Kites

I've been painting enormous kites for a party.  4 in total - they are painted on Tyvek - the material used to wrap houses - it is very good to paint on.   Just regular house paint and a black sharpie oil paint marker for materials. Tyvek is very strong and durable, takes the paint immediately and doesn't rip either, so it can take some abuse.

You can see the skeleton of one of the frames next to me.

here are a couple shots of them in progress:

 

the 4 kites are:  fish, gorillas, jaguars, and hares.  

I'll follow up with more pics as they are finished and mounted to their frames.

Plein Air Adventures - Melville's Hills

Cloudy days present consistent light, but not direct light, so everything is lit equally from all over.  Not necessarily ideal, but I want to do it learn what to expect.  I set up off of Holmes Road, overlooking a field and the mountains that inspired Herman Melville to pen Moby Dick (seriously)  it wasn't supposed to rain this day, so I figured I had 4+ hours to get this done.

This is what I spent most of the time doing.  sketching the composition in Cobalt Violet.  I do this so I don't have to worry about my "drawing" while I'm painting.  I do this first and then add color later so that I'm not suddenly moving mountains out of the way half way through the painting.  It also gives everything a nice warm tone (and looks great in shadow areas)  I really pushed my content together horizontally to fit my panel (16x20)  As you can see from the photos above, there were quite a few things I left out of the painting (trailers and random debris), and a few things I added (notably the foreground)

I snapped this just as it started to rain.  Oil paints don't really care if it is raining - oil and water don't mix.  but I got wet.  and a wooden easel doesn't like to get rained on. note to self * keep rain gear in the car.  I was able to work for about two hours on location before the sky opened up.  heavy rains.

brought it home and worked on it for a couple hours the next day because it didn't stop raining for 3 days.  all in all, I think this one came out pretty good.  I'm painting thicker and more confidently.  my mixing has gotten better too

Table Saw

I bought a table saw finally!  Buying stretcher bars gets expensive, plus I want to start painting on panels when I go outside.

Now I am in production mode creating panels for my Plein Air painting trips.

I bought a $120 Ryobi- it does the job.  I bought a 4'x8' sheet of 1/8" masonite and cut twelve 16"x20 panels plus a few odd sizes.  I oil primed all of them (3 coats with a roller).  I then cut 2 of the panels in half to make a few 10"x 16"

This saved me a bunch of time by preparing them all at once.  I can also build my own stretcher frames too!

How to Rig a French Easel for Working Outside

Last year I bought a French Easel for $50 bucks - the same one with a "brand" name costs three times as much.  It does what it needs to do and I have taken it out in the field about a dozen times.  The first few outings were disastrous because the legs would collapse in the middle of me working. The last straw was when it collapsed right after I set up and the fall broke my turpentine jar.  Needless to say, I was forced to go home early. 

The problem is that most of the appendages and bars have a little bolt you hand tighten to keep it in place, but it never stays tight enough and they slip.  So I drilled holes in the legs and slid a nail through so they cannot collapse. The holes are a hair larger than the nails, so the fit is easy, and they go in and out smoothly.   The nails are 2" so they hang out the other side.  I keep a bunch inside the easel, and in my bag when I go out, so I don't worry if I loose one or misplace one.

 I did this on each leg - just above the extension of the slide out leg. This way the easel is "locked" in its most open position.

This works perfectly. 

It is very stable -

This picture is of my first day out painting this season.  Woods Pond in Lenox. 

Spring Happens

My painting "Marla" got juried in and will be on display as part of the O Solo Mama Mia Festival. This will be the first time this painting has been on display.  I wish I could get a good frame for it in time.  I think it would look x-tra sharp. I'll poke around and see...

I also put the finishing touches on the Caravaggio study I did called "Tattooed Jesus"- and a nice coat of varnish over the top.

I have another opportunity coming up next month as part of a group show.  I have to determine what I want to put in. I think a landscape might be in order, so I should get out there and get painting soon. 

I did an inventory of what I have for paints/brushes/canvas today.  Need to replenish a few colors for my Plein Air adventures.  I'll post a pic of how I rigged my easel so it doesn't collapse in the wind, and what I will be taking with me outdoors to paint. This year I'll take some pics out in the field too.

Caravaggio Study

 

I have been studying and reading quite a bit about Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, or as he is more simply known: Caravaggio.

I wanted to learn about his painting techniques in particular.  I have heard many rumors about this; he never made a preparatory drawing; he worked directly on the canvas; he used mirrors or camera obscura. whatever.  no one will know.  He has been dead for 411 years.  my job is too try and learn how he did it in paint.

I was able to deduce his palette: mostly earth tones (they were the most available) like yellow ochre, raw and burnt sienna, ivory black and lead white (but I use titanium). He also used intense reds too.

Supposedly he toned his canvas with a mid-deep pigment.  I chose burnt sienna.  one coat.  This was painted on linen too (my first time using it- I didn't stretch it as tight as I could have...)  a very smooth surface.*

The secret: tie for first: excellent drawing skills and superb composition. Then: hit your whites first and build your glazes off this.  let the canvas color (burnt sienna in my case) fill in your midtones for you and then layer in the shadows slowly and let the canvas color come through.  When you have areas settled (you are sure of the placements) hit the darks and lights again and define your volumes.

After I was working this up for a bit, I was thinking about the narrative I was creating, and it seemed like the 'wise men' in my canvas were oblivious to the dominant Jesus above them.  He also looks a bit distraught in my version.  I started to think what it would be like if he were incarcerated in a modern prison, and given a tattoo.  I decided on a solid black cross. only fitting. It made him look more human and less like a super man.  also more a bit more bad ass and a little like a thug. I REALLY like this idea of adding tattoos and will explore it further. I am thinking about giving him a few more- need to do some research on symbols...

I will go back into this and glaze it more.  I want to give it a more "jeweled" tone that can only be achieved through glazing.

(R)evolve

Thanks to everyone who read the step x step posts.  I got some great feedback.  I'll try to do it again some time soon.  "Autumn" is finished and you can see it here.

I thought it would be fun to show an evolution.  This one is 4 years in the making.  The above image was "finished" today - it measures 12x24"  but it is a re-paint of a much older painting.

If you click on the image you can get a better view of it.  But the real reason you should look at it is because of the texture on it.

Texture?  The texture on there is made up of about 5 layers of thick latex paint from 2007 when I was "spinning" canvases.  I built a steel rig out of the "free wheel" gear off a 10 speed bike and would bolt a 4' canvas to it and spin it like mad while dripping paint on it from above.  It was fun.  they would look like this:

 

After doing this kind of thing for a few months I decided to become a more "serious" painter and start using oils- and stop spinning canvas.

When I moved into my new studio, fresh canvas was hard to find, and I had all of these spinners stretched and doing nothing. 

* So I scavenged them *

I kept 4 of the better ones, but took the others off the stretchers and used them for my first forays into oil painting.  I cut up the lame ones and stuck them over new stretcher bars, gessoed them up, and started painting.

I took an orbital sander to them to try to knock down the texture, but it was serious stuff...  and I didn't want to go through the canvas.  besides. it was practice.

Needless to say I found one of them the other day.  And I painted over it AGAIN!

Fortunately (or unfortunately) I had a picture of what it used to look like.  I put all 3 images next to each other so you can see what I mean. It is all on the same canvas...

The middle face was painted very early in 2008 just as I was getting into painting.  I was happy with this at the time. I remember I spent some time trying to get it to come out...

Long story short.  I was cleaning out the studio the other day, found it, popped it on the easel and re-did it.  I had to rummage around a bit to find the source photo I had used.
I gave it a little Caravaggio treatment and pushed the black.  I suppressed my colors and kept it basic to focus on form.

Ivory White, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna and Ivory Black
- what a difference a few years make...

New Skins

No. this isn't a new abstract painting....

I was about to varnish the entire image today, but I knew deep down I wasn't ready yet.  There are parts of this piece that I am not happy with and I want to resolve them.  It would be like quitting before you took your last turn, because once you varnish, it seals the surface.  Sure you can paint over the varnish, but that defeats the purpose.

Varnish is used for two reasons.  One is to protect the surface of the painting by creating a protective layer and the other is to unify the surface (it re-saturates all of the colors and gives everything an even *shine* - it eliminates the "dead" spots that can occur when oil paint dries.  Not all artists varnish- it can be an aesthetic choice.

The above photo is a detail of a varnish test I did on the top left corner of the painting. You should be able to see a clear line of where I varnished and where I didn't.  The deeper "dark" color has been varnished.  It makes this color very rich.  trust me. 

So instead of getting out my varnish brush, I took out my usual brushes and got out some new paint and I repainted the face again today - for the final time.  4th time is a charm.  It is a major focal point of the piece, so if it isn't good enough, the rest of the piece will suffer (and I like the rest of the piece).  This is the final paint job.  I am happy with it.  I was not hitting the right marks in it before.  I wasn't following the form nor keying the right values.  When I say repainted it, I mean the whole thing.  not just the ear or the cheek.  Now I am happy with it.  It is very cohesive.

My new flesh tones that I mixed up were much more accurate than the previous batch - plus I didn't over brush or "noodle" it to death.  Lay it down and move on -  I should make a giant sign to hang in my studio.  If you overbrush and overwork, you kill it.  You loose all sense of energy and life in the brushwork, and worst of all you muddy up the color.  I will apply a simple glaze to accentuate a few parts though.

 

I used my new batch of skin colors to add some much needed form to the fingers as well.  They seemed a little flat and simple before.  A little extra modeling here and there...

so here we are today.  I'd say I'm about 96% there.  All I want to do is tweak a few of the objects and throw a little glaze on the figure and we are ready to varnish.

I'll talk about the varnish in the next post.

(you can click on this one to get a bigger version too)

Day 4 - Show Me Some Skin

We have had a few snow storms this week, so it has been a great time to hide out in the studio and work. I know- the face is blurry - I blurred it out because I like the arm/hand passage at this stage, so I took a picture. The face needs some work, and will get it at a later date.  

I thought I would explain what I'm using for my paint, so I took a picture of my palette.  I work on a piece of glass with a white piece of paper underneath it.  The glass measures 14" x 22".

I am breaking my own rules by showing you this disaster.  I really do try to keep my paints in order and on the perimeter of the glass, but ironically not while I'm doing this "step by step" - so don't do this.  I usually keep my earth tones (siennas, naples yellow) and red on the left, with my white in the corner.  I labeled it "warm" because I use two piles of white.  the other is on the right hand side but didn't make it into the picture.  I use one for all warm tones, and one for all cool tones so I don't contaminate them...  Along the top of the palette I usually keep my greens and blues, and put my Ivory Black in the right corner.  Below that I put my Alizarin Crimson, and then my cool Titanium below that.  Alizarin is a cool red, so I keep it with my cool colors. 

 

So here we are today.  I have started to paint more of the objects in the top of the image and have begun to finish off the legs.  I am spending most of my time in the top of the painting right now to make sure I am getting things right.  This is where most of the "stuff" is, so I want to make sure they look like they exist in the same space.

I am finding that the most important part of this piece is going to be the reflected light.  I think this is why i like the arm right now.  It shows good reflected light.  The rear end will do this, as will the feet and a portion of the legs, plus I'll bounce it around throughout the image to unify.

The reflected light is Cadmium Red with a touch of Naples Yellow.  it glows.  It will glow more because I'll put cool colors next to it.

...til next time

Lay Ins - Day 1

Now that my drawing has been transferred, I am going to start blocking it in.  I've been developing my ideas lately with strong chiaroscuro, so I would like to establish my darks at the beginning. I want to have the subject emerging from the shadows -nestled if you will. 

I am using Ivory Black, with some turpentine to keep it loose and flowing, to lay down a base.  I will go over this as I progress through the painting, and "deepen" it in places by adding more opaque paint.  I also added a touch of the Raw Sienna in a few places near the figure to keep the shadow a little warmer. Ivory Black is a very cool color that leans heavily toward blue, but with my Raw Sienna wash underneath, it should give it some warmth.  I will glaze in some warmer tones near the end if it is still too cold.  I want to create a womb-like image, so warm rich shadows (where appropriate) are what I'm looking for.

this is the full image (48"x32") My concept is a mix between burial funeral, womb, birth and death.

What I have found thus far is that the oil based primer coat is very absorbent. I wasn't expecting this.  Usually I can get my paint to run when it is loose, but not with this stuff.  I think I understand what it is doing.  It is binding with the paint film by absorbing the oils and solvents.  I think it is going to make a great surface as I get more and more paint on the board.  I'm interested in seeing what happens as I build it up more and more.

Step x Step Day 1

I really like reading blogs where an artist explains what they are doing using a step by step approach with pictures and text.

This will be my attempt.

I already have the image in mind and have planned out the majority of the composition, so this will be purely about materials and execution. If you don't care about that stuff, I hope the pictures are educating.

What you see propped up on my easel in the above image is a 48"x32" piece of 1/4" masonite board that was cut out of a 4'x8' piece I got at the hardware store.  You can get this stuff almost anywhere.  One side is smooth, and the other is lightly textured. I will be using the smooth side.

To prepare the surface for oil painting, I applied three coats of oil based primer.  I have used acrylic in the past, but I've been doing some reading, and oil based is apparently better suited for oil painting.  It binds better chemically.  The brand I am using is Zinseer Oil Based Primer.  I used a little 5" roller with the "hot dog" shaped rollers because it says on the package it creates the smoothest coat.  and so it has.  I would not recommend this stuff for indoor use, because the VOC and fumes are a bit much.  Because we have over 3' of snow, I did it in the studio.  It dries in less than an hour, but I applied one coat and left it for the day to dry (and air out)  After the third coat was dry, I took 150 sand paper to it and the surface was really nice.  I probably should have sanded in between coats 2 and 3.

After sanding I used Raw Sienna and turpentine to create a nice toned surface- that is what you see in the picture - it glows.  The paint has a Walnut Oil binder which makes the paint very creamy and smooth.  Very high quality.  DaVinci used walnut oil as a binder in his pigments (as did many other artists at that time)  I used the brand M.Graham

detail of my board...

up next.... transferring the drawing to the board!