Tony Weinstock

Jan 29, 2012 El Matador: The Return

2012-01-31T21:30:00.000-08:00

El Matador is a place of mystery and wonder. Why is every painting there good? Inquiring minds want to know.

Dec 29, 2011 Morgan Hill.

2012-01-31T21:29:00.000-08:00

My last painting of 2011.

Dec 18, 2011 Swtizer Falls.

2012-01-31T21:25:00.000-08:00

We didn't make it to the falls, but the vista was amazing and the lighting was crazy. So crazy, that it changed every couple minutes. These paintings are pretty small. I was hoping that I could keep up with the light, but a combination of sunset and settling fog just made it impossible.

Dec 11, 2011 Lower Arroyo Seco.

2012-01-31T21:19:00.000-08:00

Lower Arroyo Seco. Actually, it's right on the other side of Hahmongna Park.

12_04_11 Chantry Flats, Arcadia.

2011-12-06T21:10:00.000-08:00

This one's a little quicker than the usual. Maybe an hour. The sun is setting earlier these days and I didn't get started 'till late afternoon. My fingers were frozen by the time I left.

11_27_11 Lake Balboa.

2011-11-28T20:58:00.000-08:00

I've missed the last month due to rain and holidays and laziness, but here's the latest entry. Lake Balboa looks amazing at sunset. Something about the light in Fall.

Unfinished Storybook Project.

2011-11-12T23:58:00.000-08:00

Unfinished Storybook Project.

2011-11-12T23:55:00.000-08:00

One of the hardest images to create. 8 family members all different, all reacting differently for the camera and of course the dog. It's still a little jumbly, but turned out pretty good for a first pass.

Unfinished Storybook Project.

2011-11-12T23:53:00.000-08:00

Unfinished Storybook Project.

2011-11-12T23:50:00.000-08:00

Unfinished Storybook Project.

2011-11-12T23:16:00.000-08:00

Back in 2009 I was lucky enough to be offered a job illustrating an amazing children's book story about a wandering dog whose free spirited nature lands him in all kinds of trouble. Unfortunately I ended up leaving the project, but I still look at these as some of the best traditional media illustrations I've ever created. They're all about 90% done. I was looking at some fantastic illustrators like Carter Goodrich, Shaun Tan, David Catrow, Bill Sienkiewicz, Timothy Basil Ering, and Omar Rayyan. I really like their mixed media apporach. It seemed to add a lot of vibrancy and life to things. I also liked that in a lot of ways, you could see the original sketch maintained with the used of linework. I tried a new method drawing a layout sketch in colored pencil, painting in watercolor washeds first and then acrylic in a series of washes to build up harder darks. Then I pulled out areas with colored pencils to create color vibration or add texture. Instead, it frequently made me tighten and refine the paintings even further, but coloristically and texturally I definitely saw an improvement.

Dibs.

2011-11-07T20:11:00.000-08:00

10_30_11 Malibu Creek Park

2011-10-31T22:18:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, if there comes a time where I have to choose between a beautiful vista and an awesome bench -- bench every time.

10_23_11 Hahamongna Park

2011-10-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

Plus the warmup thumbnail.

10_16_11 LA Arboretum

2011-10-17T22:11:00.000-07:00

Final, based on the thumbnail.

I rarely do a thumbnail beforehand, but it seems to make so much sense...

10_09_11 Corral Canyon Park

2011-10-17T22:08:00.000-07:00

Another one for the Scrapbook.

2011-10-13T23:24:00.000-07:00

Helmet Hair v02

2011-10-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

Couple of New Posse Updates.

2011-10-03T22:57:00.000-07:00

Oct 02, 2011. Malibu Lagoon, Malibu.
Oct 25, 2011. Malibu Bluffs, Malibu.
Oct 18, 2011. Pasadena. Somewhere off the beaten path.
Oct 09, 2011. Paradise Falls, Thousand Oaks.

Helmet Hair

2011-10-03T22:33:00.000-07:00

Seattle: Waterfall Park 08_27_11

2011-09-14T23:46:00.000-07:00

Seattle: View from Amgen's Helix Bridge 08_27_11

2011-09-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

Mandeville Canyon 08_08_11

2011-09-14T23:40:00.000-07:00

Sunday Painting Posse Updates_080711

2011-08-07T21:34:00.000-07:00

07_31_11. Last weekend at Colorado Bridge in Pasadena.

07_24_11. Point Dume. Although I'm not looking at it's beach. I'm looking down from the other side of the rock, at Dume Cove.

07_17_11. The Fairmont Apartments. A view from my apartment window. I painted this during Carmageddon.

071011_Eaton Canyon

2011-07-12T22:56:00.000-07:00

I haven't been to Eaton Canyon for almost a year now. Still challenging to find a panoramic view, but just as challenging to simplify the little clearings chalk full of shrubbery scribbles.

070311_Van Nuys Golf Course

2011-07-12T22:48:00.000-07:00

The parking lot at the Van Nuys Golf Course. I rarely get in a painting right at sunset. I finished maybe 45 minutes before there was no light left. If I had a little more time, I would have done a painting in the other direction. The clouds were epic.

062611_El Matador

2011-07-12T22:39:00.000-07:00

Not my best day ever. Usually it's impossible to have a bad day at El Matador, but the Posse came during high tide, and it was pretty much impossible to paint from the beach, so we all worked from the switchback trail and I took up post by the parking lot. Not the coolest coposition or colors, but it was a beautiful day.

Zion/Moab Vacation Paintings 2011 - the rest.

2011-06-11T00:11:00.000-07:00

"Deadhorse Point State Park." It's no Grand Canyon, but awe-inspiring none-the-less. And that wraps it up. Our last painting was at sunset. We managed to do about two paintings a day, every day, except for ATV day, and found an increasingly epic sight every day until the end. I would go again.

"Delicate Arch."
Just to the left of the "Double Arches."
Behind the "Windows."

After Zion, we drove to Moab. Somehow, it's dryer there. I had to spray my watercolor palette about every minute, and even then, the paint was still waxy and hard to work with. Whereas, I was able to paint about 1 painting per hour in Zion, the combination of heat, dryness, and wind caused me to take twice as long in Moab. The elements humbled me.

Zion/Moab Vacation Paintings 2011 - a few more.

2011-06-11T00:06:00.000-07:00

The Patriarchs as the sun set.

More Zion!

Zion/Moab Vacation Paintings 2011

2011-06-10T23:48:00.000-07:00

View from the road.
View from the road.
Behind the Pioneer Lodge (our hotel).
Emerald Pools.
Emerald Pools.

Just got back from another epic adventure with the Sunday Painting Posse! Instead of the usual Sunday outting, we took a week to go to Utah and paint the national parks of Zion and Moab. Since we were going to be doing tons of hiking and backpacking, I'm afraid I chickened out of bringing my oils, and settled for my watercolor and gouache sketchbook. Here's a bit of Zion!

05_08_11 Pasadena Mountains.

2011-05-09T22:37:00.000-07:00

Tiny bit of digital.
Original.

04_17_11 Lindaraxa Park, Alhambra

2011-04-18T22:19:00.000-07:00

Lindaraxa Park, Alhambra

Tiny Repaint.

2011-04-16T23:12:00.000-07:00

Tiny little repaint. I painted back the middle background mountain. A small change, but every little bit counts.

04_03_11 Vasquez Rocks

2011-04-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

041011_Burton Chase Park, Marina del Rey

2011-04-12T08:57:00.000-07:00

03_27_10 Catalina Island_Awesome!

2011-04-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

Catalina Casino

The bluff looking inward at the island.

03_06_11 Colorado Bridge, Pasadena.

2011-03-08T22:29:00.000-08:00

I believe it is also known as a suicide bridge. However, it was really nice on Sunday.

Some February landscape paintings.

2011-02-13T23:47:00.000-08:00

Today, 02/13/11 at the Venice Boardwalk. I went watercolor and gouache on this one.

02/06/11 Last week at Placerita Canyon.

01_30_11 Old LA Zoo.

2011-02-02T22:06:00.000-08:00

Old LA Zoo. It was nice and overcast on Sunday.

01_16_11 Topanga Mountains

2011-01-19T22:51:00.000-08:00

I went back digitally to solve some of the value problems with the painting. I worked the values to a better hierarchy and tightened up that middleground hill and totally repainted the land touching the water. Usually, my strokes are fairly confident, but you can see below that the edges look uncertain and a little rushed, especially in the tree. The painting had started pretty well, but parts were still unresolved by the time I chose to quit. Unfortunately, I ran out of time as the sun became drastically different. One thing that a friend pointed out was that the ocean, while graphic, had waves moving diagonally and I wish I'd indicated it in my original painting. I added some movement digitally which helps keep that area a little more interest.
Latest from my Sunday Painting Posse Exploits, a little location in the Topanga Mountains somewhere in Santa Monica. This went fairly well for such dynamic lighting, so many greens (I'm more used to less lush colors and more earthy tones). As you can see from the bw image, my value grouping was a incomplete, although in the color image I pretty much nailed the light wrapping around the path and illuminating that grass. It really was that delicious looking.

Vasquez Rocks 01_09_11

2011-01-12T20:04:00.000-08:00

Vasquez Rocks. I was gonna find an epic vista, but a late start made me choose otherwise. I found this on the way to the epicness.

El Matador 12_12_10

2011-01-11T21:03:00.000-08:00

Welcome back and Happy 2011! However, this painting was my last painting from 2010. Another wonderful trip to El Matador. No matter where you look or what weather we're having, every view is good.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-24T15:28:00.000-08:00

A card format seemed more fitting. Let's try this again. Happy Holidays Everyone!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2010-12-24T01:52:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Everyone! See you in 2011. Tony Weinstock, signing off.

Sunday Painting Posse: Mt. Baldy 12_05_10

2010-12-05T22:22:00.000-08:00

This is before it started raining.

Mt. Baldy. So cold, so rainy, but I have all my fingers and toes. I'm sorry this isn't finished, but the weather got out of hand and I couldn't keep the paint mixable. Coupled with the wind flipping my easel and dumping my turps, I called it quits. This is where I finished.

Bird sketches

2010-11-21T23:13:00.000-08:00

Some watercolor and gouache work based on photos, trying to get the hang of the medium.

Maguire Gardens 11_21_10

2010-11-21T21:11:00.000-08:00

Painting from Maguire Gardens near the LA overpass. A little gouache and watercolor sketch. I did tweak it a tiny bit in photoshop, but only a little.

Stunt Rd painting 11_14_10

2010-11-20T20:46:00.000-08:00

It's pretty hard to get a good color correction for oil paintings sometimes. The background was washy, but appears a little faded instead below. I was using multiple levels of curves and color balance adjustment layers, but I was doing so much digital work I ended up doing a little paintover (above).

A little painting off of Stunt Rd, Santa Monica last Sunday. The last of my 6" x 8"s.

Sunday Painting Posse paintings.

2010-10-14T22:37:00.000-07:00

10/10/10 Santa Monica Catholic Church

10/03/10 Chinatown - Chunking Plaza

Sorry for the delay. Here's the latest Sunday Painting Posse paintings.

El Matador photos - art at high tide.

2010-09-26T22:56:00.000-07:00

It totally looks like I'm painting waves here.
Ordinarily, I face my subject, but the sun would've been all over me, so I angled my canvas away from it. I see from this photo though that my palette was still in sunlight though. Rats.

You can see the size of my painting. I'd love to work bigger, but it's not convenient to carry. Also, below you can see that I haven't figured out a way to get a bigger palette, so I can't mix any more more paint than what you see.
While the tide is nice and cool on my feet, it starts to carry away my water bucket and my easel starts to sink. Notice that my legs are getting further and further apart so I can stay level with my canvas.
Hi guys, I didn't mention in my previous entry, but when we were at El Matador, there were at least two other groups of landscape painters there. A couple of artists were nice enough to take some photos of me trying to work as the tide was getting closer and closer. Thanks Maya!

Tahoe majesty from the summit.

2010-09-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

You can see the burn line from the Tahoe fire about five-ish years back. My cousin said after that is when they started putting fire hydrants along all the streets. You'll driving along a back road lined with trees and all of the sudden there's a red hydrant .

I lied in the previous post. That in the background is the real summit. My cousin says there's a flag up there so you know you're at the top. It's probably surrounded by dead hikers.

Reminds me of one of Friedrich's blasted trees.

Tahoe trail photos continued.

2010-09-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

The summit.
So many awesome tree portrait possibilities. It would have been a great painting experience, minus the bush-wacking trailblazing my cousin and I did getting to the top.

A lonely rock.

Lake Tahoe vacation pictures.

2010-09-25T22:40:00.000-07:00

A speed boat constantly drives up and down the lake ferrying people from the parking lot to the lake houses.

I went to Lake Tahoe to do some hiking and landscape paintings (see http://tonyweinstock.blogspot.com/2010/09/tahoe-paintingssept-01-to-sept-12-2010.html and earlier), but this was from the hiking-only part of my stay.

09_19_10 at El Matador

2010-09-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo of the real thing, taken by another artist enjoying the location. Thanks Maya!

El Matador, I have returned.

And I brought my oils.

This was my first outing with the landscape painting group, "The Sunday Painting Posse."

Tahoe Paintings_Sept 01 to Sept 12, 2010

2010-09-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

With a little time left in the day, I drove into the Nevada side of Tahoe to Spooner Lake. Freezing weather, but awesome scenery. Still victim to fast moving clouds and changing sunlight though.

Refreshed by a good night's rest, I painted this at Bijou Park. Awesome clouds that day, but they were moving so fast that it was difficult to paint a consistent lighting condition.

Part 2 of best worst day ever. Frustrated by my earlier difficulties, I decided to do one more before I hiked up from Emerald Bay. Of course one huge blast of wind hit right before I finished, spraying the panel with sand. You can see the one stroke's worth of blank canvas at the bottom. I took that as a sign, picked up my stuff, packed up my painting, and left.

Part of my best worst day ever. I hiked to the bottom of Emerald Bay and broke out one of my best paintings ever. Unfortunately, there are tremendous lake effects in Tahoe, and just as I was finishing, a huge gust of wind blew up and managed to slide the painting sideways out of my easel in face first into the sand. I scraped most of the sand off and repainted some, but it still came out a little dirty.

A quick painting at my cousin's house in Tahoe. I don't often do afternoon paintings, but I didn't arrive 'til late. The sunlight seems to change much quicker as it's setting.

Morgan Hill

2010-09-13T22:22:00.000-07:00

Oil painting off Olive Ave in Morgan Hill.

09_01_10 Driving up the 101

2010-09-13T21:41:00.000-07:00

On my way up the 101, I stopped off in Paso Robles and to do another gouache painting before the sun went down.

Gouache sketch at Nojoqui Park near Solvang. The flies were going nuts around me and I had to leave after about 15 minutes. Beautiful trail though.

Landscape Painting_Descanso Gardens 03

2010-08-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

Nothin' but palette knife. One of my best paintings I think. The culmination of hard work, sweat, tears, odorless mineral spirits, and divine intervention. I've definitely found working with the palette knife forces you to always mix with a lot of paint, so I didn't run out of my colors too early and I was able to mix minute variations into them and with a combination of scraping down the canvas and piling it on thickly was able to get a real range of thickness. Not a bad composition, but I wish I'd fit the tops of the palms in there. Next time.

Landscape Painting_Griffith Park Observatory

2010-08-22T23:05:00.000-07:00

Griffith Park Observatory. Our last class tackling deep deep atmospheric perspective and city complications. Ironically, I don't know if any of us actually painted the Observatory.

Landscape Painting_Descanso Gardens 02

2010-08-22T22:53:00.000-07:00

Near the California Desert garden.

A return to Descanso Gardens, this time with color. A kid said my colors were so colorful and that my trees were nice and squishy.

Landscape Painting_Malibu Creek Park

2010-08-22T22:47:00.000-07:00

Not bad, but I got lazy with the foreground. I like the top 2/3 best.

I worked on a gessoed panel here. Without the tooth of a canvas on board, the paint slides around a lot and streakyness becomes a challenge. One more challenge than I would have cared for.

One of my best paintings for this whole summer. I was able to keep some of the original mark making and a little of the washes but get a some thickness and hit my edges. Sweet!

Landscape Painting_Caltech

2010-08-22T22:44:00.000-07:00

Caltech. Really nice environment and a lot of little pockets of varying landscapes to paint.

Landscape Painting_Chinatown

2010-08-22T22:40:00.000-07:00

Having dealt with multiple changing scenery the previous day, I chose a balcony up high that was unlikely to change drastically. I did it a little later in the afternoon than I would have cared for, so I had to work a little quicker than usual, but it still came out alright. The architecture and supercolors are a lot of fun to paint.
Chinatown! Our first foray into architecture. I spent an hour in the shade before my protective shadow of "cool" receded and I cooked for the rest of the day. However, the heat wasn't as bad as all of the cars passing through, parking, the stores opening and setting up shop, etc.

Landscape Painting_Vasquez Rocks

2010-08-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

We spent a Saturday at Vasquez Rocks, a popular movie and tv show location. I recognize them from Star Trek, both the new and the old, but their unique formations can be seen in countless movies, especially westerns. There was a scifi set for some production nearby while we were there.

Landscape Painting_Point Dume

2010-08-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

Zuma didn't really appeal to me so I drove on past to Point Dume for some cliff action. There was a lot of rock climbers all over and then someone got trapped on the other side or something and my setup area was overrun with fire trucks and ambulances, so I hiked up the rocks with all my junk and painted the other side from a viewing port.

Landscape Painting_Simi Valley

2010-08-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

The hills off Yosemite Drive in Simi Valley. When every hill is dead grass, it is both boring and challenging to create space. Not my best. How 'bout that tree in the lower left!?

Landscape Painting_El Matador

2010-08-22T22:13:00.000-07:00

El Matador - a cold day in an otherwise hot summer. Our first foray into color. Fortunately, it was overcast, desaturating an already limited palette landscape. Unfortunately, I felt like I didn't need sunscreen then and so I was totally burnt on one side of my body (I was up against the beach cliff ). Is it better to be evenly burnt or one-sided burnt?

Landscape Painting_Eaton Canyon

2010-08-22T22:10:00.000-07:00

Running out of patience, I did not get the depth that wanted.

A view from the riverbed.

Eaton Canyon. Sooooo hot that day.

Landscape Painting_Descanso Gardens

2010-08-22T22:05:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know or have never been, there's a mini railroad for kids that runs through Descanso Gardens. That's the tracks. Although, there's usually about 4-5 adults to each kid...

Descanso Gardens above the Bodi House. Still monochromatic. A coyote walked by me during this painting --- yikes!

Landscape Painting_Topanga State Park

2010-08-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

Topanga State Park (full tonal range, monochromatic)

Topanga State Park (5 tones, monochromatic)

So I just finished a landscape painting class with the talented Leighton Hickman, bearded oil painting genius. We began in June and sweated it out on Saturdays all the way through yesterday, culminating in a trip to the Griffith Park Observatory. Here's three months of work, comin' up!

Behind the rocks

2010-07-03T00:31:00.000-07:00

It's a spaceman hiding from a giant.

Hippo cartoon

2010-06-29T22:37:00.000-07:00

A little hippo cartoon.

Gone Fishin'

2010-04-29T23:27:00.001-07:00

Got a little carried away with the spattering...

2010-04-21T22:53:00.000-07:00

More Caveman Dan.

Caveman Dan visdev

2010-04-21T22:48:00.000-07:00

Caveman character.

When it rains in L.A., my blog gets updated.

2010-02-27T15:20:00.001-08:00

And here it is! This is as far as I've ever taken a digital painting. I rarely have weeks to work on and develop a single piece on the job. I feel like this has become much more detailed than I ever intended, but in the end it was very rewarding to see if I could meet the challenge of maintaining focus and the original strengths of the painting as more and more detail was added.
About halfway -- I felt like coming to a close, but a friend commented that it still felt a little digital and the focal points could use some tweaking. Thanks Cameron!

Some color samples and an earlier composition.

It's really pouring here in the valley, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to update the blog! I was hoping to finish this in time for this year's Spectrum 17 competition, but no such luck. I only made it to about a halfway point, but it did allow me to work more leisurely and to really focus on bringing in details and textures.

Summer stuff.

2010-01-10T19:57:00.000-08:00

I began designing dragons as if they began as insect larva and developed into dragons through metamorphosis.
A little bit of summer work while I had some time off/looking for work.

Overdue Update!

2010-01-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

My sister and I at the Spectrum Exhibition in New York this September. I've always loved Peter de Seve's artwork and I finally got to see one up close. A lot of the artists featured were there and the gallery was filled with original work. Total inspiration overload. Despite pooring rain, it was so packed that these pictures were the only ones I took not brimming over with other guests and artists. Great to see everyone!

2009-08-07T14:41:00.000-07:00

Hey, one of the pieces I created that was accepted into Spectrum is in this show! I'll be in New York in September to check it out. Check out the Society of Illustrators' website for more info.

Drawing Club!

2009-07-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

Two of the many drawings I did at The Drawing Club a few weeks back. These were the best though.

Huntington Garden

2009-07-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

A trip to Huntington Gardens. Didn't have too long to sketch, an accident on the 101 made a 30 minute trip an hour plus. However, I did get in 2 sketches at the Chinese Garden and a quickie at the Japanese Garden.

LA Zoo Sketch Trip

2009-07-12T14:25:00.000-07:00

We really had to chase the zebras around their composure to finally get an angle where they weren't behind a wall or a bush was in the way. The zoo keeper kept leading them away for feeding too. The rams however, were just relaxing. Easy.
We always pass by the lizard cages -- they never move. They could be taxidermied lizards for all I know.
Roughly two years later, it's the first time Cameron and I sketched at the LA Zoo since the below sketches. The flamingo park is right at the entrance and there's so many all doing the same things, they're great for sketching.
Finally, some time to upload some life sketches I did at the LA Zoo from about two years ago with a couple of friends.

Star of the Show is done and done!

2009-06-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

Alright! "Star of the Show" is complete! I just received a jpeg of the cover from my publisher, Shenanigan Books. It's my first picture book, written by the amazing Della Ross Ferreri and it was quite a ride. Never having done a book before or a series of paintings outside of 3, I never would have considered how difficult it might be to find excitement in painting the same two characters 26 times. But by the end, I had a better understanding of them than any character or painting I've ever done before. Definitely a worthwhile experience. Lookout for "Star of the Show" in September. You can find it on Amazon.com.

2008-04-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

Now that's what I'm talkin' about! And so what started out as an attempt to create one post became three.

Color Crazy

2008-04-25T21:16:00.000-07:00

Okay....this is not remotely close to the original colors, but it's kind of neat. Anyways, it's a self-promotional ad for the Directory of Illustration using the same image from my first post, but with some subtle tweaks to color and modeling. I'll see if I can fix that right now...

Easy Pickin's

2008-04-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

Just a quick drawing in photoshop.

Brawn without Brains

2008-03-04T12:28:00.001-08:00

Just fiddling around with photoshop brushes and clipping masks. While I feel I normally approach my work graphically, I usually end up losing some of the hard cut edges when I go to paint. The clipping masks really help maintain the edges. Plus editing is much easier.
Originally I just had two bulls pushing the blocks, but it didn't feel engaging, so I gave them human faces, cropped the composition and added an overseer for balance and human presence.

The Night Shift

2008-02-19T19:40:00.000-08:00

Here's my first blog post. I had this cool idea inspired by Vigo's henchman in Ghostbusters 2 and also by my family's evil black cat. Talk about night vision. Very spooky.