Get time needed for that Script, Novel, Painting or Creative Idea!

  So many creative people have an incredible idea that they just can't get completed. You probably do too and you know what? The world needs your idea, script, novel or painting! As a matter of fact the world's going to be a better place once your unique creative work is in it. And here's help on how to get it done.

  Like so many people I love to watch Bob Ross paint. I find it so relaxing. Particularly when I'm worn out and too tired to do much of anything. I watch him most often when I'm home trying to shake off an illness - I find a Bob Ross video to watch and have some soup. If you haven't tried this while fighting a cold or flu I highly recommend it.

  Although there is one thing that good old Bob has done as a disservice to creative folks everywhere. He manages to make wonderful, complete paintings in less than half an hour. Bob waves his magic brush and somehow a landscape painting appears in the time it would take most of us to get out our paints, brushes and solvent.

  While we may not be looking to make a Bob Ross style of painting my point here is somehow this feeds into our notion that creative work should come easily and, much like a good meal, it needs to be completed in one sitting.

Bob Ross

  Do you find your creative project seems too demanding of your time? Just can't squeeze it into a busy day? Do you think you can find 15 minutes a day to do something on your project? Maybe as you have coffee, you were going to surf the web anyway right? Don't check email, surf the web - get out that creative idea and dust it off.

  In 15 minutes start to research it, sketch or begin to organize it into something you've been thinking of one day completing. Even if you write it down for the first time, it's a great start. At 15 minutes a day that's 1 hour 45 minutes a week. Seems possible right? Isn't that better than the amount of time your putting toward that creative idea right now?

  Set a timer, maybe you have a kitchen timer or use the one on your phone, and work for 15 minutes a day. You'll find it goes very fast and you've made progress, albeit small progress, on the project you've been putting off for eternity. Remember the saying "Rome wasn't built in a day", neither will your masterpiece.

  Think of it as making a big marble statue like the statue of David by Michelangelo. Was his amazing work done like good old Bob Ross or the 'little bit at a time' plan? Keep in mind The Statue of David was made between 1501 and 1504 and stands 14 feet tall. I'd say it took a little bit at a time.

  Your project needs to be chiseled away at, just like marble. It'll be fuzzy at first, others won't see that image you have in your mind. But it's there, within that big chunk of marble before you. Keep chiseling away!

Michelangelo’s David 

  If your time goes over 15 minutes one day do not skip the next day. You don't want to get in the habit of choosing to skip - it's 15 minutes a day, set it aside and devote that time to your project. 

  At 15 minutes a day contributed to your creative project that's 84 hours a year. I bet you can get a lot completed in 84 hours. Importantly, it's 84 hours on your creative project you never had before!

  I bet you've never read a blog post that had Michelangelo and Bob Ross mentioned at the same time right? And yes this blog post took about 15 minutes to write.

  Helpful Tip: If your a painter you can cover your brushes and palette in saran wrap to prevent drying out and work 15 minutes a day. If your working in Acrylic medium spray lightly with water from a plant mister before covering with saran wrap. The important thing you are finding innovative ways that you can continue to work on your creative idea(s).

  Do you have helpful tips on how to squeeze creative projects into a busy schedule. Please share those tips with others by posting them below.

NYC Art Museum in my Pajamas

  Hidden in the shadows of New York City's giant art museums lies a beautiful Fifth Avenue mansion turned museum known as "The Frick Collection". If you have never been to this extraordinary gem of a museum, we are going right now in our pajamas. Don't worry about your hair, no one will even notice us at all. And the great news is that when you travel with me, it's free.

Frick Collection Building: Fifth Ave & 70th Street, NYC

  The original mansion was built by wealthy industrialist Henry Clay Frick in 1912. As soon as Frick started to amass his vast wealth he began buying fine art and exquisite decorative arts. Where most visitors to the Frick Collection view the paintings alone, do not ignore the furniture and furnishings as they are all part of this museum, right down to the interior design of each room.

  I've personally been to the Frick Collection in NYC a number of times and it has never been overcrowded. Each room of the Frick still retains some of it's original function and look as say a study or dining room, yet exhibits amazing work within the framework of a living mansion. In addition to the rooms of the collection there is a warm and inviting atrium called the Garden Court. It features wonderful marble work and gives you a place to rest your weary feet, relax and reflect.

  This wonderful museum houses a collection of some of the best-known paintings by major European artists, as well as numerous works of sculpture and porcelain. You will find work by Goya, Monet, Rembrandt, Vermeer and Renoir to name a few. All works of art are really best viewed in person, but if you can't make it to the Frick until some later date, why wait - let's go now.

  The great news is there are multiple ways to take a virtual tour - right now in your pajamas if you prefer! If your browser can handle the advanced HTML required you can view the museum via the Frick's own Virtual Tour, here! The Frick Collection's tour gives you an audio option as well, giving narrative explanation to the rooms, decorative arts and paintings. In the link I provided above, you will see a map, click on any room to get started. 

  Also, by clicking the following three words, Google Art Project, you can find a virtual tour with 3D rooms or just view the work as stand-alone images and descriptive text.

  If you want to view the works on the go, The Frick Collection is available as mobile Apps for Android and Apple as well. I have yet to test the mobile Apps so can not describe their features or how comprehensive a collection they display.

  Do you know of any Museums that give virtual tours? Can you suggest other Museums or galleries artist should not miss while in a certain city? If so please share with a comment below! 

Painting in "The Moment"

  When painting there is a strange phenomena that can happen. That will happen. That you want to happen. I'm sure it's different for each artist. For any artist it's an experience that enhances your painting and allows your creativity to better flow, from your mind, through the brush and onto the canvas. For lack of a better term I call it being in "The Moment".

  When you hit this Zen-like state time ceases to function in a normal way. It's not that time stops but it certainly isn't the normal passage of time. You become entirely focused on the task at hand in a way that grants extreme mental clarity without having to think at all. It just happens.

  My first experience with "The Moment" happened while working on a nude figure study. I was in a classroom environment, but everything around me faded away. Time shifted and experiences started to happen between me, my brush and the canvas that had not happened before. In realizing the class was wrapping up and everyone was packing up their gear I looked at my painting and wondered, "who did that?" I couldn't really remember the process of trying really hard. The process I had grown accustomed to when trying to create.

Oil on Canvas ~ "The Moment" ~ Maxx

   If you are having trouble getting into the moment I'd suggest setting aside time for painting when you are free from distractions. Don't check emails or status updates and turn off the phone's ringer. Put on some pleasant music and just paint loosely. Don't really try to pressure yourself to achieve goals - certainly trying to get in "The Moment" may hinder your chances of achieving it. Paint something you want to paint, if it's a paid project you may be feeling an external pressure to perform to a certain standard. In other words just relax and let it flow. If negative voices pop into your head, tell them to leave a message after the beep.

  Have you had similar experiences getting in "The Moment"? Tips for others in getting there faster? Other names for "The Moment"? Please leave a comment or reply below.

Framing Piet Mondrian

  I thought I'd post some past work and begin to build an area of the Blog which would house a visual archive of my work - essentially an online portfolio of sorts with discussion. This will include some of the work I've created for the product design industry as well as paintings, drawings and sculpture.

  Having long been an admirer of the De Stijl movement I designed a very simple frame inspired by Piet Mondrian. Mondrian a dutch painter, along with Theo van Doesburg, created the De Stijl movement in 1917 which had very set principles in aesthetic design and form which carried over to architecture, furniture, painting and graphic design.

  For my frame design I created the components of the frame as simple geometric shapes, in primary colors which all holds together via friction fitting. The glass and image to be displayed is sandwiched together and slide into the three basic shapes to form the final frame. It can be displayed horizontally or vertically by placing the rectangular block on it's side. Also, when displaying the frame on a desk, an image can be displayed on both front and back - so there really is no back to the frame which is usually visually unappealing and hidden.

De Stijl Frame ~ Design Copyright: Maxx

  For more on the Piet Mondrian, Neoplasticism and the De Stijl movement I encourage you to visit WikiArt for Mondrian and the MoMA's page for more on the De Stijl movement.

Digital Painting with Psykopaint

  I wanted to post a link to a web based painting site that I think is a lot of fun. You can get up and painting in seconds with a free program called Psykopaint that runs totally within your web browser. There is a stand alone program you can purchase to download and it comes complete with upgrades in the form of additional brushes, etc. The brushes are named after famous painters that may best reflect the style that brush creates - fun!

  You can paint from scratch or as in my example below I imported an image and created a digital painting by painting over the pixels which were my original photo import. Another very cool bonus feature is you can use a slider, with your mouse cursor, that will allow you to see the original image under your digital painting. Let's look at my example which was from a photo I took in Red Canyon, Utah. First I imported this photo;

Red Canyon, Utah ~ Photo Credit: Maxx

  It's an interesting subject as it looks very painterly already. It suffers somewhat from the scorching sun which bleached out the image color and overall it looks too hot. I took creative liberties and tweaked the colors and saturation in the final digital painting. I decided to use a very loose brush style and go for some vibrant colors. Here's the final Psykopaint digital painting;

Red Canyon, Utah ~ Psykopainting Digital Painting by: Maxx

  You can view the image on Psykopaint's web site here ---> Maxx's Psykopainting! The slider is on the right side of the image. I realize some older operating systems or incompatible browsers may have problems with the site's advanced use of HTML. Sorry, not much I can do to help there - it works fantastic on my Chromebook.

  The web site is fun and a quick way to get painting with little effort and no messy clean-up. Also a great program for kids to play with a fun paint program! Go to Psykopaint's main web page here ---> Psykopaint!

London After Midnight

  While I did mention an incredible dry spell in a previous blog post I did have bouts of creativity within that time period. One of which is the creation of a Lon Chaney Sr. mask for a Halloween costume. I have some experience in working with latex and an intense interest in film SFX (special effects).

  For those who are unfamiliar with "London After Midnight", it is the Holy Grail of lost silent films. The 1927 film was directed by Tod Browning, known for his work with Lon Chaney and eventually went on to create the classic films "Freaks" & eventually "Dracula" in 1931, starring Bela Lugosi. The film "London After Midnight" was lost due to a tragic fire and exists in stills only.

Lon Chaney, Sr. in the lost "London After Midnight"

  My end goal was a latex mask to wear on Halloween which would be a casting from a plaster mold. To make the Lon Chaney mask I first needed to sculpt an original. Using sourced photos of Lon Chaney's make-up, a sculpt was made of clay and plaster poured over to create a negative mold. The mold was dried and latex painted inside the plaster. After drying, the latex cast was removed from the mold and allowed to dry thoroughly again. Next the cast latex was painted with acrylic paints and actual facial make-up applied over the final piece for more realistic skin tones. In order to disappear behind the mask black make-up was applied around my eyes and mouth.

Final Mask painted ~ Credit: Maxx

  Searching around I pieced together a costume that was close to Lon Chaney's original. Together with my wife Paula's Dead Bride costume we were off to celebrate Halloween in style.

Top Hat, Cape & Lantern in B&W photo ~ Credit: Maxx

  Although most everyone who saw us on Halloween has no idea who Lon Chaney Sr. was we managed to scare the bejeezus out of a few kids! We told everyone I had dug up Paula from her grave to be my bride. No one doubted us!

Maxx & Paula Arwen Owen Halloween Costumes

  My first exposure to seeing the original image of Lon Chaney Sr. goes back to my days of reading "Famous Monters of Filmland" which would continually run still images of this lost horror classics as well as the cover painting by Basil Gogos.

Famous Monsters of Filmland ~ Warren Publishing / Cover Art: Basil Gogos

  Find inspiration where you can and run with it. In my humble opinion making dinner is creative and decorating a cake is certainly an art form. Get cooking and get creative!

Fighting the Sepia-Toned Indifference

  I recently found something I had lost and thought was gone - missing forever. I looked everywhere, starting first with the couch cushions, under the bed and elsewhere. I happened to find it when I was wasn't even looking! It was my inspiration to create, to paint, make sculpture, write and draw. I had really hit a dry spell. There are specific factors in my life I could blame - that I could point to and say "Yeah, that was a lot of crap to go through -no wonder!" But the honest truth is some internal wellspring of creative juices had gone from a slow drip to completely dry! I suffered a malady that is actually common to artists, that is a form of apathy. Not knowing others have suffered with this diabolical condition I called it Sepia-Toned Indifference. I had no explanation, but making things - actually creating something, seemed like a complete waste of time.

  Now, what's really important in this story is there were a few factors that made me snap out of it. One source of inspiration is, and always will be, the constant love and support from my wife Paula. Another was a trip to the American Southwest where I saw natural sights so astounding I wanted to capture that moment in a painting. There are natural wonders in Arizona and Utah that photography doesn't have the technology to capture the real beauty of the many canyons and sights. 

Red Canyon, Utah ~ Photo Credit: Maxx

  Another experience which helped break my apathy was a podcast featuring an author whom I would like to wholeheartedly recommend if like me you find yourself fighting Sepia-Toned Indifference. 

  While listening to a podcast I heard author Sam Bennett's speaking about her book "Get it Done!" Yes, at this point I rolled my eyes too and thought "Ack, another self-help author, Lord spare me!" In reaching for my iPhone to find something else to listen to, the author Sam, immediately started talking about me! Well not me exactly, but I could tell from the dialog that she was indeed a creative person and completely "got" what I had been going through.

  If you ever happen to see this Blog post Samantha Bennett, thank you! And you dear reader I know your first reaction will be resistance to reading her book - it's the apathy - trust me this book could get your creative juices flowing again. The book is worth the cover price and on the KIndle it's really very reasonably priced.

  Links for Sam's book on Amazon ---> "Get it Done!"

  And her web site ---> The Organized Artist. Sam offers many free videos on YouTube too which also can be utilized to help pull your creative life together!

  I also recommend the Podcast which is the Savvy Painter Podcast hosted by Antrese Wood. Find her Podcast with guest Samantha Bennett here ---> Savvy Painter Podcast!

Grand Canyon, Arizona ~ Private View ~ Photo Credit: Maxx

  By taking a relatively short hike Paula & I were able to get away from the crowded overlooks at the Grand Canyon (yes, that's my foot in the picture). Sitting in the shade and enjoying the view - what an experience! It took an effort, it took planning on our part. But like anything worthwhile it was worth the effort. So is fighting for your creativity - don't give up, keep navigating through the thicket of life and you'll eventually shrug off the Sepia-Toned Indifference!

  And a quick update of my Edgar Allan Poe painting to end the post. More work still to go before it's getting the Maxx name on it!

Edgar Allan Poe Portrait ~ Acrylic on Canvas ~ Credit: Maxx

Surrounded by Eerie, Creepy Monsters!

  While I had my fair share of straight up comic books growing up what I preferred more than anything was the horror comics produced by Warren Publishing. This included EERIE, CREEPY and sometimes VAMPIRELLA. My Mom allowed me to subscribe to only one which I chose to be EERIE magazine. What I'd actually do was scrape up the cash and stealth purchase CREEPY whenever I could. My Mother prohibited me from bringing VAMPIRELLA in the house after a while as she didn't approve of her lack of clothing and revealing anatomically correct artistic style. I also subscribed to Famous Monsters of Filmland by Warren Publishing, not a comic per say, but the covers did feature some fantastic art by Basil Gogos (see below).

  Having read the contents of the aforementioned magazines I would often just sit and stare at the covers. I really didn't know it at the time but this introduced me to incredibly talented artists such as Frank Frazetta, Ken Kelly, Ben Casey, Richard Corben and many others.

EERIE #74 - Copyright Warren Publishing - Cover Art: Ken Kelly

  In thinking of the composition and use of color for Poe's painting I was heavily influenced by Basil Gogos who did many covers for Famous Monsters. Gogos also went on to create Rob Zombie's famous album cover, "Hellbilly Deluxe".

Copyright: Rob Zombie ~ Art: Basil Gogos

Copyright Warren Publishing & Art by Basil Gogos

  Another influence of mine is the great Lon Chaney Sr. (more on this in later blog posts) and the following is Basil Gogos painting of Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera make-up for his portrayal of Erik.

Art: Copyright Basil Gogos

  The portrait above shows how I am looking to portray Poe. A very painterly portrait with dramatic lighting effects and still somehow very realistic depiction of the subject.

Poe Sits for Portrait

  What if Edgar Allan Poe had sat for his portrait to be painted? What if I happened to be the artist he chose to paint his portrait? Lofty goals yes, but this is what I wanted Poe's portrait to convey in it's final form. 

  There had to be something different that was captured other than copying his likeness from one of the daguerreotypes Poe had sat for over the years. Looking at his handful of photographic likenesses I had wondered if part of Poe's expression was from the anticipation of holding perfectly still and waiting for a blinding flash of light. Imagine, you are told not to blink, not to breathe and for wait for an explosion of light that would blind you temporarily. What would you look like perhaps? Could you look natural?

Daguerreotype of Poe, 9 November 1848 ~ Richard Gimbel Collection, Philadelphia Free Library

  The daguerreotype above is what I had settled on as the sitting I would most focus my painting's likeness upon. Since Poe died in 1849 the image above would be one of his last, a good starting point for a likeness. Now how to add an element of his genius without an image of a raven superimposed or intertwined in his hair? Perhaps it was in conveying a level of humanity and sensitivity in his likeness.

Sketch of Poe - Painting study - by Maxx

  The sketch above was an early study I drew of Poe's likeness. In studying the sketch I decided not to knit his eyebrows in look of anguish or consternation in the final painting. This was what I see in other drawings and paintings - for my final piece this needs to be avoided. 

  Next blog post will focus on influences in color and style for the portrait.  

Poe-trait - WIP

  I've been experimenting with Acrylic paints and started a Portrait of the "Master of the Macabre", Edgar Allan Poe. It is unfinished and a WIP (work in progress) at the time of this post. I will continue to post progress as well as some of the thought process in why I chose to complete a portrait of Poe and choices I've made in my final composition.

  A vision of Poe sitting for a portrait has been on my mind quite a bit. Throughout Poe's life he sat for various photographs, these moments are all we have to show us Poe's true image. These captured images of Poe seem to reflect a great deal about his character through his expression. Some physical features or a look of distress have been an element in many Poe portraits. I wanted to create a painting of Poe without his distinctive character elements exaggerated which may demean or belittle the genius which is Poe. 

Edgar Allan Poe ~ Acrylic on Canvas ~ Maxx