Stormy Seas, Dirty Water

This past week has been pretty hectic.  Filled with terrible things that I had a lot of time to think about while locked down with my little family.  Growing up over seas this sort of thing wasn't the norm, but the threat was always there.  Because of that I look at so many situations and imagine how I would get me or my family out of them if disaster strikes.  It's a subconscious tic I guess.  It doesn't consume me, but it's how I think.  I'm glad I didn't stay home on that day because I'm sure I would have pushed us out the door and made sure we were somewhere interesting.

As I've told many of my friends, I find it heartening that these sorts of things don't happen more often.  They aren't hard to commit and since they happen relatively rarely in the US compared to the rest of the world it's somewhat reassuring that there are so few people out there who are ready to do terrible things to further their misplaced beliefs.  I'm fine.  We're fine.  

I've been in New England coming on 3 years now and this is the first time I've been commissioned to do a boat painting.  Although doing paintings of photographs isn't my favorite thing, I usually consider it a technical challenge and a nice way to pad the inside of my wallet.  The original photo was pretty neat and I wanted to capture the essence of it.  I was given certain directions, but I was generally told I could do what I wanted with it.

I roughed the image out thinking I would just Bob Ross it and get it all done in one shot.... 

As I have never really painted the ocean this proved a little more complex than expected and I left the painting at this point for quite some time.  I waited to paint the mast and sail because I feel like that's "putting the ears on Batman" so to speak.   If you can make a figure look like batman without the ears then you've really captured it.  Note too the horizon line I tilted for maximum action in a static shot.

My second sitting I was frustrated with my use of local color everywhere so I threw down a layer of burnt sienna and let that dry.  For realistic painting I prefer to on a toned surface anyway.  It keeps me from jumping right to bright whites. inspired again and I did a lot of hatching brushstrokes with a flat brush

Since the figures in the photo where nearly impossible to see I opted to do more detail work on them.  Keep in mind this is roughly the size of a pin head.

I'm a big fan of this sail.  I think it came out quite nice.

This picture doesn't quite do it justice, but you get the idea.

Next week... Should be interesting

More Making Children's Books

This week I have been working hard and I've got some more pages blocked out for the children's book.  I'll be doing some digital color tests once I get up to at least 30 pages.  I really want some feed back, do you think doing digital color is a cop out or just another tool.  I've got this analogue monkey on my back and I feel like I should legitimately paint it.  Please leave comments.

Children's Books and Little Things

 So, if you know me, you know I like to keep busy.  Lately the weather has been rather lousy and made it really hard to work on other art.   I have been thinking of a series of children's books for nearly 10 years now.  I finally stuck upon a style that really captured the vibe I was going for.  So, in the last week I have been working in earnest on page roughs.  I'm really hoping to get these transfered to board soon and start painting while I've still got the mojo.  For now, enjoy!

Preparing to Paint: How to Revitalize Old Oil Paints

Over the years, I've accumulated several tubes of various oil paints, many of the the same color of paint So in preparation for a painting commission I thought I'd consolidate and show you how to breath some life into old paints.  There are certain paints like Naples Yellow that have always been too firm for my taste and there are others I have that have just leached out their linseed oil.  Mind you, this isn't hard, chunky or starting to cure (there's no saving that stuff).  This is old paint that's lost it's pizzaz.  Admittedly I could just buy some new tubes for $5-$15, but these empty aluminum tubes are only $1.50, linseed oil is only $5 and I wanted to see if this worked.

Sart by cutting open old tubes and dumping the contents out

add a drop and keep adding drops of linseed oil until you get the desired consistency.  If you have additional pigment, this is the time to add it.

 Scrape into tube and hit the cap in he table until the paint goes to the head of the tube.

Starting near the cap start pinching the tube to eliminate air and pinch tightly on the bottom.  Cut the aluminum to length and roll the bottom. 

Flip them over and hit the bottoms of the tubes on the counter until the air pockets rise to the opening of the tube and squeeze most of the air out leaving a small pocket at the top of the tube.

For this painting I decided to use a blank puzzle from work.  The wood isn't treated so it's prime for gesso.

gob of gesso.  Spread it vertically.  Dry. Sand. Vertical. Dry. Sand. Repeat.

tadaa

Next week: Landscaping

From IKEA With Love: Finale

So here it is.  The finished Valentine's shelf.  It is one of those small things that really relieves a nerve in the back of your mind that you never knew was being stepped on.  You'll note that Maya has her own shel and I measured the heights of all of our highest boots and made the shelves that high.  I swear next week we are back to art.  This was just one of those projects I wanted to show off.  See you next week!

From IKEA with Love

This week I'm writing about some side projects that I have neglected to talk about for the past month or so.  I mentioned Toy Fair last time and no, Maya wasn't allowed IN to the event (poor kid) she was relegated to the front section.  She was pretty happy to get balloons and stuff though. I found some ikea bed slats in the trash area of our building that I am converting into a shoe rack for the front of the house for Valentines Day for Christina.  I counted out the number of slats and did a rough drawing and I have started cutting.

Figured out the measurements and so on

Here are the slats as they come.  Stapled together with nylon straps.  Tearing out the staples was by far the most labor intensive part of the build.

Construction of the top part of the rack

I worked on this slowly over a month so, so I kept the various pieces hidden and organized by letters.  Please ignore the Cinderella Blu Ray.  I will post the finished piece next week and hopefully have some art to show as well.

in Arizona Maya made some art of her own.  She insisted on taking her own pictures.

Top view

Hello Pancake for Valentines day

Casting a Tongue in Silicone

I was busy at Toy Fare last week, so sorry for the brief break.  This week I am casting a tongue in my plaster mold.  No release agent necessary, silicone really only likes to stick to itself and very porous surfaces.  Rather than store bought pigments, I usually use oil paints.  It doesn't take much, just a dot or two and I can usually mix the exact color I want (do not use water-based oils).  I mix it into the the thicker half of the silicone mixture first and then use it ass a gauge of how well my silicone is mixed.  I use a Smooth-On brand Dragon Skin silicone.  It sets in about 15 minutes (that's a lot of slushing the mold around).

                                               

I add a second layer with a much richer red that will show through the translucent first layer.

 Then I back it with a final stabilizing layer.  Once the thin stuff has set, I know it's ready to demold.

::pop::

Ta-Daaahh.

Adding a think coat of clear for god measure and good sliminess.