Watching the Boats With Dad Projection

In an effort to provide more frequent posts and updates, I plan on blogging each day's work on my current painting.  This work is another landscape based on Montgomery's River Front Park and I was able to capture this image on the morning of the Dragon Boat Festival.  The painting is actually a composite of two photos I took of the same basic composition, I just needed to shift the father and son over a little on the sidewalk to better organize the elements, which is why they're drawn in pencil.  In another month or so when I theoretically finish this painting, I intend on restarting and completing the Tintype Commission portrait I began about two years ago.

L'aube au Double Deuce (Le pire cauchemar de Dalton)

After finishing River Front Park Walkway, I set out to complete two more personal paintings before I dove back into restarting my Tintype Commission from so long ago.  The first of these paintings is a Surrealist 'landscape' in the manner of French painter Yves Tanguy, and converting the title to French is an homage to this.

River Front Park Walkway

The weekend before this past one I participated in the Annual Dragon Boat Festival as an art vendor.  The event took place at the River Front Park in downtown Montgomery and I took this opportunity to not only expand my artistic network but also to begin an on-site landscape of the venue.  I started with a sketch of the composition on the canvas and also took a photo of the view with my phone for future reference.  Due to patron traffic, I was only able to get a very rough layout painted during the event and finished the painting over the weekend.  I also took a couple of other photos of the area for possible future paintings.  

Allie Commission Final

After a year of off and on attempted progress on this commission I finally finished.  Not long ago I actually restarted the work to tweak some details and completed the entire painting in acrylics.

Day 2 of Allie Modell Commission

On my second day of work for this portrait I applied a layer of Viridian Hue to deepen and darken the shadows.

After I get a little further along with this portrait I intend on resuming work on my previous commission and alternating work between the two paintings until they are completed.  Once I've finished the commissions, I'd like to resume and complete the four oil portraits I started almost two years ago and the acrylic slot canyon paintings I began last fall.  Well, that is if everything goes as planned...

Day 1 of Allie Modell Commission

For the first day of real work on my latest commission I applied a layer of oil Alizarin Crimson over my projection to help establish the shadows and shapes. 

Allie Modell Commission Projection

After far too long of a break caused by moving back to Montgomery and an endless stream of housework, I began a new piece recently, but I lack a reliable internet connection and haven't been able to post about it until now.  Hopefully, I'll be able to break free of my affliction of starting pieces then having to take time away from art, then starting new ones to help get back in the swing before resuming half-done works, since I now have seven previous in-progress paintings already waiting at the moment.  My newest work comes to me as a commission and like my previous one is based off of a simple black and white photograph. 

I started the painting by constructing the canvas and giving it half a dozen coats of gesso before doing my preliminary projection in acrylic Ultramarine Blue.

Day 6 of Tintype Commission

I started the day with a focus on getting the background wall and shadow better established.  I did this by applying Yellow Ochre to the upper left corner and blended that out in the shape of the shadow.  I then worked in a little Burnt Umber mixed with Paynes Gray into the shadow area and finally blended it all together.  Next, I began working on the floor with Titanium White followed by Mars Black.  I then did a minute amount of work on the legs and shoes, followed by a quick layer of flesh tone to the face and hands, and finished with working on the dress in Alizarin Crimson and Yellow Ochre.

Here's the day's video:

Day 5 of Tintype Commission

I started the day by applying some Yellow Ochre to the upper left corner of the background to begin the establishment of a wall and cast shadow, which should add to the desired Baroque appearance.  I blended that out with some Burnt Umber, repeated the process for a while, but there's much work to be done.  Next,  began to reform the hair using Yellow Ochre and moved to working on the table a little after that.  I finished my work by filling the blank areas of the dress with Yellow Ochre.  I still have probably another day or so of general light work where my focus is just getting paint on the blank areas before I move to a more detailed and focused process.

The video for the day...

I only got around 45 minutes of work in today so when I was editing the video I only sped it up by a factor of 8 and not 16.  So instead of a time lapse appearance, the action appears more super speed.

Day 4 of Tintype Commission

I began the day's work by applying a thin layer of Burnt Umber to the top left corner of the background and slowly bled that out around the left side of the girl's head with a Burnt Umber and Paynes Gray mix and then finished the remainder of the background with Paynes Gray mixed with only a hint of Burnt Umber.  I then turned my focus to the table by reestablishing the main form and highlights with a light layer of Yellow Ochre.  I then finished my work with a layer of Alizarin Crimson over the red parts of the dress.

Here's the video for today's work:

In case any of you readers were curious as to my process for the production of these videos, let my give a brief run down of all that goes into making one.  Before I begin filming each day, I first devise a 'plan of attack' for what I intend on working on and then I get all my paints and brushes ready to best fit that plan.  Because I know my camera has only a 70 minute capacity I set a timer for about an hour and then get to work.  After I the timer goes off I work to get to a good stopping point and cease my work for the day and then upload the video from my camera to my computer.   To edit and make the videos I use Windows Live Movie Maker.  I begin the editing process by first speeding up the video by a factor of 16, which creates the time lapse effect. I then add in my three title screens, ie. the actual title, the 'On Palette,' and the 'Music.'  By this point I have the general length of the video established so I open up my iTunes and sort my music by track length.  Next is a simple matter of finding a desirable track of the appropriate length to add to the video and then I'm done.