Testimony, finished painting and full playlist

Testimony 27x46," presents the moral courage of a justice seeker in an environment that both guards and menaces her. Painted in matte acrylic on canvas, I used both contemporary news reports and imaginative romanticism to create the image. The figure herself is based on the testimony of Christine Mackinday in the case against Jon Koppenhaver who was convicted of battery, kidnapping and sexual assault of Miss Mackinday. I was inspired by her testimony and recontextualized it for this image, placing her in an environment that suggests both heaven and hell. I've included photos below, my latest video about the painting and the full playlist the documents the whole painting process.

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Giuseppe Arcimboldo and the Double Image

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526 – 1593) was an Italian Renaissance painter famous for his imaginative and unconventional portraits. Born in Milan, he served as a court painter for the Habsburg emperors in Vienna and Prague. Arcimboldo's unique style is characterized by his "composite portraits" which used a combination of objects, fruits, vegetables, and other elements, arranged to portray a human face. These whimsical and highly detailed works are often interpreted as allegorical representations of the seasons, elements, or human attributes. The Four Seasons 1563-73 Arcimboldo's most famous series of paintings is "The Four Seasons" where he cleverly arranged items like flowers, fruits and branches to capture his enigmatic visages. Today, Arcimboldo is popularly known primarily for his influence on the surrealists. But Arcimboldo's influences is more far-reaching than that. From the chalk cliffs of Germany to the American Southwest, Arcimboldo has helped sha...

How to Paint a Landscape in Oil

This is a landscape painted with oil on paper. It was painted from a photograph and the subject is a pond in Central Park. The visual theme is "distance" and all of my choices were made in order to communicate and stress the illusion of space. The painting was made in four layers, with a few days between each one to allow the paint to dry. I am going to describe the process of each layer. STEP 1 The first step is to block in the large shapes. This is a means of mapping out the composition, choosing which objects will be included and which omitted. The exact tones used at this stage are not absolutely critical but are an approximation of the target colors. Since they will serve as a substrate for subsequent layers, I mixed them lighter and duller than my target colors. That way they won't dominate subsequent layers by showing through and altering the color of those layers—at least no more than I want them to. STEP 2 The next layer of paint is ...

Drawing a Male Nude

I began this project with a sketch from a live model. This was done quickly and roughly, as a mere practice exercise. My goal was basically naturalistic—to record the body of the model in the pose that he had chosen. However, I emphasized certain elements that I found striking. The angularity of the shadows produced by multiple lights sources; the separation of the muscles into rotund masses; the elongation of the limbs; these were all spontaneous stylizations suggested by the model's body. These were what made me want to develop the sketch further The first step was to identify what I liked about the drawing and the pose, and to distinguish these from what was accidental and irrelevant. I did this by laying tracing paper over the original sketch and manipulating various aspects of the figure to see which elements were essential and which could be changed. I found that I liked the twist of the body and that this could be emphasized by adjustments of the ...

Andrew Sandberg's Fine Art

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