Aloft

I have just finished two posthumous portraits. The first of which I'm sharing here. I'll share the other later.

Aloft, 24x54, oil on canvas over panel

The design started with a photo of the model being held up by the three men in the painting. The original photograph was a flashed snapshot so it was super challenging to have the paint look lively. I used several different photos of the model's face as reference as well.

The design involved many different body-double photographs since the photo was cropped in such a way that the hands and much of the bodies from all the subjects were not included in the photo.

My client (the model's husband) and I talked about what the painting should entail and he told me his wife was a fun loving person. She was from New Orleans and had an unconventional spirit. After that conversation I wanted to make this composition work. I knew it captured her playful spirit and was a good place to start.

I've been working on this piece off and on since last summer and consistently since November. I have left my DNA all over this painting in the form of blood, sweat and tears, no kidding.

But I am happy to say the painting has been approved. The model's friends and family that have seen it online think I have captured her likeness and her spirit. I could not be more pleased.

My client shared a favorite quote from my model from her high school year book.

“On with the dance, let joy be unconfined." ~Byron

I will be delivering the two paintings later this month. I’m honored and humbled to have been charged with the task of painting Karen. I am very happy to have had the opportunity to help celebrate her joyous dance through life.

Gesture Speed Painting

This week at drawing group I played around with doing the 5 minute gesture poses with paint and it was sloppy fun.

I used Bienfang Graphics 360 Marker Paper, 12x9, and Rembrandt burnt umber thinned with a little medium that was a mixture of linseed oil/OMS in about a 60/40 ratio.

The description of the paper is "Graphics 360 is a 100% rag, non-bleeding, translucent marker paper. It retains true color with permanent as well as watercolor markers." I think the paper is considered archival but not sure if the oil paint will have an affect on how archival the piece will be. More research needed.

I really liked the way it handled. The wetness soaked into the paper slow enough that I was able to rub out some forms, yet the paper did not buckle. I've used canvas paper before and it was too thirsty. It soaked in so fast that the rubbing out did not work well.

If I decide to finish these off I'll matt them and frame like a drawing.

I plan to experiment with the new arches oil painting paper and find some vellums to try. If you have anything you like to work on let me know. I'm looking for something not too expensive since coming up with a winner while speed painting 2-5 minute gestures poses is hit or miss.

Steampunk Professor Rattus and Lois Lane

Tomorrow may be my birthday but today held a big, happy surprise.

My painting Professor Rattus and Her Royal Court, The Incognito Project, is featured in an ad for Principle Gallery in the American Art Collector's March 2013 issue.

And in the same issue, my painting, Fast Lane, is in the article about collecting art in the Washington, DC & Mid-Atlantic States area. Thank you Principle Gallery and American Art Collector!

Just for fun here's a video of the rat wrangling it took to get photo reference for Professor Rattus.

 
And here is a video of in progress shots and details of Fast Lane.



You may find a blog post with Professor Rattus and details here, and details of Lois Lane in Fast Lane and the companion piece Call of Duty, here.

All three of these paintings are featured in The Incognito Project book, which is available at Principle Gallery, through Matter Deep Publishing or from my website.

Harlem Shake Video or a Typical Matter Deep Publishing Board Meeting

Our little family business, Matter Deep Publishing, had some fun this week making our own version of the Harlem Shake video meme currently zipping through cyberspace. If you haven't seen the phenom you can check it out at KnowYour Meme.

The video includes my son Kyle, dancing solo at the beginning; my daughter Carly as Cookie Monster Girl; her fiancee, Will, in the lampshade; my husband in his Mr. Valentine costume; my daughter-in-law, Amy making an appearance with Linus, the beagle with a bowtie; our other granddog, Apollo, looking confused; and me with the Hulk hands. Even my mother got it on it. That's her in the background with a rain stick and crown, cause she is the Queen of the clan, you know?

It's a shame we never have any fun and that our kids are so inhibited. Hope you enjoy this we bit of madness!

Painting Light and Shadow

I took new pictures of a painting from 2010, with my new lights, new camera and come to think of it a new tripod. Seems there have been many upgrades in the studio over the last couple of years.

Enlightenment, 24x24, oil on panel. 

The tripod I'm in love with! Ravelli APGL4 New Professional 70" Tripod with Adjustable Pistol Grip Head. The pistol grip thing is great and the ball joint to shoot vertical is very smooth.

It is heavy and I wouldn't want to use it for hiking but in the studio I love it. I have broken three canon tripods in the last few years, seems there are always little plastic pieces breaking off. So this time I spent a little bit more to get a better quality and I think this one will last.

My camera is one I bought to produce The Incognito Project book. We needed larger than life-sized super close-ups for two page spreads. It's a Canon EOS Rebel T3i 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera.

The Activist,  detail, The Incognito Project book

I am still using an upgraded lens I bought a few years ago, the Canon, 24-85mm, Ultrasonic.

Read my other posts about Enlightenment, or about shooting photographs of your paintings.

Art Instruction Blog

There is a super informative website called Art Instruction Blog. The webmaster collects demos and lessons from all over the web and posts them under different topics:

~Featured Painting Lesson

~Featured Drawing lessons

~Featured Artist Interviews

~Recommended Sources

~Artist Spotlight - Featured Artists

This week one of my demonstrations, Oil Painting Underpainting Tutorial, is featured on the Painting Lessons.

There is also a You Asked! page in which you can submit a question and people in the know will address it.

And a Lesson by Subject page. And a Lesson by Medium page.

Basically, what I'm saying is, don't start looking at this site right before bed or you will be sitting in front of your easel very sleep deprived the next day!

Oil Sketch Inspiration

I went back to life drawing group after a few months off and it was fun. I did feel a little rusty and as always there wasn't enough time. This was three 20 minute sessions, a total of one hour with the model.

Anders, 12x9, oil on panel. 

Looking for inspiration, I found a few oil sketches I snagged off the internet to share with you and my students. We are starting a head study from life in my class tomorrow. This will be a first life study for most of them. We've done still life but not the figure before. I will keep you apprised. In the meantime, enjoy these lovelies.

Bryce Cameron Liston

Michelle Dunaway

Stephen Early

Fongwei Liu

I love looking at work like this. It's so inspirational and at the same time makes me realize how much I have to learn!

Alabama Shakes, Lilly Ledbetter and The Incognito Project

The Incognito Project seems to have sparked people's imagination much as it has mine. I'm honored that this month it is written about in B Metro : The Magazine of Metro Birmingham Living.

The article, written by Phillip Ratliff, is about the painting project, the show and the book. It is in their January 2013 feature, The A-List.

From the magazine:
Our annual list of people who fascinate, inspire, and make this city a great place to live.

Each year we put together a list of people (and this year we added an event) that we think have had really exceptional years and are poised or equally great things in the year to come. This year our list includes a comedian, a potter, rock and roll stars, equal-pay advocate, two artists, a convention center executive, a marine general turned college president, and the Dia de los Muertos festival. It’s a compendium of achievement we are proud to have associated with our magazine and our city.

Other people on the list this year are the amazing musical group Alabama Shakes, (their debut album is my new favorite music), Roam Project visionary-Greg Wingo, and Equal Pay Advocate-Lilly Ledbetter.

I had a total fan girl moment and got a secret thrill to see Lilly and President Obama on the page before The Incognito Project since I'm such a huge fan of both!

The magazine is in bookstores and news stands locally till mid-February and you may read it online here.

Steampunk Rats and Blue Ribbons

I'm pleased to announce that Professor Rattus and Her Royal Court, The Incognito Project has won 1st Place in The Portrait Society of America's, 2013 Member's Only Competition, Outside the Box category.

Professor Rattus and Her Royal Court, The Incognito Project,  24x18, oil on panel

The painting is of my daughter, Carly, and her pet fancy rats, Queenie and Dutchess.

Here's Carly's "Witness Statement" from the book: 

I find that my ability to converse intelligently is inversely proportional to my proximity to a furry mammal. If it’s furry and friendly, I want to hold it and talk to it to the exclusion of the humans around me. My conversation, that may have started as, “Why, yes, I did hear that the Large Hadron Collider created an event that was a hundred thousand times hotter than the sun,” devolves into, “My goodness! Who’s a furry critter? You’re a furry thing. Yes, you are.” Take equal parts Asimov and Conan Doyle, two writers I’m passionate about, and add a dash of furry minions, and I can wallow in a mystical land tailored just for me. ~Carly

The painting is included in my book about the project, pages 94-99.

You may see a big post about the painting here, that covers the Steampunk aesthetic and more close-up details.

The painting is now at Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA. The books are available through my website, or in the sidebar to the right or at the gallery. In Santa Fe you may also purchase the book at Sugarman Peterson Gallery.

Amy Strickland has done a series of posts about how she ran our successful Kickstarter to fund publishing of the book. You may find the first one here. Just follow the link at the bottom of each of her posts to see all six. 

7 Steps to Plaster Cast Painting For Artists

Step 1- Beg, borrow or steal some cool casts. One of my students happened to have them so she has generously loaned them to my class for a few weeks. If you're not so lucky, you may have to buy them like she did here.

Step 2- Set each of them up and add some funky lighting.

Hint: To arrange them up I set up a table easel, used S hooks to attach them to a sheet of masonite that had been covered in a black drape, and lit it with a clamp-on light. The bulbs are Phillips, Director, 60W, 120V.

Step 3- Do a pencil drawing on a canvas or panel.

Hint #1: Get in a comfortable position and plant your feet. Choose to stand or sit but remain at the same eye level. Try to move only your eyes to keep your view of the still life the same.
Hint #2: Check proportions, how wide is it compared to how tall? Start in general, straight lines, loose shapes and move to more specific. 

Welcome Home, a New Commissioned Painting

Welcome Home, 37x42, oil on canvas over panel

This is a painting commissioned to commemorate a marriage of 43 years, and a home built by the couple. It was such a pleasure to get to know them better.

I'd love to say more, share insights and technical stuff but Christmas is nigh, and deadlines are looming so for now just...