Wynne's Works in Progress

Day 2 of Allie Modell Commission

2011-07-13T21:16:00.003-05:00

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

2011-07-13T21:06:00.003-05:00

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

2011-07-13T21:03:00.001-05:00

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

2011-02-09T21:14:00.000-06:00

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

2011-02-05T20:25:00.001-06:00

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

2011-02-02T18:41:00.000-06:00

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.

Day 3 of Tintype Commission

2011-01-22T19:33:00.000-06:00

I started today's work by applying a transparent layer of a 2:1 Ultramarine Blue/Burnt Umber mix to the background. I think painted in a layer of Burnt Umber over the shadow parts of the table, the hair, the shoes and socks, and finally the dark floor squares. I finished my work with a little Titanium White on the book paper, the pantaloons, and light floor squares.

Here's the video for today's work:

Day 2 of Tintype Commission

2011-01-17T20:42:00.000-06:00

Today was a basic day of work on Tintype Commission. It was mostly a repeat of Day 1 but with Viridian Hue instead of Alizarin Crimson. I started with a light transparent layer of Viridian Hue over the entire background and then mixed Viridian Hue and Alizarin Crimson together to paint in a layer over the dark parts of the table and over the hair, socks and shoes.

Here's the video for today's work.

Day 1 of Tintype Commission

2011-01-14T16:35:00.000-06:00

With the holiday season now over, it's time for me to get back to work on my pieces in progress. I spent about an hour last week working on the color patterning for the dress in Tintype Commission and finally reached an ideal design so the only thing holding me back from working was the cold. I've been hoping to get some work done at night after work, but my studio, which is a patio turned sunroom with no central heat, has simply been too cold but hopefully that trend will soon be ending. In other art related news, I finally renewed my Flickr subscription and the entirety of my photo collection is again available for viewing at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wyndawson. The majority of the photos are from my personal travels throughout the country and many have provided source material for my art works.

Today was an off day so I was able to get a little work in on Tintype Commission while the sun was providing heat. My work today consisted of what I have called 'Stage 1' in previous oil works. I simply applied a thin transparent layer of Alizarin Crimson over the entire piece to help darken the shadows and better establish the forms.

I decided to also film my progress for this piece and edit it like I have been for my work on Phoenix Rising, and thanks to my experiences with those videos nothing went wrong with today's filming.

Tintype Commission Projection

2010-12-24T19:39:00.000-06:00

This past week I've spent my time after work constructing, wrapping, and gessoing a canvas for a commission that I received. The commission is an oil portrait of the patron's grandmother's grandmother and the source image is a 19th century tintype of which I was provided a scanned print.

After I believe 8 coats of gesso, a final wash of gesso/Burnt Sienna tint, and a little light sanding, my canvas was ready for projection. I used my standard projection pigment of acrylic Ultramarine Blue to establish the composition's forms and values and applied a final dark wash to the background to create a more Baroque light quality.

Day 5 of Phoenix Rising

2010-12-24T16:06:00.001-06:00

I had a day off from work this X-Mas Eve and have spent some of it working on Phoenix Rising. I used most of my time working on getting many of the forms back to their correct shapes and reestablishing rock edges. I also filled in the main surfaces with some more basic washes to better their tones and forms.

I experienced the glare problem again during today's progress video even with all the shades closed, so I might try to hang an extra sheet up next time. On the plus side, my new computer's updated MovieMaker program recognizes my camera's output file type so I no longer have to spend the extra few hours converting the files in order to edit them. This also means that instead of purchasing a simple video camera in the near future, I'm going to hold off until I can afford a new dSLR camera with HD video functions.

Day 4 of Phoenix Rising

2010-12-09T17:51:00.000-06:00

I didn't realize until after I had posted it, but my last post was my 100th for this blog! And that would make this post my 101st...

It seems for now and until my work schedule becomes more consistent that I'll only be getting art work in during my days off from my "real" job (that's just a job for the bills, art is still my "profession"). So yesterday I was able to get a good bit of work in on Phoenix Rising. It was another "big brush" day for the most part and was again spent building up the forms and textures with various washes. The piece is now at the point where I should be able to begin working on specific areas in more detail, but there's also a few areas that still need a few more basic washes.

The progress video for the day's work went smoothly for once, though I am seriously considering purchasing a camera that is primarily designed for video and not just using my digital still camera with a video function. Not only will the video quality substantially improve, hopefully I could bypass the file conversion step which takes twice as long as the filming...

Day 3 of Phoenix Rising

2010-12-04T08:45:00.000-06:00

I had a off day from work yesterday and was able to get some work done on Phoenix Rising. It was another basic day of simply applying color washes throughout to help build up forms and hues. I probably have one more day of working like this before I can begin to focus on establishing details, but things are certainly heading in the right direction so far.

My only concern is how the piece is gonna look once I'm finished and separate the canvases and get everything matted and framed. I made some preliminary computer altered images to test my aesthetic theory before I began and they looked good but maybe after another few days of work I'll take the joining brackets off the canvases just to see if I need to alter my plans to make it appear as a single canvas and not two separate ones.

I produced a progress video for the day's work and like the previous videos, this one also provided a lesson through misfortune. It was actually more like one and a half lessons. The half lesson is a continuation from the last time dealing with the glare, which I made an effort to lessen by closing the set of blinds that lets direct sun in but there was still a fare amount of glare so I'll close even more blinds next time. The main lesson was that my camera has only a 74 minute limit on its memory card, so the last 10-20 minutes of my work were not filmed. For the last video, which is longer than this one, I filmed two 45-55 minute segments and combined them to make the full day's video. I didn't want to go with that process because it more than doubles the conversion time it takes to convert my camera's output files into a Movie Maker friendly file type, but now I know it's the only way to reliably film more than an hour's worth of work.

Day 2 Phoenix Rising

2010-11-25T10:23:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Yesterday marked my first day off from my new job and I was able to get some work done on Phoenix Rising. The more acclimated I get to my very early morning schedule and the more stable my overall schedule becomes, the more consistently I should be able to get work in.

I started my work with a semi repeat of Day 1, but instead of doing separate washes of Ultramarine Blue followed by Burnt Sienna, I used a mix of those two paints in an overall wash to help darken the shadows and give more substance to the forms. I then moved to applying color throughout the canvas in an effort to establish base color tones. I finished with washing in highlights with Titanium White.

I experienced another technical mishap in the day's progress video when a large amount of glare came in during the first half of my work causing the right side of the canvas to get repeatedly washed out with light. Now that I know of its existence, I think I can adjust the curtains to eliminate the problem in the future.

Shine Over Mountains Final

2010-11-11T12:28:00.002-06:00

I finished Shine Over Mountains yesterday afternoon, but there was not enough natural light left to get a good slide image for the final image (which will be later used for printing purposes). Those with keen eyes may notice that this final image has a slight blue tint in some spots that all the previous progression images lacked. This is a result of two things. First, although I was only using Bone Black and Titanium White as my pigments, both of those have traces of blue in them and when you severely dilute the paint like I did, then those small traces become more apparent. In general, black pigments are composed of many dark pigments, which when diluted break apart and reveal their true colors. It's kinda like how I used a black marker that turns purple for my watercolor marker paintings or the black pen that turns blue for the watercolor pen paintings. The second reason for the blue tint, or rather why it isn't visible in the progression images, is because all of those where shot with unnatural light in a room at night, which made the blue tint way too exaggerated, so I simply converted them to black and white. However, for this final image I wanted it to be as true to life as possible, so I waited until this morning to use sunlight and chose not to convert the image to black and white.

Day 1 of Phoenix Rising

2010-11-11T09:15:00.002-06:00

I spent the majority of my day yesterday finishing up Shine Over Mountains and got it complete, but due to light inadequacies for the final image I've put posting it off until later today. I was able to get an hour of work in on Phoenix Rising yesterday evening and spent it building up the shadows and forms. First, with a wash of Ultramarine Blue, then followed by a wash of Burnt Sienna. I finished it off with washing in some Titanium White mainly in the light glare areas, but also on a few rock edges to help define them more. Now with things a little darker, the piece's namesake is more apparent.

Keeping with my plan, I filmed the day's work and compressed its length to make another short movie. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn off my camera's continuous auto-focus setting, so things occasionally go out of focus for a second or two. I will try not to repeat this mistake for future videos.

Phoenix Rising Projection

2010-11-09T18:38:00.001-06:00

It's finally here, the painting I've been mentioning about starting for a while, the second slot canyon painting. I'm trying to expand my visual aesthetics by creating a split canvas design, but for ease of color matching and continuity I chose to bracket the two canvases together to make a single large working surface. Once I've finished the painting, I'll take the brackets off and custom matte and frame the work.

The image used comes from the lower portion of Antelope Canyon and features a unique light glare that gives the piece its name. For the projection process, I simply used Burnt Sienna and water.

I filmed the projection process with intent to make another fast paced movie short, but the required darkness for the projector made the film quality absolutely too poor to see anything, so the end result is all that remains for now. I hope to film at least the first hour of each day's work, hopefully more if my camera battery can handle it, and turn each day's progress into a short movie, then once the painting is completed, whenever that may be, I'll put all the footage together to make a final beginning-to-end production video.

On a side note, a movie that I'd like to see titled '127 Hours' opened last week telling a true story about a hiker trapped in a slot canyon who eventually had to amputate his own hand to survive. I thought my desert experiences dealing with a centimeter long wooden peg in my pinky for two weeks and loosing my keys in a slot canyon were bad, but I was wrong.

Day 17 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-11-08T19:45:00.000-06:00

Another day of work and another day that much closer to completion. So close that maybe only one more day of work remains...

I decided to film the first hour (the longest my camera battery can handle) of my work today, but since I know no one would really want to watch it in real time, I sped it up and added a soundtrack. I did this mainly as an experiment and in anticipation of my plans for my next slot canyon painting...

Day 7 of First Vision

2010-11-07T18:54:00.000-06:00

Today was just a work on everything kinda day. No real focus, nothing really finished, but things are coming along. I dunno about having this painting totally completed in another two and half weeks and I really don't want to rush myself, so for now I think I'm actually going to try to go ahead and finish Shine Over Mountains in the next few days and use another smaller work for my second entry for the upcoming show. Also adding to this plan is the very strong desire to get started on the new slot canyon painting, which if begun leaves no chance of getting anything but Shine Over Mountains complete anyways. I have a feeling impatience is going to get the best of me...

Day 6 of First Vision

2010-11-07T09:25:00.000-06:00

I was unable to get any work done Friday on account of a job interview in the early afternoon and a photography show opening that evening. Well actually I did get the canvases for my next slot canyon painting gessoed on Friday, but that doesn't really count. I was also only able to get a half day in yesterday because I spent the first half preparing entries for a fundraising project for the Panama City Artists called "Cloud of Ideas."

While attending the photography opening, I learned that the show I was preparing Shine Over Mountains and First Vision for has its entry date about two weeks ahead of what I anticipated. This shouldn't pose a problem for Shine Over Mountains, but First Vision may not be complete in time, especially with the hope of employment on the horizon. However, in an effort to get First Vision complete in time I'm gonna put the majority of my focus on it for the time being and see how far along I can get. Since Shine Over Mountains is so close to completion I can just work on it in the evenings or times when I only have a limited amount of time to work with. And unfortunately, I'm going to need to put any further work on the new slot canyon piece on hold until I have a better idea of how things are gonna work out with job scheduling and what not.

My work on First Vision yesterday started with an effort to reestablish the shadows and cracks of the upper central rock section then moved to building up the middle-left rock "flipper." Can you tell it's hard for me to describe specific areas of this piece? Towards the end, like it has done each day thus far, my focus shifted to applying washes throughout the entire piece.

Day 16 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-11-04T19:32:00.000-05:00

Each day I begin working on this piece I think it could be my last. It's getting so close to being complete, but there are a few areas that aren't quite there yet. My focus today was again on everything that remains. The figure, cliff, and the entire right side foreground are very close to being done. The lower left hand corner (specifically the two bushes) and parts of the foreground gravel/dirt still need a little more work to be on their way, though.

Yesterday, I took the first step in preparing for the next piece I'll be beginning soon. It will be another slot canyon piece and the image will again come from lower Antelope Canyon and will also have a very strong light streak. A major difference is that I'll be painting this one on two canvases to create a split canvas work when I am finished. But to make it easier to paint as a whole I had to bind the two canvases together, but I'll go into that process whenever I finish the projection and have an image to post and blog about.

Day 5 of First Vision

2010-11-02T19:56:00.000-05:00

Today, I began my work on First Vision with a focus on the top central rock section. I've got the highlights pretty well established (to the point of kinda being washed out in some spots), but I need to reestablish the shadows and cracks. I later began applying broad washes across the rest of the piece to continue with the building up of forms and textures process.

Day 15 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-11-01T19:04:00.001-05:00

Today was a total repeat of yesterday's work. I did put a little extra effort towards reestablishing the "trail" from the foreground to the figure, but mostly I worked towards getting everything complete.

Day 4 of First Vision

2010-10-31T20:01:00.000-05:00

After my work today I believe I got things back on track for First Vision. I kinda went back on my statement not to focus on a certain area or use small brushes, but it was for the best. Today, I focused on the furthest back/most central rock section but also did a number of big brush washes throughout. The back section is at the point where I think I can move to other sections to focus on. Once I get everything to that point I plan on trying to finish it off using my overly water diluted wash method to see if a interesting rock erosion effect can be created. We'll see...

Day 14 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-10-31T19:50:00.000-05:00

Today was just another day of working on all the remaining elements. I didn't really focus on anything, but everything seems to be getting kinda close to being done.

Day 3 of First Vision

2010-10-30T11:41:00.000-05:00

I spent all my time yesterday working on reestablishing the correct shape of the sky/sun and trying to work with small brushes and strokes on the section of rock located from the 3o'clock to 5o'clock position of the sun. Both of these areas took way more work than I expected and the rock section is now way too washed out and still requires a lot more work. Given the amount of work I put in and my dissatisfaction with the limited results of trying to work with small brushes and strokes, I think I'm going to go back to using bigger brushes and more pronounced strokes while focusing on the piece as a whole and not just one section. I might try to go back later with the smaller brushes to try and get a more crisp and realistic painting, but I was really liking the way things looked in the beginning with just the basic shapes and shadows and highlights, so for now I'm just going to keep progressing in that direction. However, any input as to what you the viewer would find more appealing would be more than greatly appreciated.

Day 13 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-10-28T18:59:00.000-05:00

I took a break from painting yesterday because my good friend and fellow adventurer (also the "model" for 90% of the figures in my landscapes) Jeff B. was on this side of the Rockies for a brief trip and he and his girlfriend stopped by for a quick visit.

I think I'm at the point where I may begin alternating between Shine Over Mountains and First Vision on a daily basis, so today I worked on Shine Over Mountains. I focused primarily on the figure and cliff area and that section is getting very close to completion. I also occasionally applied some washes to the foreground bushes, rocks, and dirt.

Day 2 of First Vision

2010-10-27T13:09:00.000-05:00

I took a break working on Shine Over Mountains yesterday and spent the day working on First Vision. My work was pretty much the same as the first day's and was spent painting basic washes to help establish forms, shadows, and highlights. Hopefully the next day I work on this piece I'll be able to begin focusing on specific areas to work through in more detail.

Day 12 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-10-26T11:27:00.000-05:00

My work on Shine Over Mountains yesterday was again just like the previous days' work, ie. it was spent trying to build the remaining forms up and trying to get the final elements and details established. The bottom left corner except for the two foremost bushes is very close to completion and I think the figure and cliff are getting there. There's still a fair amount of work left for the foreground rocks, dirt, grass, and bushes though.

Day 1 of First Vision

2010-10-21T20:40:00.003-05:00

I began my art adventures today with a little work on what I am now calling First Vision, which is based on a photo of Antelope Canyon. It's been about four years since I attempted to paint a color landscape in acrylics, so I began the day a little nervous. I decided to try and combine what I learned from oil painting and my work with watercolors to help create this piece. So first I'm just putting in layers and trying to build up the forms, textures and shadows. I began by painting in a Ultramarine Blue wash over the Burnt Umber projection, focusing on darking and deepening the shadows. I then followed this with another wash of Burnt Umber to further the process. I then set the piece aside to get my work on Shine Over Mountains in, but later returned when I had my fill with that one. For round two of First Vision, I first repeated the washes of round one and then used varying washes and wash mixes of Brilliant Orange, Cad Yellow Hue, Burnt Sienna, and Light Red to really develop the forms, again just trying to get paint on the canvas to help build up the depth and mass. I finished off with washing back in some details and highlights with Titanium White.

Day 11 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-10-21T20:14:00.000-05:00

My work on Shine Over Mountains today went a lot like my work yesterday, just for a lot longer. I didn't really have a specific area I focused on and instead just worked on building up everything else that remains.

Day 10 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-10-20T18:41:00.001-05:00

Today I took another step towards becoming a full-fledged Florida resident, this time by obtaining a Florida driver's license. It was a necessary step prompted by the fact that my Alabama one expires tomorrow. As great as an event as this is, it did take up a good portion of my day. It went as most trips to a DMV office go. First, you go there and wait half an hour until your number is called, only to find out that you lack a certain required document (something I had tried to avoid by checking online prior to going, but still I missed stuff) and they send you on your way. Then you leave and begin to search like hell for the required documents that hardly anyone it seems would have all easily at ready. Once successfully locating all required documents you return to the DMV office and have to wait the mandatory half an hour, after which you realize you and one gentleman at the counter are the only ones left at the time and yet for some reason they stopped calling numbers. Another five minutes pass and one of the clerks stands to get something from the printer and you are finally noticed and after many apologies are allowed to proceed with your necessary requests. It is events like this which demonstrate my strange uncontrolled power of invisibility.

Once all that was concluded, I was finally able to get close to a half day's work accomplished on Shine Over Mountains. I began with working on the trail and below areas and then found my way painting on everything else that remained in a random manner, just trying to build things up.

Day 9 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-10-19T21:13:00.000-05:00

I was only able to get a little work done today. I began with fixing the darkened silhouette that was created when I reestablished the figure yesterday. In the process of doing this I also added in more highlights to the bushes using the super water saturated paint wash technique. I then shifted my focus to working on the area below the trail and got the left section mostly finished, but I still have a little more work on the right section below the cliff. I finished my day with just adding some washes to help build up the foreground features.

First Vision Projection

2010-10-18T21:38:00.002-05:00

I'm probably getting ahead of myself, especially with the hope of starting a job soon, but I started another painting today. I've been debating on what direction I wanted to take my art for the time being and finally made the decision by starting on this painting. What I plan to focus on now is using acrylics to paint a couple of images from photos I took in Antelope Canyon near Page, AZ, and maybe when I am finished I with these I will be ready to return to all those oil paintings.

I began today's work on the first of these new paintings by putting four layers of gesso on my canvas, a process that took a few hours due to having to allow for drying time in between layers. After getting the final gesso layer on the canvas I was ready to project the image. For the projection process I used a sepia toned print (to help me focus on just establishing the darks and contours) and painted with acrylic Burnt Umber using water to thin it. The image I am using is from the lower portion of Antelope Canyon and features a very strong sunbeam coming in. Given the color saturated nature of the original photo and the generally abstract nature of slot canyon forms, the finished product of this painting should be quite interesting.

Day 7-8 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-10-18T20:24:00.001-05:00

I got a little distracted from art work last week on account of job hunting and my birthday. I also forgot to take a reference photo of the work I did last Monday before I started working today, so that's why this is Day 7-8. Last Monday I only worked a little on adding in highlights and shadows to the mid-line trees and middle-ground bushes using a super water diluted wash technique similar to how I create my watercolor marker paintings, so it didn't seem too necessary to post that day's progress. I continued that wash process today, this time with all my focus on the bushes. After all that, I believe I finally got the middle-ground down to the trail and bushes behind the rock ledge with figure complete. I finalized my day with a lot of work reestablishing the figure and his surrounding ground features and a little work on the cliff and bush area below the trail.

Day 6 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-10-11T20:07:00.000-05:00

I began the day working on the main tree line, alternating between adding highlights and shadows, basically building up the forms. I got things almost complete there and started the same process working on the middle-ground bushes, which are going to still require a fair amount of work.

Day 5 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-10-09T19:19:00.000-05:00

I only got a few background washes for atmospheric effect in on Thursday and didn't do any work at all yesterday, so it didn't seem necessary to update the progress until today. I did get a good amount of work done today, with most of my focus being on the middle-ground tree line, grass, and bushes . I also put a little work towards building up the lower left corner and the bushes to the right of the figure.

Day 4 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-10-06T19:03:00.001-05:00

Today was pretty much a repeat of yesterday. I spent the majority of my time working on the left mountain and it's basically finished. I might do a few washes over the entire background to lighten it up and enhance the atmospheric haze effect, but I'm holding off on that until I get closer to being totally finished with the whole piece. Like yesterday, I also spent a fair amount of time building up the middle and foreground's basic forms and textures.

Day 3 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-10-05T19:19:00.001-05:00

My day of painting was mostly spent on building up the canvas, getting the shadows really established and just trying to get some good layers in there to help create form, depth and texture. I also finished up the mountains on the right and put some focus on getting the left mountain to completion, which it should reach during my work tomorrow.

Day 2 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-10-04T17:58:00.000-05:00

Last post of the day to catch up on the progress of Shine Over Mountains. Today was the second day of work and I focused on establishing the mountains and it seems like this will take some time. I am almost satisfied with the state of the mountains on the right, but still have a little work left for them and a lot of work remaining for the mountain on the left.

Day 1 of Shine Over Mountains

2010-10-04T15:42:00.000-05:00

I spent most of my painting time yesterday building up and establishing the sky. It's still a little dark, but I did that on purpose to allow me to lighten it as I add in atmospheric haze to the background mountains. I also did a little work establishing the lake in the left-center area.

Shine Over Mountains Projection

2010-10-04T09:44:00.002-05:00

I actually started on this painting about two weeks ago but have been too focused on looking for a job to put anymore time into it. I still haven't found a job, but I now have a few good hopefuls lined up and that helped me find some inspiration to get working on the painting yesterday and hopefully through the week. I began this new painting as opposed to finishing the five oils and four watercolors I started months ago (and in some cases almost a year), because I did try working a little on the oils and discovered that I was a little too rusty to just jump back in and it seemed better to start anew. I've also decided that once I find a job and get a good schedule established that I'll need to start a whole new oil painting to work through completion in order to get back to where I was when I left all the previous ones. I already know what that painting will be and I hope it's humor and imagery will rival Old McDonald.

Like my last painting/banner for the the CityArts Cooperative, I've also previously used this image before in the form of a charcoal and conte drawing and now I'm gonna paint it using the same two paints (Charcoal Black and Titanium White) as I did for the banner. The original drawing was sold before it ever saw any good gallery time and I really like the composition, so I felt it was a good thing to work on to help me get fully back into the groove of things. The image comes from my last visit to Glacier National Park in the summer of 2008 and was taken near St. Mary's Lake.

Completed CityArts Cooperative Banner

2010-09-11T12:38:00.003-05:00

I finished my banner for the front of the CityArts Cooperative building last night, but it was too dark to get an adequate photo of it. Unfortunately, now that I have completed this task I must again make working on art my secondary goal and turn my primary focus to finding a job. That is unless I start to sell a bunch of art or somehow am given an illustrious sum of money...

Day 2 of CityArts Banner

2010-09-10T22:50:00.001-05:00

Today, I finished my banner/sign for the front of the CityArts Coop. I am really pleased with how the whole thing turned out and may now seriously consider doing more black and white paintings in the future. Although I did get the lettering complete today, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get a good photo of it.

Day 1 of CityArts Banner

2010-09-09T18:59:00.001-05:00

I spent most of the day working on my banner/sign for the front of the CityArts Coop and have about half of the image completed. The image I am using should be recognizable to those familiar with my body of work since I have used it previously for a charcoal and conte drawing titled Divided & Withering Away. The base photo was taken along the Castle Trail in the Badlands National Park and this was literally the only tree we encountered on the ten or so mile loop hike. I'm really liking how the Bone Black and Titanium White combo is producing an effect very similar in marking and tone to the charcoal and conte drawings I did in the past. For tomorrow (and possibly beyond), I still have most of the middle-ground grass and all the foreground grass to complete, as well as the two figures and the tree before I can call it complete and begin to add the lettering.

CityArts Banner Projection

2010-09-08T18:25:00.002-05:00

Due to having to run some errands and a few phone calls early in the day, I only had enough time to get the projection stage of the banner completed. I plan on treating the image as an actual painting until it's done so I can take a slide for print purposes. After that I'll proceed with adding the lettering. For this stage I simply used Bone Black acrylic paint on top of a double layer of white gesso.

CityArts Banner Full Scale Sketch

2010-09-07T19:52:00.000-05:00

I've currently put all my other in-progress works aside in order to complete my banner/sign for the CityArts Cooperative. I had planned on doing this sketch in paint yesterday but found that I had none and out of anxiousness, I went ahead and decided to just use good ol' Crayola markers. Now that I am satisfied with even this rough and three tone sketch, I've gone ahead and purchased some paint and will begin to work on the final tomorrow.

Sun Room Studio Reborn

2010-09-07T19:38:00.001-05:00

After living and working in Montgomery, AL, for the past eight months, I've moved backed to Panama City Beach and have spent the past week getting things unpacked, put away, and generally reorganzing all the rooms. I got the sun room studio mostly set up a few days ago, but today was the first day it saw some use in a very long time.

Cypress Pond Sunset

2010-07-06T17:42:00.002-05:00

I've had some time off from work so I've been doing my best to get some art time in my schedule. My oil paint has dried up again, so I went back to the smaller stuff and this time I chose to do a few watercolor marker paintings.

This first one is based off of a black and white photo I took of a hazy sunset over a cypress pond in the Pine Log State Forest just outside of Panama City Beach.

Tomatinos "Art Show"

2010-05-17T11:35:00.005-05:00

I've been busy with a lot of art show business lately. First, I entered and got two pieces (Hills of Long Forgotten Yesterdays and Fire Kopta @ Swiftcurrent Creek) in the 9th annual Panama City Artists Show and Sell juried show last month and attended the opening a few weeks ago. Immediately following that attendance I was notified that my art show at Tomatinos Pizza was moved from the middle of June to going up yesterday. So I spent the past two weeks preparing for that show, which included going back down to Florida to retrieve artwork and then having to frame a majority of it. The show went up yesterday and I am sharing the wall space with one other artist (they usually have three or four artists showing at a time) who is a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Although I had hoped to have all my work consolidated on one wall, it needed to be dispersed throughout the restaurant but I think things still looked quite good. Shortly after learning of my Tomatinos show date, I was also informed that the grand opening of a new cultural venue in downtown Montgomery was occurring soon (submissions are due this Saturday in fact) and I now need to begin preparing some prints for that. In the meantime, here are some photos of how my work appears on Tomatinos' walls.

5/18/10 update: Today after only two and a half days up, my watercolor Fence & Hay sold. I can only hope that this momentum builds...

6/8/10 update: Had my most profitable single sale to date today. After a quick chat with some pizza patrons and an explanation behind the image, some nice folks bought Looking Into Dry Wash.

Day 14 of Night Man

2010-04-27T15:51:00.002-05:00

The fourth oil pastel landscape was a bust. It got to a point where I just couldn't do anything to it to fix the craftmanship mistakes I made, so I decided to proceed onwards and back to the oil paintings.

Today marked the 14th day of work on Night Man and I used it primarily as a day to get back into the swing of things. I worked mostly on the upper torso but also moved the "Happy Trail" over about a half an inch to better align it with the rest of the body.

Onion Creek Hill

2010-04-17T11:13:00.003-05:00

I completed my third oil pastel landscape earlier in the week but haven't had the opportunity to post it until today. The image is from my 2007 Spring Break when Jeff Brown and I skylarked around the general Moab area and parks, with this image taken from the Onion Creek area.

The image of this landscape should seem rather familiar since I used it somewhat recently to create one of the first Project-a-Sketch paintings. Although that painting did turn out nicely, I felt that its monochromatic nature didn't quite capture the greatness and contrast of the original photo.

Hay Bales in Field

2010-04-08T13:55:00.002-05:00

I completed a second oil pastel landscape earlier in the week but my internet has been down and I haven't been able to post it until today. I plan on producing a total of four of these oil pastel landscapes before I resume my work on the oil paintings.

This image was based on a photo I took back in October 2008 of some hay bales in a field adjacent to the Blount Cultural Park grounds.

Wrecking Ball in Lake Bed

2010-03-30T14:49:00.004-05:00

Decided to head off in yet another art direction today. I just couldn't shake the feeling that I had a better use for my canvases and images than the Projector Paintings, so I might hold off on those for a while. Aside from needing some more immediate result-style art works than oil painting provides, all the oil paint I had prepared for the paintings I was working on has dried out, so that is why I am taking a break from working on them.

For this new direction I intend on doing a few oil pastel landscapes to get me back in the art groove enough to begin working on the oil paintings again. For today's landscape I chose a photo of a wrecking ball embedded the lake bed of the Great Salt Lake near where the Spiral Jetty resides.

Lake McDonald in Burnt Sienna

2010-03-19T12:30:00.003-05:00

The second of the projector paintings I created earlier in the week was of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park. I used the same method of projection as with Antelope in Dioxazine Purple, but used Burnt Sienna for my pigment.

Antelope in Dioxazine Purple

2010-03-19T12:21:00.003-05:00

Earlier in the week I finally got back on the painting horse and did two more projector paintings, but I used a slightly different method this time. For one, I got a low-definition digital projector for Christmas that allows for a slightly brighter and clearer projection. Secondly, instead of projecting on a sheet of paper that I primed with a dark shadow mix, I primed each canvas with a very light shade of the pigment I was to paint the picture in. Then as I projected the image, I used the chosen pigment to establish the darks and thinned the paint out with water for the lighter values.

The first of these new projector paintings was of Antelope Canyon and I used Dioxazine Purple to create the work. As with my previous slot canyon projection of Spooky Gulch, this work appears rather abstract to those not familiar with slot canyon formations, and to those who are, it can still yield a number of interesting interpretations.

Moved to Montgomery

2010-02-11T10:22:00.002-06:00

For those who may be unaware or just curious as to why my blog hasn't been updated in a while, it's been because I've moved to Montgomery, AL, and have had to spend some time getting my life up here in line. I moved in an effort to get out on my own, to expand my reach as an artist, and to be closer to my very good friends. I should be moving into an apartment of my own in the very near future and once that occurs, then I plan on resuming work on the paintings. I'll eventually be taking on a second job once I find one, but I'll work out the painting time details whenever that occurs. You can help support me by visiting my portfolio website at http://wyndawsonworks.artspan.com and making a purchase...

Thanks and keep coming back to see what new works are being created.

Day 13 of Night Man

2010-01-14T17:06:00.004-06:00

Today, I pretty much continued my effort to complete the lower torso of Night Man, and after much difficulty with the pubic hair, I believe I'm pretty much there. I'm gonna be up in Montgomery for the weekend, and once I return I hope to begin working on the upper body and head with much more fervor, and try to just let the lower half be for now (although I expect I'm gonna be brought back down there eventually...).

Day 12 of Night Man

2010-01-14T16:57:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, I continued my work on the lower torso of Night Man and kinda started to redefine the staff. I also did a little work on both arms and the slightest amount of work on the face. In addition to renaming Nude With Staff as Night Man, I also decided to rename Greek Self-Portrait as Day Man. For some, the name reference may be quite evident, but for the rest, I'll go ahead and state that the names were inspired by the show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," and the renaming of both paintings has allowed me to develop a backstory and meaning behind each. For those too lazy to develop their own stories and meanings, feel free to comment and request my input.

Day 11 of Night Man

2010-01-12T15:35:00.003-06:00

Last night I decided to give Nude With Staff the less straight-forward name of "Night Man." Today I spent most of my time working on the skin tones of the lower torso and am very close to calling it complete for that section and will begin to really focus on the upper body in the next few days.

Day 10 of Nude With Staff

2010-01-11T16:26:00.002-06:00

After a rather long haitus from painting, I got back in the saddle and worked a little on Nude With Staff today. I wanted to ease back into things so I worked primarily on giving the left arm a little more substance and kinda did the same for the right arm. I also worked on the overall skin tone throughout the figure, but tried not to focus on many details.

Day 9 of Nude With Staff

2009-12-22T17:44:00.003-06:00

Another day of working on Nude With Staff. I started with working on the upper torso and neck and made my way down. I also worked a little on the upper left arm. Although much of it is shadow or censored, the lower torso is almost complete form and shadow-wise, except the legs need some glazing to appear less pasty. The figure as a whole still needs alot of work color-wise since it currently looks like a jaundice patient.

I've allowed more of my own style and brushwork to show through on this painting than with Old McDonald. Instead of my method of focusing on a quadrant or element like i did with Old McDonald, I've been trying to work more of the canvas as a whole. I think this is mostly attributed to the massive size difference, but it does seem to help maintain consistency. I'm gonna try and work on the arms mostly tomorrow so the entire figure can be at the same relative state of completeness. That way it will be easier to keep skin tones consistent when putting in all the details and those last light glazes at the end.

Day 8 of Nude With Staff

2009-12-21T17:18:00.004-06:00

Now that all the oil paintings I'm working on have reached the same relative state of completeness, it's getting harder for me to focus while working on a single one. Instead of trying to juggle them all from here on out, I'm gonna try to focus on an individual painting until its completion and I'm starting with Nude With Staff because it'll be easiest to render, technically speaking.

The first thing I did today was to paint in another transparent layer of my shadow color over the backgrond. Then, I spent most of my time painting "below the belt," but also did a little work on the upper torso and arms.

Project-a-Sketch: Onion Creek

2009-12-21T10:51:00.002-06:00

For my last projector painting of the weekend, I really pushed the envelope by trying to produce a full scene landscape. Unlike the high contrast, single subject figure paintings and the practically abstract slot canyon painting, this one was quite a challenge to get to look good without over doing it. Although it doesn't look bad, I think the projector method is better suited for less complex images and I probably won't be doing too many full scene landscapes with the projector for that reason. I'll just stick to my watercolor marker method for those more complex scenes.

Project-a-Sketch: Spooky Gulch 1

2009-12-21T10:45:00.003-06:00

After the success of the two figure projections, I decided to expand the method to include images from photos of landscapes and scenery. For the first of these, I used a photo of mine of Spooky Gulch, a slot canyon in the Escalante area, and it turned out pretty good. It's rather abstract for those who've never seen slot canyon forms and I kinda like that. I've been thinking about doing large paintings of some of my other slot canyon photos and I think I might have to use the projector method for some of them.

Project-a-Sketch: Male 2

2009-12-21T10:39:00.002-06:00

I spent yesterday doing some more projector paintings. I started with another one based on an old charcoal figure drawing, which was actually the first image I attempted on Friday but initially screwed up. This redo turned out quite nice though. Out of the four of these I've done so far, I think this one is my favorite and there's something about using this method for figure painting that really works for me.

Project-a-Sketch: Male 1

2009-12-20T12:44:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, after my experience with Agent Wyn A'taj's head I began to feel the drag of juggling four paintings at once and the tedious nature of oil painting in general. I felt I needed some instant art gratification, so I decided to try a new method of painting using my projector to give myself a break. Instead of using the projector to just establish the base of my paintings, I wanted to find a way to use it to make final products that could stand on their own. The first of these attempts was a failure, mainly because I tried to overwork it when I should have left it as it was about half-way through my work. Using that lesson I completed a second painting and am quite pleased with the results. Basically, I start with standard drawing paper that I've put a layer of gesso on each side. Then on one side I created a dark base by combining acrylic Red and Green. I then used the projector to portray the image (for this one I used a charcoal figure drawing of mine) on the canvas and used acrylic White to paint what needed to be painted and let what should be shadows go untouched.

Day 7 of Nude With Staff

2009-12-20T12:33:00.003-06:00

Since my last post on Wednesday, I worked on the head of Agent Wyn A'taj on Thursday, but felt what I did actually was a step backwards from what I already had. So, on Friday I used my projector to correctly reestablish the facial features and get the painting back to where it was for its last post. Afterwards, I worked more on the head of Nude With Staff and a little more on it's torso.

Day 6 of Greek Self-Portrait

2009-12-16T17:37:00.003-06:00

I spent most of my day working on Greek Self-Portrait, focusing on the flesh of the torso and head and a little on the arms.

Day 6 of Agent Wyn A'taj

2009-12-15T17:35:00.002-06:00

[For those just finding this blog and/or too lazy to scroll down] After Stage 5, my process moves passed the basic layers and I begin to focus on specific areas, therefore I now refer to my work by Day and not Stage. Unlike the specific Stages, it's very difficult to describe exactly what I did each Day, so I'll just state what areas were worked on.

For my work on Agent Wyn A'taj today, I focused primarily on the head and establishing the detonation box. I also did a little work re-establishing some parts of my suit.

Day 6 of Nude With Staff

2009-12-15T17:26:00.003-06:00

After Stage 5, my process moves passed the basic layers and I begin to focus on specific areas, therefore I now refer to my work by Day and not Stage. Unlike the specific Stages, it's very difficult to describe exactly what I did each Day, so I'll just state what areas were worked on.

Today for Nude With Staff, I mainly focused on the head but also did a little work throughout the lower half of the body and just barely worked on the entire torso's shadows.

Stage 5 of Greek Self-Portrait

2009-12-11T12:37:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, I did a little work on Greek Self-Portrait for Stage 5. I basically redid everything from from Stage 4, but paid a little more attention to establishing the exact outlines of the forms and making the solid elements more opaque.

Stage 5 of Nude With Staff

2009-12-09T18:08:00.002-06:00

I completed Stage 5 of Nude With Staff today, although all I really did was put another transparent layer of the shadow mix in the background and another layer of flesh on the body. I also put some more Titanium White on the staff. My main goal today was to better establish the true form and boundaries of the figure and that's pretty much all I did.

Stage 5 of Agent Wyn A'taj

2009-12-09T17:50:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I worked a little bit on Agent Wyn A'taj. Although I'm calling it Stage 5, it was more like Stage 4.5. All I did was put another layer of the shadow mix in the background and a little throughout the suit. Then I put some Titanium White in for the shirt's cuffs and collar and a little of the flesh mix in for the hands and face.

Mc Beat-MO Bo Stage 4 Video

2009-12-07T17:09:00.003-06:00

Presenting Episode 4 of The Pleasure of Painting with Agent Wyn A'taj...

Stage 4 of MC Beat-MO Bo

2009-12-07T16:24:00.002-06:00

I completed Stage 4 of MC Beat-MO Bo today by layering in all the basic colors. I started by putting a transparent layer of the same shadow mix that I used in Greek Self-Portrait throughout the entire canvas. I then put a little Yellow Oche in near the head and blended that area out. Next, I began to focus on the suit and hat and used Ultramarine Blue to fill them in and blend with the shadows. Titanium White was used to block in the shirt and sunglasses and the same skin tone mix I've been using was painted in for all the flesh areas.

Stage 4 of Greek Self-Portrait

2009-12-06T15:59:00.003-06:00

I was supposed to go up to Alabama today to help a friend move but that plan got bumped to next weekend. Since I was staying home, I chose to do some housework and work a little on Greek Self-Portrait. The goal for today's painting was to just block in main color areas and to make sure there was pigment on just about every canvas pixel. To begin, I first made an orange comprised of one and one-half parts Cadmium Yellow Hue with one part Cadmium Red Hue. I then mix about one part of that orange with about two parts Ultramarine Blue to make a shadow mix. That shadow mix was then applied in a transparent layer over the background and shadows. For the skin tones I used the same mix that I used for the Stage 4 of Nude With Staff. I decided to honor the color scheme of a favorite character of mine by making the upper cloth Ultramarine Blue and the lower portion "Goku" orange. Once I had enough paint on the canvas I blended it all together and called it a day.

Stage 4 of Nude With Staff

2009-12-04T22:24:00.004-06:00

Today I put a transparent layer of a shadow color mix comprised of one part Viridian Hue, one part Payne's Gray, and one part Alizarin Crimson in the background and shadows of the figure. I then painted in a base skin tone layer comprised of three parts Titanium White, one part Yellow Orche, and one-half part Cadmium Red over the figure. I blended the skin tones and shadows together in an effort the get most of the canvas completely covered with pigment. Finally, I used Titanium White to block in the staff.

MC Beat-MO Bo Stage 3 Video

2009-12-02T18:39:00.002-06:00

Here's the video for today's work on MC Beat-MO Bo, in parts A and B.

Stage 3 of MC Beat-MO Bo

2009-12-02T15:19:00.002-06:00

I worked a little on the site design and content of the HellaKopta of Love Project's Myspace this morning and will be working on the HoLP's section on my portfolio site later this evening. In between these activities I completed Stage 3 of MC Beat-MO Bo by putting a transparent layer of Viridian Hue over my previous layer of Alizarin Crimson.

Stage 3 of Greek Self-Portrait & Nude with Staff

2009-12-01T19:15:00.005-06:00

In addition to working on and filming Stage 2 of MC Beat-MO Bo, I also completed Stage 3 for both Greek Self-Portrait and Nude with Staff today. For both these paintings, Stage 3 utilized a transparent layer of Viridian Hue in the shadow areas.

MC Beat-MO Bo Stage 2 Video

2009-12-01T15:06:00.002-06:00

I decided to turn my work on MC Beat-MO Bo into a video series, heavily referencing Bob Ross's The Joy of Painting. Following the previous Projection Stage, here is Stage 2, presented in two parts A and B.

Stage 2 of MC Beat-MO Bo

2009-12-01T13:47:00.002-06:00

As per my standard procedure, I put a transparent layer of Alizarin Crimson in for my Stage 2.

Stage 2 of Greek Self Portrait & Nude with Staff

2009-11-30T18:14:00.008-06:00

I worked a little more on moving things this morning and hopefully soon I'll be able to start devoting full days to painting. Today for my painting time I added a transparent layer of Alizarin Crimson to both Greek Self-Portrait and Nude with Staff .

MC Beat-MO Bo Projection Video

2009-11-25T19:40:00.004-06:00

I also decided to tape today's projection to demonstrate the process for all who might be curious. The brush on canvas noises kinda remind me of a Bob Ross video, but I must apologize for my own lack of colorful commentary. I tried to make a Movie-Maker movie with added music but having to convert the video file caused it to get too dark. You could turn up your computer volume really high to pick up the stereo music in the background, otherwise you'll just have to wait until the 5:41 mark for my vocal contribution to the film.

Post video upload edit: Well dang, when Blogger compressed the video it darkened it as well. Sorry, I promise you could actually see, for the most part, in the original file. Oh well.

Stage 1 of MC Beat-MO Bo: Projection

2009-11-25T19:35:00.003-06:00

Decided to start one more painting today so I'll have four small ones plus the large Death of Morrison painting to work on and alternate between. This portrait is of HellaKopta key spokesman and promoter MC Beat-MO Bo. Standard projection process of b/w image and Ultramarine Blue acrylic employed.

Stage 1 of Nude with Staff: Projection

2009-11-24T19:27:00.003-06:00

In addition to my Greek Self-Portrait, I also started another painting simply titled Nude with Staff. As the name implies this painting contains nudity, but since I want to keep my blog family friendly, I'll be censoring these in-progress images. Like always for this stage, I employed my standard process of projection using a black and white image and Ultramarine Blue acrylic paint.

Stage 1 of Greek Self-Portrait: Projection

2009-11-24T19:14:00.006-06:00

All the time I spent on moving and cleaning took away from all the time I should have spent working on Agent Wyn A'taj in order to have it ready for the juried show next week. Add to this the holiday this week and my plan to visit Montgomery this weekend and the ability to have Agent Wyn A'taj completed in time becomes even more non-existant. So, I decided not to worry about getting it done (I have plenty of other works I can submit) and moved onto creating some figure and cloth study paintings that I can alternate between as I work. The first one of these is what I'm refering to as a Greek Self-Portrait. For this stage one I utilized my typical method of using a black and white print-out to project from and Ultramarine Blue acrylic paint to establish my forms.

House slippers + running on tile = Epic Bust

2009-11-23T09:33:00.002-06:00

With a title like that you're probably asking what this could possibly have to do with art. Well, it's not much other than it occured while I was attempting to connect my large format printer to our network. In addition to it demonstrating a very important safety lesson, it is also quite comical.

Over the past week I finally got everything in my grandmother's house cleaned and had finally shifted my focus back to art creation, which occasionally requires the printing of reference photos.

The incident occured right as I thought I had finally gotten the printer-network connection to work and was trying to make a test print. Immediately after I clicked the final "Print" button I realized that I had forgotten to switch the media type from the expensive roll paper to normal letter paper. I should have also realized that there was no immediacy to having to cancel it since the printer status monitor didn't come up, but that fact instead made me react with more haste since I figured I'd have to cancel the print at the printer itself.

So I bolted out the house, ran across the back yard and entered my parent's house next door. My first two steps were on the entryway rugs but my third step planted on my right foot while somewhat shifting to the right to make a turn, and it totally slid out causing me to launch forward in a diving belly-flop motion. Thanks to my years of falling experience through gymnastics, BMX, and being a general fool, I was able to "safely" brace my fall on my forearms and not my palms or face.

The launching belly-flop alone would have been sweet enough, but there were some key details which occured mid-flight that made this bust truly epic. My launch path threaded the needle between an old wooden rocking chair and an ironing board. Apparently I strayed too close to the ironing board, possible seaking a brace point, and my right forearm grazed the edge resulting in an 8 inch long scrape. The forearm-ironing board contact was just enough to cause the board to tilt at about a 45 degree angle. This tilt resulted in the iron slowly sliding off in just enough time to land on the back of my left leg. Somehow my mom's brand new laptop, which was also on the ironing board, was spared.

Still bent on my print cancel mission, I got up and made it to the printer only to find my efforts were totally unnecessary. Sadly, this wasn't the first time that day that I had run between the houses and had already noted to myself that running in my house slippers wasn't the safest method of locomotion, but sometimes one has to learn the hard way. Damage report: 8 inch scrape on right forearm, nickel sized raspberry on right knee, inch long bruise on left shin, minor bruising to top of left foot, some minor pain in second toe on left foot, and possibly broken ironing board. Somehow the iron falling on my leg caused no damage to the back of my calf.

In the end, I never was able to get the printer connected to the network and will just have to wait until I can move it over here and connect to it directly to use it. Like my "Don't play with matches" third degree burn of a few years ago, this adds another real lesson to an old childhood rule, this one being "No running in the house."

Moving, Cleaning, & New Studio

2009-11-16T16:09:00.004-06:00

I was wrong about the fun beginning on Saturday, at least as far as working on Agent Wyn A'taj goes. Instead of painting, I began the tedious and still on-going process of cleaning and moving into my grandmother's house. So far I've got most of my bedroom moved and have completely established my studio in the sunroom. I've still got some more stuff, mainly clothes and my bookshelf, to move over and probably another day or two of cleaning ahead of me before I can return to painting.

Bay Medical Arts & Craft Fair

2009-11-13T17:04:00.006-06:00

Today I participated in the Bay Medical Employee Arts & Crafts Fair. I wasn't expecting a great business day given I only had an eight foot table to display on, so I held a 50% Off Pre-Holiday Sale, and I think that helped me make the sales I made. The original painting of Ebb Tide sold, five greeting cards were sold, ten more greeting cards were ordered, and I got an order for a 18x24(outer matte) print of Hedgehog's Dilemma. There's also a good possibility that the original Garden Bench watercolor will be sold next week. Oh thank you great money gods! If you're reading this, go to my official website and buy something now!

Day 4 of Agent Wyn A'taj

2009-11-12T15:38:00.002-06:00

Today I painted in a transparent layer of a shadow mix comprised of Alizarin Crimson, Viridian Hue, and Payne's Gray over the background and started blocking in the red leisure suit with my Alizarin Crimson & Indian Red mix. I've got an Art&Crafts fair to attend tomorrow, but starting Saturday the real fun begins when I have to focus on actually rendering elements.

Stage 3 of Agent Wyn A'taj

2009-11-11T14:47:00.000-06:00

For my Stage 3, I painted a transparent layer of Veridian Hue over the red mix layer.

Stage 2 of Agent Wyn A'taj

2009-11-11T14:44:00.000-06:00

For my Stage 2, I painted an oil transparent layer of a mix of half Alizarin Crimson and half Indian Red over my base layer of acrylic Ultramarine Blue.

Stage 1 of Agent Wyn A'taj: Projection

2009-11-11T14:38:00.002-06:00

For Stage 1, I first printed a sepia version of my source image and used that to project my composition onto my canvas. I used Ultramarine Blue acrylic paint to establish forms and values.

My Art Fair Set-Up

2009-11-11T14:34:00.000-06:00

If you see this tent at an art fair, please stop in and give me money!

Stage 1-3 of Death of Morrison

2009-11-11T14:11:00.001-06:00

Stage 3:

For Stage 3 I started putting in the base colors. I've left this painting at this stage to focus on a smaller painting in hopes to have that one completed for a juried show in December.

Stage 2:

For Stage 2, I painted a transparent layer of oil Alizarin Crimson over my base layer of acrylic Ultramarine Blue. I then painted a transparent layer of oil Veridian Hue over that.

Stage 1: Projection

For Stage 1, I first printed a black and white version of my source image and used that to project my composition onto my canvas. I used Ultramarine Blue acrylic paint to establish forms and values.

Stage 20 of Old McDonald: Final

2009-11-11T13:36:00.000-06:00

Finished left hand.
Painted final layer in background and darkest shadow areas for contrast and clean up.

Stage 19 of Old McDonald

2009-11-11T13:33:00.000-06:00

Final touches to red cloth finished.
Left hand near completion.

Stage 18 of Old McDonald

2009-11-11T13:28:00.001-06:00

A lot more work on hands. Right hand near completion.
Beginning to put final layer of Cadmium Red in highlights and Viridian Hue in shadows of red cloth, hair and beard. Also completing final touches and fixes throughout.