Capturing Movement...

Lots of activity lately which has given me a chance to do some gesture drawing.  I'll be doing a lot more of this - it's very helpful in learning about dynamic movement.

Last night, I found myself sitting on very uncomfortable benches at the skating rink while my daughter and friends skated for 2 1/2 hours.  I was able to observe and capture the movements of various skaters, young and old - some casual, some speedy, some wobbly.

This morning, I was at another daughter's soccer scrimmage.  This was more challenging to draw as skating offered a lot more repetitive movement and so was slightly easier to draw.  However, soccer is all over the place and positions are so fleeting.  Not to mention the fact that I get easily engaged in watching the kids play...

Lots coming together.  It took a couple days to detail the sky.  Last time, I had used a combo of Cerulean and white for the clouds (see photo in last post).  But, the clouds were too "blue." Afterwards, I went in with a fairly dry brush and added white on it's own to poof the clouds.

Doing the sky in the last couple panels took a while because I had already brought the figures and grape clusters to a greater degree of completion.  Since I really don't want to rework them, I needed to be extra careful going around them.

I also opted to not put clouds behind the figures themselves.  There's already a lot going on in that panel and it would be too busy overall.

After the sky, I went back over the mountains.  It's time for the camera to do it's talking - to make clear any problems (as it always does).  Of course, they are not "done."  There will be layers of shrubbery, trees, and flowers that are so common to the Santa Maria hillsides.  But, those are a top layer and will happen after the lower layers are completed.

Rounding the Corner...

Well, I've finally made it into panel 5 (and it's turned against the side wall of the garge - hence, turning the corner)! 

Just started mapping out the floor tiles and fixing some proportions.  While the projector was incredibly handy, working from a very small original painting means that little distortions are increased in my tracings - mole hills become mountains.  So, some adjustments to the chef are necessary.  Also, the floor tiles are taking a little bit of time to get a sense of fairly balanced visual perspective without being overly hard-edge and mechanical.  But, I'm enjoying working on something different for a while.

The toasting figures are in a good place for now - I'm content with the direction that they're going.  I was not able to capture much detail in the original proposal because the scale was too small, so I've been making them up as I paint.  I'm not working from any models either - they're basically imaginary composites.  

Roll Out the Barrel...

Yes, that's right.  Today, the barrel table and stray grape were the focus of my attention.

If you looking close, there's one of those annoying crane flies sitting
on the table near the man's sleeve - the joys of painting in a garage at night.

There's so much to do in this panel and a lot of it required some changes - I knew that going in.  I'm down to the figures and I fully expect to get thoroughly wrapped up in those details for a while.  I did adjust the woman's arm this evening (which I noticed was freakishly long).  I've also moved the man's leg back (not shown in picture) - it seemed to be uncomfortably tucked under the table and the overlap of the pants and the barrel seemed awkward.

Back to Work...

After a wonderful Easter Vacation where I was able to spend big chunks of the day working on the mural, an unexpectedly extended trip out of town and the start of schoolwork again makes it feel like I've been away from the mural for a long time.  We found out as we drove into Lancaster (after 4 hours in the Friday downpour) that all the State Cup games had been moved from Saturday to Sunday - soooooo, since we were already there, we ended up staying longer than planned.

Not quite there...but closer.  Photos can help you see
flaws that you didn't notice when you were working on it

Today, I had a full day of CoOp, art classes, mom-taxi, and dinner-making, but I was determined to get out to the garage and at least make some adjustments.  In my last post, I explained how the scale of the toasting figures was a bit on the wimpy side.  So, this evening I figured I'd start reworking the proportions.  Not only did the figures have to change, but so did the barrel.  To understand the changes made, if you look at the male figure, the top point of the hair of the original guy fell just below the jawline of the current guy.  In other words, he gained a whole head in height.

Cheers - his chin's a bit skinny, but I'll fix that...

It's very "cartoon-ish", but I'm just trying to get the shapes the way I want them.  It's not quite there, but it's closer than it was.  And, having to draw this out REALLY made me appreciate the projector I had at the beginning. I was constantly stepping back to see how it actually looked and it made me wonder how Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling - it's not like he could easily take a step back every few minutes to see if the proportions were right.  And, he did not have the luxury of a projector to transfer his design.  My hat is definitely off to those Basilica-painting masters!

Expanding the Studio and Some Creative Summer Fun

What can I say - I love a good bargain! I have a pretty traditional drawing table I've been using and it has a fair amount of table-top square footage. However, the whole thing shakes when I'm erasing something. So, last week while at a thrift store, I just couldn't pass up a sturdy metal drawing table for $14.

The drawing surface is smaller than I've had, but that's fine because I work small when drawing anyway (and I still have my other drawing table to spread out on). It's metal and HEAVY, so the thing doesn't budge while working. It has several drawers down the front and a cool locker in the back that could fit 2' x 3' canvases (or whatever). It must have been used in some sort of school setting since it had an "I love Michael" message written in pencil on the table-top and a couple wads of gum stuck underneath - all of which have been removed now. If only the garage wasn't so stifling hot to work in right now.

I also thought I'd share these little sculpted dolls and dogs that my 10 year old has been mass producing. I picked up a box of Crayola Model Magic - an air dry clay - as a little something to do during summer. Turns out my 10 yr old has a knack for sculpture. I was quite impressed with her efforts and had to share them. This is only a fraction of the little figures that she's created. Look out 101 Dalmations...I've lost count.