Day 70

Here's the drawing for the day. It's a James Bama study. I remember seeing this painting many years ago and thinking that it was totally scary, but it was accepted as western art. I guess it depends on the context.

Day 69

Day 68

Stressful day!... and it really affected my drawing. I tried three different drawings until I ended up with this one. It's ok, definitely better than the other ones tonight...

Day 67

Ok, this is a butchered attempt. I tried to finish this a little sooner than I should have slowed down and taken the time... BUT, I didn't. So maybe, here is a study in what no to do. Also it's a good idea to keep your working light consistent. I worked on this in the afternoon and then again in the evening. So, my lighting was different. Also, sorry for the inconsistent camera quality...

Day 66

First off... here's the original James Reynolds Painting.

Here's the sketch...
Here's my little palette and easel set-up

-Ultramarine Blue

-Cobalt Blue

-Cerulean Blue

-Viridian

-Transparent Oxide Red (or Burnt Sienna)

-Alizarin Crimson

-Terra Rosa

-Cadmium Red

-Yellow Ochre

-Cadmium Yellow Deep

-Cadmium Yellow Pale

-Cadmium Lemon Yellow

- Titanium White

My paint tube case from The Container Store. It's a good idea to keep your supplies clean and organized. It can become a huge problem while you are painting. Dirty supplies can detract you from your painting. Sometimes even causing you to stop your session.

First step of painting. Paint your darks in first. That how Rembrandt and Singer Sargent did it (they would have first painted a first layer to cover their canvas... good point Slightly Befuddled... I'm not sure what your name is, but you are doing good research!)

Tip - Your darks are typically never as dark as you think they are. You will always want to add white to liven the color up and unify your palette. Also, with your dark colors, there is no need to get very textured or detailed. Your shadows areas don't have much detail, because, well, they are in the shadow and don't have much detail. Go crazy with your detail and texture with the lighter parts of the painting
Start adding more detail and building off existing painted sections (sorry, not sure why this one is so small)

Continue to block in your areas

At this point, you can se my palette is dirty, however, the colors mixed are pretty similar, as you can see. Time to clean off the palette

Tip: don't go crazy using tons of different colors. Unify your palette! Typically most things in life are within the same color family

Done!

I have pre-mixed my next group of colors. The last thing you want to do is mix your color on your canvas. The worst paintings are the ones that look too "blendy", in fact, I mix a color, and lay it down once. I leave it. I don't blend it or mix it with other colors. It makes your painting look more lively. It sounds like more work, but it saves you time later.

Continue to block in your shapes

Done!... now this is a very second rate copy of one of my all-time favorite artists, James Reynolds. His is infinitely better! But for about an hour and a half of my time, I'm fairly pleased with it... there I go using time to discuss my art process again! I'm so midwestern

Day 65

Ok, so the drawings of the day are kind boring. They are the first steps of (hopefully not too) many of completing a painting from beginning to end. This could be helpful for people to see the process of how someone works on a painting. Now, I'm not an expert by an means, so my way is not "The Way".... just "a way", so keep checkin over next few days.

Phase 1: The sketch - the sketch is the most important part of he process. If you don't have a solid sketch to start with, you will spend the whole time fixing it with paint. Trust me, you do not want to do that. Your painting will be out of control, and soon, ruined. So, get your sketch right, first! Spend all the time you need. People often think of sketch as a loose, haphazard beginning to block out your images. It is, kinda. I like to do a block in sketch. What that means is I will just make very basic shapes (circles usually) to show where each of my figures will be. Then, I will get detailed.

Here's the trick - you can't shade your sketch, which is tough for me. If you shade on your sketch, the graphite will mix in with your painting and grey up the color your are tying to lay down, and that is something you don't want. When I first started painting, I was very lazy and was often mixing my oil paint with the graphite sketch. The colors will just look awful.

Another tip - when starting a painting, it's a good idea to lay a base color done. Typically a Burnt Sienna is a great color to lay down (it's a brown that a very common color that will work in most color palettes. You want to mix it with turpentine so that it is a thin, almost watercolor consistency. Once that dries, then do your sketch. Make your layer thin so you can see your sketch. I didn't paint a base coat on this one because it would b very hard to see the sketch in the photo. Why do you paint a base layer? Two reasons: 1) it helps your painting by already having a very common color on your canvas. 2) it can be very daunting to look at a white canvas and know that you have to cover every square inch (that can be a huge mental road block, especially when you are just starting.

Tomorrow: the supplies and set up!

Day 64

Here's my drawing (well, they are paintings). This is an image that I have been working with for years. It's one of my favorite images ever. It's kind of a "found image". After a lot of searching, I found this image and did some changing around. I'm interested in using this image in different ways. I would really like to make t-shirts out of some of these. Not that I think anyone would ever buy them, but I would like to get some!

Day 63

Wildlife day for the blog. The first, is a commission I have recently done, and the other is a study of Hereford cattle. For whatever reason, I'm pretty much obsessed with Hereford cattle. I really don't know why. I find my self questioning the nature of liking an image or color. Why do people like what they do? I have always been fascinated with the shape of buffalo, Hereford cattle, and japanese koi fish drawings. I think it has to do with the strong bone structure. I like things that can cast a harsh shadow... also, I don't know why. I need to think more about this

Day 62

Keith Richards!

Day 61

Patti Smith & Sting!

Day 60

A study from an Edward S. Curtis photograph...

Day 59

Here are two drawings for the day. I did two because there are both quick studies and I figure two bad ones might equal one good one.

Day 58

A section of one of my all-time favorite images. Maxfield Parrish's The Lantern Bearers.

Day 57

The drawing of the day is actually a painting for the day. This is a commissioned pieced for a client. I'm feel pretty good about this one. It's really a minimalist approach, not in subject matter (well, maybe that's opinion), but rather in technique. I stayed with four colors for the painting and one brush. I wanted to get this painting done in one sitting to keep things fresh and exciting (in the application, once again, the subject matter is opinion - I'm sure most of you reading this wouldn't find this fresh and/or excited AT ALL!) and not labor over irrelevant details.

It feels good to be painting.

Day 56

Humphrey Bogart!

Day 55

Robert Deniro!

Day 54

Day 53

The drawing of the day... Orson Welles!

Day 52

Here is the drawing of the day. It's a caricature of John Wayne. Pretty funny stuff. I have been having fun working with colored pencils. Prismacolors are the way to go. You can do just about anything with them. This drawing is done with four different colors (it's good to keep your palette limited). This took about 1 hour to draw. I think it's funny (and probably stupid) talking about art and the time it takes to complete. I use it to track my efficiency, some might think it's bragging (for some it might be). I was talking to someone who lived back east and he thought it was funny that mid-western and western people gauge their work based on the time that it takes for them to complete them. He said that artists in Europe (he was speaking specifically about German artists) are acclaimed until they are about 64 years old, and not one ever asks them how long it takes to do their work. He was pretty much implying that we were simple minded people who didn't have any patience (maybe he's right). Like we were old gunslingers from the wild west or something. So, as we're talking, this guy is finishing a mural some of my students were helping him with. As a joke, I ask him, "So, how long did this take you to do?" Without catching any part of the joke, he says, "Oh, I can fly through these things. This only took a couple of days."

Day 51

Here is the drawing for the day. After yesterday's post about the caricature discussion, I thought it would be good to test my abilities. I used to really be interested in stretching the face a far as it could go. This is a colored pencil (prismacolors) study from one of my all-time favorite artists, Sebastian Kruger. Probably one of the greatest portrait painters dead or alive. His ability to abstract images into his own creation while doing an incredible job rendering is unparalleled. He is possibly one of three artists that makes me want to quit all together, because I'll never reach his level. Google this guy's art! It's brilliant and hilarious.

This is a portrait of Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith. A pretty hilarious abstract of the guy. My wife says "it grosses her out!" Yeah, it's a pretty up close and personal approach to a guy that is almost as famous for his lips that he is for writing hits. He was actually made fun of SO much for his lips, that he got kicked out of high school for fighting so much. He was sick of being made fun of. This portrait doesn't help things I'm sure. I was just reading in a newer Rolling Stone issue that he was pretty much kicked out of Aerosmith. How do you kick him out? He pretty much is that band. Supposedly, he was unable to deal with his drug addition and ego. Not a great combination. Working in the additions field, I found the article pretty interesting. I think we view people like Steven Tyler as someone who has dealt with his demons. He overcame them in the past, but he has moved on to create incredibly popular music. It just goes to show, addiction is a pretty powerful thing, and not impressed by too much...

Speaking of Aerosmith and Rolling Stones... after Steven Tyler was kicked out of school, he heard the Rolling Stones were performing a show in (Florida, I think). Since he had nothing to do, he went to (Miami, I think... somewhere near the beach) to try to meet the Rolling Stones. Once he got there, he realized very quickly that was not going to happen. So instead, he started telling people he was Mick Jagger's little brother (similar lips!), and guess what?! People bought it. He was able to get into any bar or after party, and I'm sure made some new friends. I always loved that story. How many of us would take one of our deficits that has been ridiculed to no end, and promote to our advantage... minus all the deceit, I really respect the guy for that.

Day 50

Drawing for the day... Another Rockwell. I really have fun drawing hands like he does. You almost can't ruin them. They are so expressive, like most other features he captures. He borderlines on caricature. Not like the kind that will draw a cartoon version of you at Six Flags that hardly looks like you. Those drawings always crack me up. They never look like the person they are drawing. They get the main ideas down, like the person has glasses, dark hair, and blue eyes... past that, they just look like a goofy face. I actually talked with one of those artist at Six Flags a few years ago. They have to take these classes about how to draw all the facial features in a specific way so they are never at a loss. They have like 6 different nose they have to know how to draw, 6 different mouths, etc... I thought that was pretty interesting. I also thought it was interesting this girl told me all about it. And also how she said she wasn't much of an artist, but this was the only job she cold get. I was surprised at her candor, and at the Denver Six Flags staff of artists. At the time, I remember being jealous when she told me that. There she was not wanting to really even be there, and there I was a few years left in college wishing I was in her shoes... I'd probably still do that job... I would, however, probably get fired not drawing in their style...