Titus Castanza Art

Uncle Jimmy

2012-01-07T10:47:00.000-07:00

live model Kendall

2011-11-29T14:14:00.003-07:00

Olivia figure study

2011-11-24T04:57:00.002-07:00

Nick in acrylics

2011-10-20T22:29:00.002-07:00

Banana

2011-10-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

Ratchel in the studio

2011-10-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick picture, off the easel.

Jack The Ripper or Daniel Webster?

2011-09-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

Analiza

2011-09-01T00:38:00.000-07:00

THe mAnager

2011-08-26T04:50:00.000-07:00

Tommy

2011-08-25T04:04:00.000-07:00

Mercaldo

2011-08-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

Hal's childhood days

2011-08-11T10:06:00.001-07:00

WWll USMC Commemorative Code Talker Coin Base

2011-07-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

Yes... I made this. It reminds me of my days at the Franklin Mint.

Live figure painting - Hal's studio

2011-07-06T11:52:00.000-07:00

This figure study, or what I like to call Hal's Studio Study, was done in a short burst of just over an hour. Natural light flowed in through large windows running nearly the entire north side of his studio from floor to ceiling. The superb quality of this natural light inspired me to focus on color and the environment within the studio. Rather than the figure itself, the overall intent had more to do with time and place.

Tips and Suggestions to Painting

2011-05-16T09:47:00.001-07:00

Tips & Suggestions:

- Have confidence when you paint. Trust your creative instincts. Paint with expression and voice.

- Make intentional brushstrokes by putting thought into each stroke, each decision. Make each brushstroke count.

- Save your darkest darks and lightest lights for the final stages of the painting.

- Apply strokes in the direction of the form - to help describe the form, imply motion or direction.

- You are building a “mosaic” of brushstrokes. Brushstrokes on top of brushstrokes. Smaller strokes on top of larger ones.

- Apply confident and bold brushstrokes. Do not “dab at” the canvas with a million strokes. Load your brush with paint, apply a stroke, and then go back to your palette, pick up more paint, and apply another stroke. Exercise thoughtfulness.

- One confident brushstroke says more than a hundred smoothed-out strokes.

- Think of creative ways to apply paint. You can apply: a thick stroke from point A-B, a single dab of paint, scrub at the canvas with an old brush, dry-brush the paint, a palette knife or a shoe or whatever else.

- Use larger brushes during the beginning stages and progressively smaller ones toward the latter stages. You can get more detail than you may think with using a large brush. Push your dexterity and skill with a larger brush.

- “Fat over Lean”: Use a thinner paint mixture (paint with thinner or linseed oil) during the beginning stages and progressively less medium toward the latter stages. Near the end of the painting, you may find that you don’t need any medium at all. Thin paint is called, “lean” and paint with less or no medium is called, “fat”. Hence, “fat over lean”.

- At the beginning, when blocking-in your drawing, break your values down to three values: darks, mid-tones and lights. Treat them as abstract shapes.

- Here are some of the 3’s in painting (push yourself to discover other 3’s):

· Lights - Mid-tones - Darks

· Foreground - Mid-ground - Background

· Tight/Detail - Midrange/Structure - Loose/Abstraction

· Focal point - Main subject - Overall impact
Shapes: Small, Medium, Large
Image, Message, Context

· Fine rendered detail - Modeled form - Suggestive space

· Punchy Color - Muted Color - Grays/Browns

Mixing Blacks

2011-05-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

There are different approaches to mixing blacks. Here are three. Notice the addition of Indian Yellow in figure 1. I've found that Indian Yellow is really Cadmium Yellow, but without the white added to the pigment. This is very useful when attempting to mix deep blacks.

Titus Castanza's Palette Layout

2011-05-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

I use a simplified palette of mostly primary colors. If you'll notice, I have a warm and cool version of each primary color. If I decide to use brown, I'll use burnt umber and raw umber. But usually, I'll mix my own browns along with my own black. Occasionally, I'll introduce Magenta into my palette, when needed.

I use the same brand of oil paint for all my colors. I build a familiarity with them before I introduce another brand to my palette. Different brands of paint have variations of color, tone and quality. You're better off becoming very familiar with one brand before branching out.

Heather

2011-03-18T01:40:00.000-07:00

The Russian

2011-03-09T18:58:00.001-07:00

Tucson Ballet 1

2011-03-04T04:23:00.000-07:00

Tucson Ballet 2

2011-03-04T04:22:00.000-07:00

Instructional step 1

2011-02-21T18:52:00.001-07:00

Instructional step 2&3

2011-02-21T18:51:00.001-07:00

Ceasar

2011-02-16T02:18:00.000-07:00

Mr. Sauer

2011-01-12T22:20:00.000-07:00

Save the Chimps Foundation

2010-10-22T05:02:00.000-07:00

Einstein

2010-10-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

Sailboat in Maine

2010-10-15T19:25:00.000-07:00

The Easel

2010-09-20T06:05:00.001-07:00

The Grand Parents

2010-09-20T06:01:00.001-07:00

The Grand Parents

2010-09-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

Pencil study, 13x16 inches.

MP7 Wild Pig Neutralizer

2010-05-03T02:45:00.001-07:00

cz23 Coconut Buster

2010-04-19T04:23:00.001-07:00

cz23 Coconut Buster detail

2010-04-19T04:22:00.001-07:00

Siebo the Fisherman

2010-04-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

Seibo the Fisherman detail

2010-04-15T17:28:00.001-07:00

Aviator Dave

2010-04-12T02:07:00.002-07:00

Aviator Dave

2010-04-12T02:07:00.000-07:00

pencil study for "Fighter Pilot Dave"

2010-04-02T01:33:00.000-07:00

Lionel Train Set

2010-02-24T03:06:00.000-07:00

Lionel Engine

2010-02-23T02:45:00.000-07:00

Lionel Coal Car

2010-02-23T02:40:00.000-07:00

Lionel Petro Car

2010-02-23T02:33:00.000-07:00

Lionel Blue Man

2010-02-23T02:26:00.000-07:00

Lionel Cattle Car

2010-02-23T02:15:00.000-07:00

Lionel Caboose

2010-02-23T01:57:00.000-07:00

Yellow Chair

2010-02-23T01:44:00.001-07:00

San Carlos, Mexico

2010-02-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

self portrait As I AM

2010-02-17T17:21:00.001-07:00

Dio

2010-02-14T04:48:00.000-07:00

self portrait 1/2010

2010-02-08T01:02:00.000-07:00

self portrait 1/2010 detail

2010-02-08T01:00:00.001-07:00

MP7 Daisified

2010-01-27T21:44:00.001-07:00

cz23 My Coconut Buster

2010-01-27T17:58:00.001-07:00

It started out in the forest as a young boy. I made friends with the locals... the animals. I graduated to a young man and returned to the island. It was like a hockey puck floating in the Pacific. It had trees. It had coconut trees. I prepared myself with my coconut buster. My cz23.

Mr. Purps

2010-01-26T01:15:00.001-07:00

ape in progress

2010-01-25T15:23:00.001-07:00

Top secret recipe. Can you tell what I'm doing based on the picture's clues?

Mr. Ape vs. Mr. Banana

2010-01-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

Popeye

2010-01-16T16:41:00.001-07:00

Blue Self

2010-01-16T16:38:00.000-07:00

portrait of Chris Stevens

2010-01-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

self portrait w/ brush

2010-01-16T16:24:00.000-07:00

Ernest Hemingway

2009-11-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

2009-11-10T16:47:00.001-07:00

2009-11-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

P R I S O N E R S

2009-11-05T17:12:00.001-07:00

Church repainted in the studio

2009-11-05T03:04:00.001-07:00

Vanessa

2009-11-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

pencil

Curch on 9th Ave

2009-10-10T00:42:00.001-07:00

Tucson Church on Main & University

2009-10-09T17:11:00.000-07:00

Hal

2009-10-09T02:08:00.001-07:00

Zeebro

2009-08-13T01:16:00.000-07:00

Peephole

2009-08-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

Afternoon Light

2009-08-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

The Steinfeld Complex

2009-08-07T15:58:00.001-07:00

Toole & 6th Ave.

2009-08-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

Русские девушки

2009-07-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Da Bug

2009-07-28T03:09:00.000-07:00

Self Portrait

2009-07-28T02:56:00.000-07:00

pencil portrait

2009-06-03T06:42:00.001-07:00

pencil on paper

2009-06-02T05:38:00.001-07:00

Detail of The Violin Man

2009-05-31T05:02:00.001-07:00

The Violin Man

2009-05-31T04:58:00.000-07:00

Commissioned portrait for Haig.

Sketchbook Works

2009-05-26T16:51:00.001-07:00

Sketchbook Works

2009-05-26T16:50:00.001-07:00

Sketchbook portrait

2009-05-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

Drawn in my sketchbook, a live portrait of Nick Georgiou as he sat for me in the Rocket Gallery.

Pencil on Paper #4

2009-05-25T11:38:00.001-07:00

Pencil on Paper #3

2009-05-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

Pencil on Paper #2

2009-05-25T11:36:00.000-07:00

Pencil on Paper #1

2009-05-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

Gates Saguaro

2009-05-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

I painted this saguaro on the way back to Tucson from Gates Pass. Oil on metal panel, 4"x 5" inches, 2009

Gates Pass

2009-05-17T08:51:00.000-07:00

Memory of a Scent

2009-05-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

Portrait commission for Richard Dixon. Charcoal and white chalk on paper 18 x 20 inches.

Camera shoot

2009-05-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

Collecting reference is sometimes a spontaneous occurrence. In this case, the 5:30 pm western light just happened to present itself by shining through a large picture window in the studio. We jumped on our cameras.

Show at Cafe Zope, Tucson, AZ

2009-05-04T13:11:00.001-07:00

I like the informal atmosphere of hanging in a shop or restaurant opposed to hanging in a gallery. People are able to LIVE among your paintings. They socialize, eat, drink and observe their surroundings casually. However, in a gallery, people attend specifically to "see" the art. The gallery has proclaimed that their art is in fact art and that it is appropriate or worthy for public consumption. The viewers can be much more critical and can tend to have their guards up. They're not "living" with the art or experiencing it in a casual manner. It is most likely experienced much differently than the artist had originally intended.

Show at Cafe Zope, Tucson, AZ

2009-05-04T13:08:00.000-07:00

Here's another photo of my work hanging at Cafe Zope. The paintings were still wet when I hung them.

Show at Cafe Zope, Tucson, AZ

2009-05-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

Show at Cafe Zope, Tucson, AZ

oil study for "Heather"

2009-05-04T12:49:00.000-07:00

"Heather", oil on canvas mounted on wood, 16 x 20 inches, 2007. This was painted at The Rocket Gallery, May 1st, during the opening reception for artist Nick Georgiou.

Me

2009-04-29T19:47:00.001-07:00

This is the rare and endangered giant river otter.

Portrait of Nicholas Georgiou

2009-04-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas, April 2009, by Titus Castanza Here's a portrait of my friend Nick. He sat for me in my studio. I painted his head in about 1-1.5 hours. And for some reason, the rest of the painting took about three hours. He first was wearing a t-shirt that looked crappy as hell, so he put on his suit jacket and tie. It really helped plant the sitter and bump the figure out from the background. I also painted him using any-old florescent light bulbs already hanging on the ceiling of my studio. I knew it would cool everything off, but I really wanted to try it. After having painted it, I really don't mind florescent lighting so long as you can anticipate such a scenario and prepare to have things dramatically cooled off.

Figure model 21st of April

2009-04-29T09:23:00.000-07:00

Here's an example of a drawing that was done with a live model. I may go back into it in my studio (without the model) to push the values and details. I want to push my imagination. I use reference, whether it's live or from photographs, only as a springboard for a finished piece. Reference can be a bit limiting and is not meant to be taken so literally.