalcomania source image.
Middle: a composite of the original and finished images.
Right: the finished image.

The process is just like looking for faces in the clouds.

Created in Photoshop, this was the digital decalcomania source for the Leda Painting

For my very first project, I started by creating an image  in Photoshop of random colors and textures knowing that I would later use it as a hallucination field to inspire the finished digital painting. I opened it in Painter, saved it as .RIF (Painter’s proprietary file format) and started pushing the color around.

Very quickly I spotted the central figure’s face and torso and some duck-like heads. If you turn your head to the right while looking at this source image, you will quickly spot the Leda figure. By adapting for digital processes the method I had worked with for over 30 years (see my description of this process: “Not Just Fixed Likenesses of the Named World: WHY I MAKE IMAGES THAT ARE AS ELUSIVE AS THE SHAPES AND SWIRLS OF SWIFTLY MOVING WATER.”), I let the painting take on a life of its own. I locked in some of the imagery it was suggesting to me, then applied a few finishing touches to make it feel like a complete composition.

This image was created by responding to visual information in the digital decalcomania source image shown above.

More digital decalcomania projects completed using Painter to be posted soon.

I had missed the ability to draw and paint for several years and spent a lot of time remembering what it used to feel like.

Remembering How It Feels to Draw: The first drawing I made in the adaptive workstation using Photoshop.

Having been unable to stand or sit for more than a few minutes for the past several years my drawing and painting days seemed to be over.  Because I have to spend almost all my waking hours in a recliner, drawing and painting other than quick scribbles is very difficult to do.  One afternoon while exploring my iPad, I discovered almost by accident that I could still in fact make images while lying on my back. I decided to adapt my main computer workstation to make it possible for me to digitally draw and paint on a larger scale.

An Adaptive Workstation

I rigged up an old Wacom graphics tablet in a stable position on a hospital over-bed table.  While stretched out in my recliner, I can easily roll the table and tablet into a position near my drawing hand. My drawing arm is supported by the recliner arm while I stare up at my monitor, which is tilted down at me from an articulated wall-mount. This rig changed my life.  All of a sudden I could draw again.

I broke the ice with some quick Photoshop images:

I no longer felt isolated now that I could draw and paint again.

Now I wanted the greater expressive freedom I knew would be possible using Corel Painter. I ordered it and a week later completely dove into digital drawing, spending almost every waking hour making images. In my next post I will present a few of the Painter images I have made in the past 9 months.

It is nice to be back playing with the blog.

In 1967, on one of my almost daily beachcombing walks at Agate Beach near Bolinas, California, I found a piece of very weathered, scarred, and pitted black plastic pipe about 12 feet long. The inside diameter was approximately 3 inches and the wall of the pipe was about 1/2″ thick. The pipe was rather heavy and had a very slight curve to it.

Listening to the Om Generator, Bolinas, CA, 1968

The amazing thing about this piece of pipe was the sound it produced when an observer picked it up and stuck his or her ear in one end of the pipe. It was the same old shell-to-the-ear effect we all discovered as children, but on a huge scale. The pipe seemed to take whatever the local ambient sounds happened to be at the time and combined them into a unique mix and variation of a wonderfully low-pitched OMMMMMMM sound.

Listening to it with eyes closed was a very soothing and relaxing experience. I included it in one of my solo exhibits at the Unicorn Gallery in San Francisco, in 1968 I think. It was positioned atop a large rusty metal object I had also found at the beach. I placed the two objects right in the middle of the gallery floor. Next to this assemblage I put a large card with printed instructions on how to best use the device.

The Om Generator displayed at the Unicorn Gallery, San Francisco, 1968

The sound created by the Om Generator in the gallery on Fillmore was very different from the sound it made on the mesa in Bolinas. The sound was always different, combining all the ambient sounds, spinning them around inside the pipe and converting them into the Om. In my mind, it revealed the Om that is ever-present in any environment.

Ben Van Meter and I recorded the Om Generator one windy day by sticking one end of the pipe out the window of Ben’s studio in downtown Bolinas then putting a microphone in the other end. That sound is used in much of the soundtrack of boc ging, the 16mm film Ben and I made in 1968.

Here is 38 seconds of 1968 Bolinas wind as processed by the Om Generator: