Golden Bales

Golden Bales-9" x 12" oil on canvas panel.

This painting is a bit of an experiment for me, so I would love feedback. I have been contemplating for some time trying to merge together the paint and texture aesthetic of my oil paintings with the more designed shapes and more vibrant colors of my illustrations. This particular painting had been bumping around my studio for a couple of years in an unfinished state and I did not know how to finish it. I didn't like the colors- it was a sort of dirty yellow green palette- but I was not sure how to fix it. I was talking with friend and fellow painter Jeff Pugh the other day and he had mentioned how one of his galleries had told him to banish green from his palette for a year. I figured maybe a warmer yellow palette would work for this one. I also had a 9" x 12" frame kicking around so I trimmed the painting down from 9" x 14.5" to fit.The first step was to knock the entire painting down with a burnt sienna glaze. I then repainted the whole piece using the new palette. I emphasized the geometric qualities of the bales and let the big shapes dominate. I think the painting is much better than it was, but I am wondering if I went overboard on the saturation of the colors. Let me know what you think.

Finishing Plein Air in Studio

South Lake - Oil on panel, 10" x 8"

This painting was started during my recent painting trip to California. I still consider myself a real plein air novice and consequently some of my studies really weren't up to my finished standards. A lot of plein air painting purists would cringe at the thought of reworking an on location painting in the studio, but for me the experience of beginning outdoors only heightened the process once inside.

South Lake - as painted on location

The first impression that I captured outdoors held a lot of good things to me, including the overall color sense and the overall composition, but I was not satisfied with the either the brushwork, nor the texture of certain areas. I felt like the trees in particular did not really feel like the trees I observed. I wanted to also add more depth to the shadow planes and better define some of the shapes I found in the landscape. I lightly "oiled" the entire painting and began a process of evaluating and added paint strokes in almost every area of the piece.

Brushwork detail

Some passages received just a few brushstrokes while others were nearly completely painted over. I focused on more pleasing brushstrokes, more interesting color as well as shifts in color temperature. Overall I spent somewhere around three hours reworking this piece and I am much more satisfied with the result. A collector friend of mine is buying it for a Christmas present, so I have popped it in a frame for him.

Canyon Trail Reworked

Canyon Trail - Acrylic 11" x 14"

A couple of years ago I did a quickie job for a Christian magazine called Discipleship Journal. The article dealt with the concept of embracing adventure in your life and putting your path to that adventure in the hands of God. I initially wanted to just do a scenic trail, but the A.D. insisted that I include a hiker. Though I could see her point in the context of the article and it was the right thing for her needs, I still always felt the hiker looked like an afterthought and that it would have been a better picture without the figure.

Canyon Trail as it was printed in the magazine

Last week a collector friend of mine wanted me to dig out some pictures I might consider selling. I gave him the choice of a couple dozen and he chose this one- but only if I painted out the figure. Remembering how I had always disliked the figure anyway, I readily agreed. I spent a few hours reworking the bottom right hand quarter of the composition as well as finishing and repainting other areas that I had left because of time constraints. You'll notice many subtle changes throughout the picture such as brighter highlights and reflected lights, more subtle temperature transitions, etc as a result of this over painting.  Also, I applied added knowledge I have gained about landscape painting and I think the piece is a much stronger painting as a result. My collector was thrilled to get the reworked piece and I admit I ended up being a bit sad to see it go. That's just one of the many things I will have to deal with as I move more into gallery type sales- letting go of the original.

This topic previously on Life Needs Art

Oh, Sweet Revisions

Every once in a while, try as I might to avoid it. There comes a client who whether through fuzzy vision of their own concept or fuzzy communication of such, turns the studio upside down. In yesterday's post, I mentioned that getting the character of the farmer right on one particular box was, let's say a bit of a challenge. No worries, I am always up for an adventure, right? Or so I tell myself. When it boils right down to it, changes are a nuisance at best and at times degenerate in to a full blown nightmare. But the client is always right. After all, they hold the purse strings and I am not about to not get paid for my blood and sweat.

George next to a "Frankensteined" comp using pieces of several old paintings

No need to do a portrait, just a passing resemblance...

As John Ball of BDG put it, the concept was simple enough- create an illustration depicting a strong, iconic farmer that had an "oh so slight" passing resemblance to the owner of the company. Basically, we were looking for a rough caricature of the owner so that when people who knew "George" (we'll call him that because, well, that's his name) would think, wow, that looks a little like George
.

well, can you take out some wrinkles and make the nose smaller?

I took the photos I was given and came up with what I thought was a fair resemblance, not concerning myself much with a likeness, because that wasn't the objective.

First version of the painted face with new sketches and George for comparison

Yea, but can you change the angle of the face and make it look more like him?

Things were going great until others started putting their fingers in the pie and you all know how messy a pie can get when too many fingers are in it. Personally I prefer my pie with only my fingers in it. Sometimes I let a good creative director or designer stick in a thumb if they ask nice, but this situation quickly spiraled into a pie fight. I ended up doing several sketches and two full painted revisions of the face before finally satisfying the client- PHEW!.

2nd to last and final versions of the face

In the end, I took one of the actual photos  and painted over the top in Photoshop so that there would be little margin of error in the likeness (minus a few wrinkles and a slight rhinoplasty). I think deep down they wanted more George Clooney than the actual George, but in the end, everyone was happy because they got what they wanted and I got paid. And got paid again, and oh yea, again- I asked for a bit more dinero on each round of revisions because the portrait likeness was not part of the original agreement. Just goes to show you never get what you don't ask for and money makes those annoying changes feel oh so much better.

Overpainting part 2

Lady of the Camelias - Acrylic/mixed on illustration board

Seen here as it ran for the playbill and poster

I did a series of paintings a few years ago for the Pioneer Theatre Company. One of the pictures was for a new play called Alexadre Dumas & the Lady of the Camelias. It was about Dumas, the man who wrote the novel upon which Verdi based his opera La Traviata. In the play he reminisces about his love affair with the woman he based his book upon, all while a rehearsal of La Traviata plays out on stage.

Reworked version eliminated the old man

I fought to not include the old man in the picture and focus instead on the love story, since I felt it looked like he was leering at the young lovers. Alas, I was overruled and I reluctantly included him in the background. I was always dissatisfied with it, so when I got the painting back from the client, I painted him out. I like this version better, but you can decide for yourselves.