Satan! + some non-Miltonic art

Hi y’all,

Welcome back to the blog! This week, I’ve got some new work on the Milton angels project, some plein air painting, and an update on collaborations. On the Milton side of things, I’m excited to share that I finally got through a finished drawing of a full-body (fallen) angel, head and all! Of course, I started with the best character in Paradise Lost: Satan.

Satan addresses the fallen legions in Hell, Paradise Lost, Book I — conte and gouache on paper

This drawing started off as an attempt to fix the problems of the last full body angel I completed. That study, done in pen and ink on much smaller paper, came out a little awkward and too obviously stitched together for my taste. Here’s a reminder of what that looked like:

The first attempt at stringing together a full-body angel — pen and ink on paper

On the first angel, I worked from the previous anatomy studies I’ve completed for the Milton angels project, but I didn’t have any overall guide to reference (other than some gestural lines I made up at random). The result was an unfortunately clunky figure, a bit cartoonish and awkward. I’m much happier with the second one. For that drawing, I combined a finished figure drawing I did at The Art Students League with my angel anatomy studies. Here’s the finished drawing I was using as a reference:

Line/Tone/Value No. 7 — Conte, pen and ink, and gouache on paper

The latest study started as an attempt to improve upon the shortcomings of the first full body angel, but, as I worked, it developed a life of its own. The staff of the figure reminded me of Satan’s spear from the beginning of Paradise Lost. The distorted head looked like a fallen angel.

So I decided to turn it into a scene near the beginning of the epic. Here, Satan and his legions have been cast out of Heaven, fallen through Chaos, and landed in Hell. Milton describes Hell as a “dungeon horrible” around which “one great furnace flamed”. However, Hell’s flames cast “[n]o light, but rather darkness visible”. To capture that, I kept some light on the top of the figure, but kept the flames on which Satan stands dark.

Milton also describes Satan as carrying a “ponderous shield” and a massive spear from the battle in Heaven. The shield is “massy, large, and round” and “[hangs] on his shoulders like the moon”, while the spear is the size of “the tallest pine / Hewn on Norwegian hills”. I had a lot of fun playing with the scale of the imagery there.

For painting these past two weeks, I took a break from Milton-related work to do some plein air. The plein air painting is still in progress, but it’s been so nice to get outside and paint when the weather’s nice. Check out the WIP below:

Inwood Hill Park, oil on canvas (WIP)

More updates there soon. And don’t forget you can get behind-the-scenes time lapse videos and process photos of this painting, the Milton illustrations, and whatever else I’m working on by subscribing to my Patreon!

I also got to spend a night painting and chatting with the very talented Kevin Shoemaker while he produced music for us in virtual reality. It was a strange and fun experience, one very apt for the (hopefully?) tail end of COVID. Check out the video of our collaboration below:

And here’s the finished version of the painting I made to Kevin’s music:

Collaborative painting with Kevin Shoemaker, oil on canvas

You can find the rest of Kevin’s virtual reality hangs, as well as some great singles from his upcoming album, on his YouTube channel. And don’t forget to stop by his website, too.

That’s it for this week! Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week and keep creating!

Satan's head, Patreon, NFTs, and more!

Hi everyone, welcome back to the blog! This week, I’ve got some exciting announcements and some more work on the Milton project. First, I’m happy to announce that I’m now on Patreon! You can support at a variety of levels to get access to exclusive process photos and time-lapse videos, sneak peaks of upcoming performances, lessons and critiques, and all kinds of visual art products. Check it out, and thanks in advance to any and all supporters!

As usual, you can also find the full range of products and services I’m offering on the Shop & Learn section of the website. As of now, I’m selling originals and prints and offering private lessons, in addition to the goodies available on Patreon. I’ll be selling NFTs soon, too — more on that at the end of this post.

I’m also excited to share that I’m taking part in dancer Mei Yamanaka’s upcoming video project, “Naked Tree.” Mei’s collaborating with 15 different sound artists for the project, and I’m so happy to be one of them! I’ll be doing a short intro to our collaboration on May 9, so stay tuned for updates there! You can also get a sneak peak of the video on Patreon.

From Mei Yamanaka’s upcoming video project, “Naked Tree”

I’ve also got some exciting updates on the Milton project. I’ve been thinking more about illustrating angels, fallen and unfallen alike, from the front, as I’ve mostly been focusing on the back view til now. First up: wings.

Blue heron wings (above), angel wings with torso (below), front view, pen and ink

As with the back view, I started off by doing a study of blue heron wings, then distorted them and added the torso for the angelic version. I’ve included the back view below for comparison:

Blue heron wings (above), angel wings with torso (below), front view, pen and ink

I also worked up a Procreate study of Satan’s head. As I shared in my last post, I think the distorted anatomy study I drew is a little too alien to be anything but a very fallen Satan. Here’s a refresher of what that looked like:

Distorted anatomy study, muscles of the head and neck, pen and ink

Since I’m thinking of this as Satan at his most fallen, I got pretty wild with the colors and textures on Procreate. I also played around a lot more with layers this time, so be warned: the process video is kind of a light show.

Satan’s head, front view, Procreate

I’m happy to share that I’m turning this study into my first NFT! For anyone who isn’t familiar with NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, they’re essentially a way to create a one-of-a-kind digital copy of a piece of artwork that can be bought and sold with cryptocurrency. It’s a rapidly developing market, and I’m excited to dive into it! You can find the Satan head NFT by clicking here. Bidding starts Thursday at 5PM EST — hope you stop by and check it out!

That’s it for this week. Thanks for tuning in! Have a great week and keep creating.

Satan's stages of grief, angel heads, and more!

Hi y’all,

Welcome back to the blog! This week, I’ve got updates on the shop, some forthcoming poems, and more work on the Milton project. First, I’m happy to share that I’m now selling originals online on Saatchi Art! You can find them by clicking here. I’m starting with a few pieces from my semi-abstract, surrealist eye series, including several of my hamsas. For those who don’t know, the hamsa is a symbol in Jewish and Muslim culture that keeps away the “evil eye,” protecting its owner and/or bringing them blessings.

“Hamsa (Base),” oil on canvas, 9’’ x 15’’ (for sale on Saatchi Art)

“Hamsa (Blessing),” mixed media on canvas, 12’’ x 16’’ (for sale on Saatchi Art)

“Hamsa (Space),” mixed media on canvas, 12’’ x 16’’ (for sale on Saatchi Art)

“Shipwreck,” oil on canvas, 26’’ x 30’’ (for sale on Saatchi Art)

The idea of this series is to explore liminal spaces — between abstraction and representation, Jewish and Islamic culture, energy and reason, etc. I’ll share more on that as I add more to Saatchi. As always, you can find more products and services in the “Shop & Learn” section of the website. And don’t be shy to inquire about other original paintings, drawings, or commissions via email at slreichmanart@gmail.com!

I’m also excited to share that I have two poems forthcoming in Sand Hills Literary Magazine. I’ll say more about them once they’re out in the world, but, for now, stay tuned, poke around their website, and consider purchasing a print issue!

Outside of all that, I’ve been making more headway on the Milton angels project. As I shared in the last post, I’ve been slowly (but steadily) stitching together the angel bodies à la Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (which, by the way, is also a retelling of Genesis). Here’s where I left off with the full-body pen and ink study:

Angel body, back view, pen and ink

You might notice there’s a crucial element missing here . . . and since I don’t intend on making headless angels, I’ve been thinking through how I might go about illustrating an angel head. I’m a sucker for the classics (shocker, I know), so I started off by distorting some Da Vinci and Michelangelo head studies I dug up in one of my anatomy books.

Da Vinci copies, with distortions; pen and ink

Michelangelo copy, pen and ink

Michelangelo copy - distorted, pen and ink

I’ve also gone through my usual process of doing an anatomy study and distorting it:

Anatomy study, muscles of the head and neck, pen and ink

Anatomy study - distorted, muscles of the head and neck, pen and ink

I don’t think I want to have something quite that alien-looking for the final version (maybe Satan at his most fallen?), so I’m still looking around and experimenting. I’ve even been distorting line drawings of people on the train. Do angels need to wear masks?

Observational drawings on the NYC subway, with distortions; pen and ink

On the painting side of the project, I’ve completed the oil study for the angel wings:

Angel wings, back view, oil and acrylic on canvas

As I’ve been working on the wings, I’ve been thinking more about how much visual chaos I can sneak into a painting before an angel goes from “good” to “bad.” This one’s a bit closer to good, but, when you get closer, you can see that I played a little more with color and texture than it looks like from a distance.

I’ve been thinking of this as an early stage of Satan’s fall, perhaps when he’s convincing other angels to join his rebellion in Heaven or leading the charge against the pro-God forces. In Paradise Lost, Satan’s fall from Heaven is only the beginning of his descent into moral depravity. As he gets further along, he grows more and more tormented by his decisions.

His outward appearance grows more distorted as his inner torment increases. Accordingly, as I’ve been painting more and reflecting on the studies I’ve already made, I’ve been looking at them as Satan’s “stages of grief.” The torso study might be Satan in Hell after the fall from Heaven.

Satan torso, back view, oil and acrylic on canvas

If you look closer, you can see there’s more warm/cool confusion in this one than the wings study. The torso study is now stretched and ready to go, by the way, for anyone interested in purchasing it.

The warm/cool and textural confusion grows more pronounced in the leg study I completed a few weeks ago. That one could be Satan traveling through Chaos, his corruption nearly complete.

Satan leg, back view, oil on canvas

That’s it for this week! I’ll be posting again soon with more progress on the angel head drawings, oil studies, and more. Thanks for tuning in! Have a great week and keep creating.

Slowly but surely...

Hi y’all,

Welcome back to the blog! This week, I’m happy to announce that I’m now offering prints of the front-facing Procreate angel torso study. You can purchase them online via Etsy. I’m really pleased with how they turned out, so be sure to take a look!

Angel torso, front view, Procreate (print)

Angel torso, front view, Procreate (print, with pen for scale)

I’m selling two other prints on Etsy, too, and will be adding more soon, so feel free to poke around! As I shared in the last post, you can find the full range of products and services I’m offering on the “Shop & Learn” section of the website.

Now for the fun stuff! Over the past couple of weeks (sorry for the gap between posts, it’s been crazy), I’ve been hacking away at the remaining angel body parts. First, I managed to finish the oil study of the angel leg. This time, I got a lot more adventurous with the texture and color work, really emphasizing the visual chaos of the fallen angels.

Angel leg, back view, oil study

I’m seeing this one as a study for Satan as he travels through Chaos. It’s one of my favorite scenes in Paradise Lost — utterly bizarre, science fiction-esque, and sonically delightful. For anyone who’s interested, it’s the end of Book II.

I’ve also been working through some preliminary sketches of what the whole angel bodies might look like. As usual, I started with a pen and ink study. This time, rather than starting with a human study and distorting it, I Frankenstein’d together the various angel anatomy studies I’ve done thus far.

Angel body, back view, pen and ink

To get a better idea of where I might go color-wise with this, I also worked up a Procreate study.

Angel body, back view, Procreate

I’ve also been working on an oil study of the angel wings. Just to get a little variety, I’ve been pushing it in an unfallen angel direction, keeping the color and values relatively traditionally organized. I’ve been primarily referencing the pen and ink study of angel wings I did a couple weeks ago. You can find them both below.

Angel wings, back view, oil study (WIP)

Blue heron wings, back view, pen and ink (above); angel wings, back view, pen and ink (below)

The oil study is still in early stages, but I’ll have more on that soon. That’s it for this week. Thanks so much for tuning in. Have a great week and keep creating!

Limbs, wings, and lessons, oh my

Hi y’all,

Welcome back to the blog and another installment of my Wizard of Oz puns (I feel I owe it to my home state). This week, I’m happy to announce that I’m now offering private lessons in drawing, painting, and creative writing via nailit! You can sign up for them here. To see the full range of lessons and products I’m offering, you can also go the “Shop & Learn” section of my website (more there coming soon). Always feel free to shoot me an email at slreichmanart@gmail.com, too, to inquire about purchasing originals or commissioning a piece.

Enough of the sales pitch, though — let’s get nerdy! In last week’s post, I was exploring how to visually represent Milton’s ideas about good and evil. For anyone who hasn’t read that post, I think it comes down to organization. The more organized, the more sin-free, the more chaotic, the more evil.

I decided to go with a good angel for the angel arm study I was working on last week. Here’s where it ended up:

Angel arm, side view, oil study (finished)

With this study, I think I’ve started to learn how to distinguish the fallen and unfallen angels using color, texture, and brushwork. However, as I shared last week, I think this study veered a little too far from human anatomy to really read as an arm. For anyone who doesn’t remember what the piece looked like last week, here it is again:

Angel arm, side view, oil study (WIP; finished study above)

Even with the rest of the fingers there now and the rendering complete, it still feels a little too alien to me, largely because of the proportions. With that in mind, I’ve been trying to keep the next study a little closer to human. I’ve gotten wilder and weirder with the color, brushwork, and texture (this one’s a fallen angel), but I’ve tried to keep the forms and proportions a little closer to actual human anatomy.

Angel leg, back view, oil study (WIP)

More on that study soon! And tune in to Instagram Live tonight (Thursday, March 4, for those reading later) at 6PM EST for some live action on this piece.

I’ve also been prepping for an oil study of angel wings, which I’ll probably get started on next week. I started off with a pen and ink study of blue heron wings for a reference point, then distorted them and stuck them on a back view of an angel torso. Voila, angel wings:

Blue heron wing study (above), angel wing study (below), back view, pen and ink

To get a better sense of what I might do with the wings in terms of color and brushwork, I also got a Procreate study together. You can find it below:

Angel wing study, back view, Procreate

That’s it for this week! Thanks so much for reading. Have a great week and keep creating!

Good angels, bad angels?

Hi y’all,

Welcome back to the blog! This week, I’ve been thinking through how to represent John Milton’s ideas about good and evil in paint.

As I shared in last week’s post, I’ve been working through how I might illustrate Milton’s Satan. The tricky thing is that Satan is radiant, beautiful, and, in some ways, good, but grows more distorted and tormented as the epic progresses. To get at both of these ideas, I wanted the luminosity to really pop while also using a wider, wilder array of colors, textures, and brush strokes. In the end, this is where I landed:

Satan torso, back view, oil study (finished)

After finishing the Satan torso oil study, I moved on to angel limbs. As usual, I started with a pen and ink study of the human anatomy, then distorted it. I did them both on one page this time to make the comparison a little more user-friendly:

Human arm (left) and angel arm (right), pen and ink

I started the oil study soon after completing the pen and ink drawings. To be honest, I don’t think I’d actually decided whether I was painting a good angel or a bad angel before I started painting. I’m still not finished, but I’m leaning towards good.

Angel arm, side view, oil study (WIP)

In my view, the source of sin in Milton’s universe is a combination of doubt and arrogance. Satan falls because his arrogance leads him to believe that it’s somehow a good idea to start a rebellion against an omnipotent ruler (God). He leads Adam and Eve to their fall (and to his own subsequent torture in Hell) because he doubts his ability to redeem himself. Between these two character flaws, Satan is his own worst enemy. Adam and Eve fall for similar reasons. Beguiled by Satan, they doubt God’s commandments, trusting Satan’s pseudo-logic instead.

If doubt and arrogance are the two primary sources of sin in Milton’s universe, then I think that painting a good/unfallen angel is less about keeping out the darker, more turbulent colors, brushstrokes, etc., and more about keeping the visual language consistent and organized, no matter how dark or light it gets. Because this piece is, so far at least, more traditionally organized than the Satan torso, I’m leaning towards “good angel” for this one.

I do think this study got a little too distorted to really be believable as an arm, angel or no, so, as I get ready for my next study, I’ve been thinking a lot about just how far I can distort the anatomy before it ceases to read as anatomy at all. To that end, I’ve worked up a Procreate study of an angel leg, keeping it a little closer to human anatomy than the direction I’ve been heading in for the oil arm study:

Angel leg, back view, Procreate

It’s been a few posts since I’ve shown the original pen and ink studies that the Procreate leg is based on, so I’ve included them below:

Angel legs, side view (left) and back view (right), pen and ink

Human legs, side view (left) and back view (right), pen and ink

That’s it for this week! Check back in next week for updates on the Milton project and any other art news I’ve got to share. Thanks so much for reading, and have a great week!