Lake McDonald in Burnt Sienna

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

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.

Project-a-Sketch: Onion Creek

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

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

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

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.