so, i thought i’d share a bit of my painting process, step by step (well, as many steps as i remembered to photograph). now, this will be a sort of stripped down version because the piece i’m chronicling here is only 3 colors, as opposed to the full color pieces i usually do. but nonetheless, it’ll give you an idea. perhaps in the next piece i’ll do a more in depth photo series. ok:
it’s summer, it’s hot, my studio space has no ac. so, first things first – i open the window, prop my “hawaiian breeze” fan up on the sill, and crank it up to 3.
it’s hot but at least i have a cool view. oh.
next, i go over to the stereo and put in a cd i burned before i left.
i don’t remember exactly what i put on it, but i think it was a lot of jimmy rushing and nat cole, as i had just recently downloaded tons of both artist the night before.
for this piece/series i bought a 4′ X 8′ piece of birch plywood at lowes and had them cut it into 6 pieces of 16″ X 48″ (left). then i rolled them all with 2 coats of gesso, sanding them after each (right). you like that action shot of me sanding?
when that’s done i’m ready to transfer my drawing onto the board with non-photo blue pencil (which is what i do all drawing with, in my sketch book or otherwise). the way i transfer is by making my drawing to a scale of 1 inch = 1 foot. so if my piece is going to be 4′ X 6′, my drawing will be 4″ X 6″. sometimes i’ll just draw it to scale if i know that i’m drawing for a specific size. but for this one i was working from an existing sketch so i scaled it with a xerox copier. i also utilize a xerox machine to make multiple copies of the same sketch so that i can do marker color tests to figure out what colors i want to go where (i do this to decide color for every piece i do)(below). with this one, i only had to worry about 1 color, red.
after i have the sketch transfered i’m ready to paint my sections of red. to get the desired color of deep red i wanted for this piece, i used mainly naphthol red mixed with crimson, and a tiny bit of black.
the way i get such crisp lines in my work is by using masking tape. i do this because i want my paintings to have a clean, graphic sort of quality. again, with this one i’m only using red so the masking process isn’t that detailed.
i use 1/4″, sometimes 1/8″ masking tape to enable me to paint perfect curves or circles. i used a ruler and a paint marker for all the outlines on this piece but for the curves of the clouds i used masking tape. i usually just free hand any small curves (like the ones that aren’t masked below) – but with large ones like this i don’t want to risk a wobbly line.
after all the outlining is done i throw a signature on it, 2 coats of some clear gloss varnish and i’m finished. i wish i would’ve taken photo’s of the framing process for these, but i forgot. there’s always next time.
a guide to my painting process in 10 steps (kind of)
so, i thought i’d share a bit of my painting process, step by step (well, as many steps as i remembered to photograph). now, this will be a sort of stripped down version because the piece i’m chronicling here is only 3 colors, as opposed to the full color pieces i usually do. but nonetheless, it’ll give you an idea. perhaps in the next piece i’ll do a more in depth photo series. ok:
it’s summer, it’s hot, my studio space has no ac. so, first things first – i open the window, prop my “hawaiian breeze” fan up on the sill, and crank it up to 3.
it’s hot but at least i have a cool view. oh.
next, i go over to the stereo and put in a cd i burned before i left.
i don’t remember exactly what i put on it, but i think it was a lot of jimmy rushing and nat cole, as i had just recently downloaded tons of both artist the night before.
for this piece/series i bought a 4′ X 8′ piece of birch plywood at lowes and had them cut it into 6 pieces of 16″ X 48″ (left). then i rolled them all with 2 coats of gesso, sanding them after each (right). you like that action shot of me sanding?
when that’s done i’m ready to transfer my drawing onto the board with non-photo blue pencil (which is what i do all drawing with, in my sketch book or otherwise). the way i transfer is by making my drawing to a scale of 1 inch = 1 foot. so if my piece is going to be 4′ X 6′, my drawing will be 4″ X 6″. sometimes i’ll just draw it to scale if i know that i’m drawing for a specific size. but for this one i was working from an existing sketch so i scaled it with a xerox copier. i also utilize a xerox machine to make multiple copies of the same sketch so that i can do marker color tests to figure out what colors i want to go where (i do this to decide color for every piece i do)(below). with this one, i only had to worry about 1 color, red.
after i have the sketch transfered i’m ready to paint my sections of red. to get the desired color of deep red i wanted for this piece, i used mainly naphthol red mixed with crimson, and a tiny bit of black.
the way i get such crisp lines in my work is by using masking tape. i do this because i want my paintings to have a clean, graphic sort of quality. again, with this one i’m only using red so the masking process isn’t that detailed.
i use 1/4″, sometimes 1/8″ masking tape to enable me to paint perfect curves or circles. i used a ruler and a paint marker for all the outlines on this piece but for the curves of the clouds i used masking tape. i usually just free hand any small curves (like the ones that aren’t masked below) – but with large ones like this i don’t want to risk a wobbly line.
after all the outlining is done i throw a signature on it, 2 coats of some clear gloss varnish and i’m finished. i wish i would’ve taken photo’s of the framing process for these, but i forgot. there’s always next time.