This newly launched website is a redesign of the original ajperriello.com and will focus on my fine art and illustration in the representational styles of Realism, Impressionism, Surrealism, and Illustration.
I am excited about the artwork here and will continue to post updates to this blog and include new pieces regularly to gallery pages and posts.
I create fine art and illustrations in a diversity of subjects …
I draw from various sources and reference for subjects in my artwork from both observation and imagination.
People and objects in the world around me play a role, as do photographs. I organize my cell phone and camera photographs onto external hard drives, with backups. These photos become a useful reference library. If the photograph itself is naturally lighted, with an engaging framed perspective, I will reference my photo directly while working on the painting. I do not copy the photo. I reference it for general appearance and perspective and then freely add embellishments to color and line to make it my own painterly rendition of the scene. The George Eastman House is an example of this …
Sketchbooks become an equally important tool for both reference and new ideas. Many times, a new idea for a picture begins in imagination. Inspiration leads to sketching out a form for imagination. This can develop through detail or in very loose, free-form style. One, or more, sketches from any sketchbook may be combined to form a narrative type piece of art and illustration – such as a graphic novel or comic splash page. This painting on paper I did is an example …
There are complicated copyright and licensing implications involved in creating artwork drawn with the use of a photographer’s copyrighted pictures online. I stay clear of using photographs taken by others as direct reference. There are many artists who will use photo reference without clear licensing authority or copyright information. Many of them done by successful, even famous, photo-realists and pop artists. It’s understood that if the artwork is not a replica of a photograph, but changes it in such a way to make it original, that it becomes an artistic derivative. Many images online can be found that are open license and posted for use on websites, such as www.unsplash.com. I did this painting, referencing an unsplash photograph …
Photographic reference has a become a useful tool for modern Photo-Realism, and I have some paintings in my portfolio that are tightly rendered. I painted this picture using one of my own cell phone photographs as a reference (selected from one of my libraries of personal reference images on an external hard drive, as discussed earlier in the post) …
The desire to paint in great detail had been an obsession of mine for some time. However, I much prefer the looser, free and gestural, way of working overall.
My father was a commercial artist and I would watch him work, having knowledge of the force and intensity of bold, confident brush strokes and pencil lines. I admire the skill that commercial artists have with a wide spectrum of drawing and painting tools: brushes, pens, pencils, markers. Color, value, light, and dark are essential foundations.
Some Masters I admire are: Robert E. McGinnis, Frank Frazetta, Andrew Wyeth, and Camille Pissarro.
Figure drawing is a popular genre of art with a diversity of artistic styles. Live figure drawing classes during my college education helped my speed and accuracy when rendering human anatomy. I still have some of these sketches. I’ve also spent many hours studying anatomy and building upon the process of sketching the stick-figure-skeleton, to 3D-modeled mannequin, to fully developed human musculature, tone, and movement.
I have always had a passion for music. Growing up, my musical taste was mostly pop and classic rock. I recall the first time I heard Jimmy Page’s opening riff to “Whole Lotta Love.” That sound picked me up and took me away, and I never came back. I still love pop and classic rock, but my taste has widened a great deal to include classical, jazz, folk – and especially older blues and country of early to mid-twentieth century Americana.
Drawings in graphite and pen and ink are usually applied on a paper support. I love art paper as a support. I paint on stretched and primed canvas; however, lately I have been doing most of my paintings on paper as well. Paper is easy to store and carry. Mixed-Media paper and Bristol Board make an excellent support to draw and paint on and then finish with an archival spray varnish and store in protective folders. Prints and Originals can be sold from both canvas and paper pieces.
I also create in an original style of abstraction, featuring my unique series of mixed-media abstract collage artworks. All of my abstract artwork will be featured on a new website coming very soon : https://nextcenturyart.com. Below is a sample teaser gallery for my signature style abstraction to be featured on that website.
Please come back to my website here, at https://ajperriello.com for all of my representational paintings and drawings, Realism, Impression, and more.
