Salvador Dali Portrait Demo

Salvador Dali demo portrait- Acryla gouache, 8" x 10"

Last week in my Intro to Illustration class, I did a little demo to show the students a little bit of how I paint using the Holbein Acryla gouache paint we have designated for this class. I started with a drawing I made the night before and transferred to my Crescent # 1 extra heavy weight cold press illustration board.

I knew I only had a couple hours max to make something happen, so I painted "without a net" so to speak. I had no clear idea where to go with it until I started, so I laid down a magenta/pink wash and then some darks to establish the basic value pattern.

From there I responded to the painting and made choices based on what was happening. One choice I made early on was to push Dali's skin tones to the green range to contrast the pink sky. This palette choice is quite removed from normal for me and I got pretty excited about it as it was happening. I figured that it fit Dali's personality as a surrealist and I topped it off by giving him red irises. I think I'll finish this off a bit more in the flower area, and call it good. Not too much though, I sort of like the spontaneous feel of the strokes. Sometimes you surprise yourself when given a challenge.

Composition Based On Shapes and Letters

Compositions can be based on many different shapes as demonstrated in Creative Illustration by Andrew Loomis. When thinking about possible compositions, it is sometimes helpful to analyze your subject by mentally breaking it down into it's most basic shape and form. Doing so will allow you to create a simplified map for where you want to take your composition.

Creative Illustration is out of print and expensive but a PDF version is posted here.

A Warm Gesture

Spot illustration for Boys' Life- digital

Here's the finished spot for the Boys' Life project I have been working on. It is the final piece in a historical fiction story about an orphaned boy who arrives at his aunt and uncle's ranch in the high Sierra mountains just in time to rescue them from a Christmas Eve blizzard. The gestures here assure the boy that he is both welcome and loved. Once again, all digital (except for the under drawing). Each successive piece I do digitally brings more confidence and comfort with the process. I hope the results are showing this as well. 

George Bellows' Limited Palette

Stag Night at Sharkey's - George Bellows, 1909

George Bellows (1882-1925) was an American painter associated most closely with "The Eight" and "The Ashcan School". Both groups of painters advocated depicting contemporary American society. He is perhaps best known for his paintings of boxing scenes including "Stag Night at Sharkey's".

In black and white the structure of the painting is maintained powerfully.

I have always been impressed with his effectively designed value patterns as well as his understated but beautiful limited color palettes. The diagram below of some of Bellows' work shows his limited color selections for each piece as well as the value range for each tone.

Click to Enlarge

Bellows demonstrates here that there is no need for outrageous color or even a wide color variety when effective value and color patterns are employed-color becomes secondary to value structure. I think the simple solutions are often the best when it comes to value pattern and color palette choices.

This concept previously on LNA

Thanks to Bill Perkins for sharing this diagram with me (and now you).
Upcoming Bill Perkins workshops

Cover Launch Scratched

Unused cover illustration for "The Barnyard Night Before Christmas

Have you ever had an illustration project scratched before launch? Worse yet, scratched after launch? After you painted it? It has happened to me a few times in the last 17 plus years. The first time it happened, I was really bummed, even angry, as if because someone thought my art was less than usable, this somehow made me a bad artist. A couple more times and I figured out that it's not always  the artist's fault. Most of my rejected pieces have been perfectly good and publishable projects, but for whatever reason (client preference, miscommunication of intention, intuitive feel, etc.) someone in power kills the project. Fortunately, I have never failed to be paid for one of these aborted flights. Sometimes I can see and even agree with the Art Director's rationale as was the case for the cover of my book The Barnyard Night Before Christmas. I was furiously painting along, needing the cover to be finished so that it could go out to marketing and have the promo cover made. I finished and shipped it off to the publisher. Then word came that the focus group made up of the editor, Art Director, designers and whomever else sits in on those things had determined that the image I painted wasn't the right one for the cover.

After some discussion, it was decided that, indeed it might not be and another image was selected. The new image did not quite fit the shape for the cover while allowing for the type, so I had to extend the edges and paint another strip of sky that was inserted using Photoshop for the final crop. 

I am actually very happy that we went with the other cover. It has more mystery to it and invites the reader to open up the book and see what the inside holds.

Barnyard Night Before Christmas previously on LNA

Pig Freefall

Sheep Chase

Pig Detective

Plein Air at Wheeler Farm

At Wheeler Farm - 9" x 12"; oil by Greg Newbold

Yesterday I went out painting for the afternoon. I have been feeling the need to get out and do some painting just for fun, so I gave myself a break for a few hours in the afternoon and evening. There is a great living history farm near where I live called Wheeler Historic Farm. The place was purchased by Salt Lake county sometime in the 1970's and was restored first as a living history farm and then transitioned into more of a community park with the farm as the centerpiece. They have animals and gardens there and it's a great place to find an outdoor painting motif.

I decided on a view that included the main barn and a few outbuildings with the mountains as the backdrop. I am still getting the hand of painting outdoors but each time I go out, I see progress. Looking at this after the fact, I think I will go back into it later and pump some of the color a bit especially in the shadows, but I like quite a bit of what I captured. I also got to try out my new Open Box M plein air rig (which I love by the way).  I spent about three hours on this 9" x 12" painting.

Christmas Gifts Spread-Finished

Just finished up this one for Boys' Life magazine. Once again, this is painted in Photoshop and I am continuing to enjoy experimentation with brushes and textures to make this match my traditional acrylic style. I posted the final drawing earlier here. Now on to the cover illustration and spot for this same article.