Ian Factor's New York Academy Of Art Experience: February 2013

An interview and some sketches...

This week's blog is focused on an interview I did last week with John Jacobsmeyer, my instructor for Theory and Practice of Composition II and the chair of the Printmaking Department here at the NYAA.

I'll be interviewing some of my instructors going forward to give a better idea of who I'm learning from and the principles I'm being exposed to. These interviews will be relatively brief, 10-20 minutes, and will focus on their educational backgrounds, their work and their teaching philosophies and methods.

Below I also have included a few preliminary sketches for my class with John, working towards my Thesis ideas for next year. As my ideas and concepts solidify I'll be posting more progress work and final pieces.

Hope you enjoy, and don't forget to follow me on Instagram for a more day-to-day update of new works and events from the Academy:
http://instagram.com/ianfactor/

John Jacobsmeyer Interview on Vimeo!

My Studio with an In-Progress Charcoal Sketch for History Painting.

Graphite sketch for upcoming portrait in Painting II.

Concept Charcoal Sketch for Composition II.

Two Weeks In. Notes from the Academy:

The second semester started two weeks ago and already the energy is high, passion is flowing and countless ideas are flooding my brain. I have an incredible list of classes and teachers this spring, 18 credits, dozens of sketches, drawings and and a couple of large paintings already underway.

Last sunday, during the first week of class, I started, yet another self portrait, this one is just about life size, 10" x 8", oil on watercolor paper. It's for my Painting II class, Indirect Painting with JP Roy. The technique was to complete, from life, the quick drawing in charcoal on paper, (I chose Arches 300lb Rough), shellack over the top of the drawing and then using the Dead Palette of three colors (cold black, flesh ochre and yellow ochre) start painting in with thin layers using optical blending for the transitions from warm to cool in the turnings of form from light planes into the core shadows and back out into the reflected light areas.

Below is a small animated sequence of the portrait thus far:

Self Portrait still in progress, 3rd floor studio.

My classes and teachers this semester are:
-Artistic Anatomy II - Anatomical Drawing with Roberto Osti
-Painting II - Direct Painting Techniques with JP Roy
-Drawing II with Harvey Citron
-Theory and Practice of Composition II with John Jacobsmeyer
-Long Pose Painting with Ted Schmidt
-History Painting with Steve Mumford

It's already proving to be another intense semester, a mind boggling amount of information has already been passed and it's only the second week.

Prepping the new canvas for Spring Semester.

I have started a 60" x 48" nude figure painting from life in my Long Pose class and a second larger (48" x 36") figure piece in Painting II, sketches, research and concept art for what will be a very large canvas (approximately 8 x 10 feet) for History Painting, several anatomical studies, charts and drawings for Artistic Anatomy, dozens of life drawings for Drawing II already and about a dozen sketches for the semester long "Pre-Thesis" project for Comp & Design. The details and subject matter for my Thesis Projects are still being worked out and my bext blog I'll have some images and a clearer idea of the direction I'll plan to head into the summer and my second year. Yes, we are already working towards our Thesis concepts and building momentum for 2014.

I took another quick and inspiring trip to the Hispanic Society uptown to see the Sorolla paintings, most specifically his immense and gorgeous murals. Jessica Benjamin and Kerry Roy Thompson, both in my class took the trip with me. Here they are, in awe:

We have a couple of shows coming up, "Single Fare 3" opens Feb. 13th at RH Gallery, 137 Duane St. NYC.

Here are a couple of the pieces I'm submitting the Single Fare. These pieces are painted in oil on NYC Metro Cards, measuring about 2.5" x 3", the size of a business card. The show will be hundreds of these metro card paintings by dozens of amazing artists. It's incredible what I've seen so far from artists like Alyssa Monks and Jean-Pierre Roy:

Yoga Posture 1 for Single Fare 3.

Yoga Posture 2 for Single Fare 3.

There are always exhibitions happening at the Academy and elsewhere in NYC highlighting Academy Students, Alumni and Faculty. Here are a couple shots from Aleah Chapin's solos show that opened last week at the Flower's Gallery in Chelsea:

Wade Schuman, Painting Chair and Aleah Chapin
3rd year Fellow at the NYAA at her opening.

Christina Duarte and Daniela Muzio Kovacic, MFA 2013.

Lots to do and lots more to report on next time when more work is under way and further along. In the meantime, below are some more shots from the last two weeks at the NYAA.
Enjoy and come on by for a visit!

Cheers,

ian