Laying down some paint

I started off here doing a blue wash over the entire piece then while still really wet using a paper towel to lift up the paint to maintain some light areas.  In this case I was mostly lifting up around the figure.  Afterwards I blocked in fairly flat colors in the background.  Building up the painting all over tends to be a slow process so giving myself something to focus on like the hair helps to keep me going and feels like I'm making more progress.  Though, I think there does need to be a little bit of paint everywhere so that there's some context to compare to see if an area is dark enough, chromatic enough etc.  In the end there's always a lot of back and forth pushing and pulling values and colors.

Progress Final Drawing

Not quite done with this drawing yet but figured I'd post a shot anyway.  I'll probably take a shot after I finish to work on a color study to flesh out what's in my head.  Will post more soon.

Photo Ref

Here's a few reference shots from a recent photo shoot.  The worst part for me is frankensteining all the shots together to get a believable, cohesive image.  As much as love painting drapery it tends to be the most work for me to get right.  I also think I'm probably more anal than I need to be.  Gonna try and tackle this right now.

quick update

Refined the drawing a little.  Lot of anatomical weirdness that will have to get worked out after I take some photo ref.  Lots of potentially cool fabric that I'm looking forward to/dreading.  Over all I feel pretty good about the composition.  Not going to listen to the little voice saying "this would look really nice as a giant painting".  Maybe next time.

Sketch

Pretty sure this is going to be my next painting.  My sketches are the worst!  Need to refine this idea, get photo ref, transfer and start slangin some paint.

Hi Fructose Feature

I just wanted to share this.  Thanks to Hi*Fructose!  Be sure to grab your copy when it hits the stores.

"The Demon Haunted World"

"We accepted the products of science. We rejected it's methods." ~Carl Sagan

This painting is a tribute.

This piece is for the upcoming 20th Anniversary show at Copro Nason Gallery opening this Sat, Aug 17th in the LA area. If you're in the area it looks like a kick ass show. Also, I rarely have a chance to attend shows I participate in and I'm always curious how the openings go. If you do end up there post some pics!

Let's start off with the original thumbnails. Originally, I thought it would be cool to show the exposed back. I still think it could be cool and I may do a companion piece someday. I like the idea of light from the window illuminating a section of the mattress. Obviously, for this piece a different path was taken. I think the first sketch may have a heightened sense of mystery but I wanted to engage the viewer more.

Usually, I transfer the sketch then use my photo ref to make the final drawing right onto the watercolor paper. Lately, I've found it more helpful to correct the figure's anatomy on a slightly more refined sketch prior to transferring. It doesn't add a lot of time as I'm still leaving the rest of the drawing fairly rough. But it does help to reduce unnecessary erasing on the main figure and potentially disrupting the paper's surface.

Final drawing on watercolor paper

It's a balancing game here. I want enough information with the pencil that I feel comfortable laying in my paint. At the same time I don't want to fully render everything. It would waste time especially in darker areas that the paint would naturally give value to. Also wet on wet paint can offer really cool affects that may come off as too contrived if I tried to draw it all in.

While painting this marble table top I wanted to try and let the paint work for me. So I mixed about four colors I planned on working with and started in with a wet base color then moved left adding in other colors when appropriate. It's acrylic so it's not going to stay wet forever. One has to be very mindful of time and application. Note that my paint mixture was the consistency of melted ice cream. That is to say, not too thin. When the paint dried I was hoping to see for the most part a surface that resembled marble. There was obviously more painting required to give the surface a subtle reflective quality. Another reason I started here is in the beginning, as you'll see, I'm trying to paint in some dark areas as a point of value reference. Otherwise I may inch too slowly towards the necessary values. This inching happens anyway. There's always some back and forth with painting. However, I am trying to cut down on the baby steps. Not always easy for me.

Something cool started to happen with the texture on the wall here. Although there are subtle changes, I try to maintain the basic shape and flow throughout the piece.

Off to the right you can see my scrap paper where I test my colors. It's a good idea make sure that the color and consistency are where I want them before applying the paint onto the actual painting. It makes even more sense to test it in a spot with similar color and value as the one you're about to paint on.

Here I tried doing some wet on wet application to try and give the look of bruising or perhaps some infection on the arm. Again, what I thought was dark enough was not. As the rest of the painting progressed I realized repeatedly that the bruising needed to be much darker.

Shower curtain?  Who uses shower curtains? 

What do you do when you've been staring at something for too long and need a quick and different perspective? A nice large mirror comes in very handy for a quick change of perspective. Viewing the image on your phone or computer screen can also help. I'm assuming that everyone reading this is locked up in a studio somewhere and lost all of their friends long long ago. Of course, people are a great resource for feedback as well.

This last image is basically the finished piece. Unfortunately, I'm away from my studio and probably need to tweak colors slightly before posting the final image online. I'll update this post with a finished finished image soon.

UPDATE:  Since I was getting some requests for details I decide to go ahead and upload a few.  Thanks for all the love everyone.  Means a lot!