Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Monday, March 22, 2010

Moon Rising Detail



I just put the finished piece in it's entirety on my site here.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Buckling Paper?

"Hi Eric!

First up I absolutely love your work and I'm having one hell of a
great time painting with gouache and acrylics on watercolour paper
thanks to your example. I was wondering how ever how you dealt/prevent
the paper from buckling? I know the whole chore of stretching paper
but I was wondering what you specifically do.

Thank you for the inspiration!

ps you're also the most handsomest, nicest guy ever. Seriously, extremely handsome"


Ahhh, he knows me so well. It's almost as if I tacked that last part on myself ;)

Some people stretch their wc paper. I don't. The main reason I don't stretch mine is because when I have it framed I like to show the natural deckled edge of the paper. And stretching the paper eats into the workable area which wouldn't allow me to use the entire surface of a full sheet of wc paper.

Things to try:
- try a heavier stock. The 300lb paper buckles a lot less than the 140lb. Esp on a smaller scale. ie 8x11" vs 22x30"

- It's inevitable that the paper will warp and buckle a bit with aquious mediums. If my paper is buckling enough that it's affecting my application in an undesirable manner I'll usually spray the piece with some water until it starts to relax a bit. Sometimes on the front and the back if it's being very stubborn. Afterwards, I sandwich the painting between two pieces of matte board. Then I sandwich that between two pieces of plywood. Put on a few of the 75lb dumbbells that I normally do curls with and let that flatten for a day or so. When I take the painting out I immediately hang it by a bullclip to let the piece dry out completely from both sides. If you don't do this the paper will curl up on the side facing up. I assume that's because the top is drying faster than the back(facing down and not getting any air) therefore curling forward. I hope this makes sense. I could totally be wrong. But I let it hang in the air for at least twenty min or so. It should be pretty flat. Then it's ready to work on. This is the same process I do at the end of every painting to flatten the work before framing.

-Keep in mind I'm using acrylic. And once it dries it's permanent. So I don't have to worry about it bleeding or getting muddy. If I were using just watercolor or guache. Something that isn't permanent I'd probably do the same process except that I'd only wet the back of the painting before flattening.

Hope that helps. If I missed something let me know and I'll try my best to address it.

Thanks for the great question!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Cali


Here's another shot of an oil painting I'm working on. I leave today for CA. Yay! But I have bring my paints to finish this up for the show. Booooo!;) All good, I had a breakthrough today with the piece and I look forward to the show. If you're in the LA Area shoot through and give me a holla:) Copro Nason Gallery this Sat