A Strawberry Day...

This has certainly been a productive couple of days with many hours in the garage - looks like I'll have one more fairly full day tomorrow (with time out to teach an art class in the afternoon).  Then, it's off to the next round of State Cup games out of town followed by back-to-school Monday.  I have to say that it sure has been nice to just focus on this project for at least a little while.

I had a little help today - my daughter Joley really wanted to paint something.  There really isn't much for someone else to come in and do, but I let her lay down a base coat of yellow on the girl's dress and the strawberry blossoms.  

Much of today was spent working out the strawberry leaves - there was A LOT of overlapping shapes and values to work out - very time consuming (but, then again, I love detail work).

I'm still figuring out the greens.  I wasn't happy with the cauliflower and broccoli - much too blue once I got the warmer strawberry and grape leaves in there.  I always tell my students that color is relative - you may think it looks a certain way until you put more colors next to it.

Venturing Into Panel #3...

While I continue to play around with the layers in the first two panels, I've also been laying in base colors on the third panel.  Things have slowed down a teensy bit because of time off to celebrate Easter, but also because color needs are a bit more demanding. 

The first couple panels depict a scene we're all familiar with here on the Central Coast - a John Deere in the midst of rich brown soil and green hillsides.  There will be a little more color added in this part, but the limited color is intended for a sense of calm, familiarity, and contrast with the energy that's in the rest of the mural.



Each container is labeled with the different colors
used to mix that particular color

However, as I enter the "celebration" part of the mural, you can see that my collection of color mixtures is growing quickly.  For every color you see on the panels, there are usually 3 or 4 versions of it ranging from dark to light.  I'm also trying to mix a quantity of each color so that I won't run out right away.



Going for more bluish leaves on the cauliflour wave to stand out agains the warmer
green hillside and the green crops that will eventually be in the fields.

Today, I spent a bit of time playing with greens.  I have many different greens in this part of the painting - cauliflour leaves, broccoli, grape leaves, a strawberry plant...some are bright, others deeper, and still others, bluish.  Catch a wave...

Looks Can Be Deceiving...

Things are moving along smoothly and there's a lot more color on the boards now.  My family comes out to the garage and comments on how quickly this is going, but it's not as far along as they may think.

BUT, while it appears that a lot has been accomplished, it is really just an underpainting - the first layer of what will probably be many.  I'm getting a sense of color and developing forms before I go back through and build up the details, depth of value, etc.

So, the road ahead is a lot longer than it may appear.

Let the Painting Begin...

Well, we're back from Escondido and the first round of State Cup (the girls placed 2nd and move on to the next round - Go Crusaders).

Once I recovered from the loooooooong car ride, I began mixing some paint colors - I like to have a dark, a light, and a mid-tone on hand when I work.  I'm starting with the sky and mountains.

The paint is going on nicely - can't wait to see how it all comes together.

Project Projection...

Panels are primed and ready for the design.  Luckily, I have use of a nice projector recently donated to Town Center Gallery to make this process go A LOT quicker than drawing freehand.

I cut a photo copy of the design into 5 equal parts, enlarged it to fit the panel, and sketched the basic shapes with a pencil.  I'm mainly interested in basic shapes, placement and proportion - I'll worry about details as I paint.  I was able to tansfer the design onto 3 out of 5 panels (so far) in a short amount of time. 

Saves sooooooooo much time!

I'll do the rest tomorrow.  After that, I'll be ready to start painting...but I won't start that until next week (State Cup Soccer Tournament this weekend with oldest daughter).  So, no updates for at least a week.  Check back, though, and see how it all comes together.  Posts may not be daily as the painting begins, but I'll try to keep the pictures coming.

So, How Do You Fit a 20 Foot Mural in a 1-Car Garage...

...very carefully (and you park the car on the driveway)!

The panels are really heavy, so I won't be able to move them around without help.  I've disabled the garage door opener and lined most of them up along the garage door.  The 2 end panels are angled or turned along the side walls.  Not the ideal, but I'll make it work.

Almost ready for the fun stuff!

Ready to transfer the design, but until then, it will serve double-duty as a stage (show's over for her once the paints come out)!

The Harvest Mural Begins

Lots of wonderful things have been happening lately on my travels toward an illustration/art career: my art classes have been going well, I now have some prints available for sale on Etsy and soon-to-be at Town Center Gallery, and I was selected to do an 8' x 20' mural by the Town Center Gallery.  It will eventually go somewhere in Santa Maria, but the location is still be determined.  My plan is to keep everyone updated on the progress...

Celebrate the Harvest - Santa Maria Valley (proposed mural)

Bathing Beauty is one of my prints now
available

The five 4'x8' MDO panels were delivered a week ago (they look a lot bigger in my garage than I imagined).  I spent the past few days using a latex wood filler to fill gaps in the layered edges, and then today, 4 delightful helpers from Town Center Gallery came by to help me with the primer.  Thanks to Hattie Stoddard, Beverly Johnson, and Tom and Rella Heslop - it would have taken me a long time to get it done.  Also, thanks to Home Depot here in Santa Maria for donating the primer and rollers!

Daughter Ariel organizes paints for me

Revisiting the Old, Tweaking and Refining

Current Work in Progress

I've reached a new and exciting milestone on my path to actually being more of a participant in the art field!  I've finally had some work made into giclee prints that I hope to be able to sell!  In fact, I will go and pick them up today!  Can't wait to post them...

Anyway, while I was going through what I had to choose from, a couple of issues came to mind.  One was that illustration doesn't just fit in any house, so my selections were limited.  Of course,most of my work would probably work best in a child's room.  The other thing was that, upon closer inspection,  many of the things I had considered "done" really weren't up to the "DONE and ready to present to people" level. 

As a result, I started to consider some redo's on some of my favorites.  I'll post some of these upgrades as they happen starting with this one:

Original "doodle" from the sketchbook

Actually, the original of this one had been a doodle and nothing I would have thought to be portfolio worthy.  I guess I always new that if this drawing were to go anywhere, it would be redone - the doodle was just a "brainstorm."  But, redoing this one sparked an idea to make a series of it - all 4 seasons that I would release as a print on the first day of that season.

Another Quick Project...

This is just a quick project inspired by a lion sketch in my sketchbook.  Like the last image, I used a combination of gouache and color pencil.  I very much like this combination of materials right now - the layering of washes, the texture of of paint, the subtle shading of the pencils or the emphasis of line.

Overall, I'm not as happy with this as I was with the "rainy day" one.  I started in with darker brown washes than I had intended, so I had to rework it with a little thicker paint.  Jury is still out - but it's growing on me.  Might have to be redone before making it in the portfolio, though.

A Productive Christmas...So Far...

The cookies are baked, the presents wrapped (and now opened), and as the holiday chaos winds down I've actually been able to work on a new project.

A little doodle

Out of the many doodles in my sketchbook, I'm not sure why this child in a raincoat suddlenly caught my attention.  But, I've been trying to think of some designs (past, present, and future) that I could have made into prints this spring.

Ink with a little cloud - works alright with this drawing
but didn't hold much weight in color

Once I figured out the initial composition, I did a couple of studies.   I could picture many things so, at first, I really wasn't sure if I was going to do a moody pen and ink, tried-n-true ink with watercolor wash, or ???  Originally, I didn't have a background at all, but I felt that the child needed to be looking "at" something. The cloud started off small, but once I saw it in color, the cloud needed to be more substantial.  I can't decide if it's too big now, but it seems to work.

The end result in gouache and color pencil

But, as I've learned in the past few years, a drawing or painting will let me know what it needs - what materials are best suited for it and what direction it will move in.  It reminds me of what I need to do day-to-day when it comes to "listening" to God - I may have one vision of how my life should unfold, but if I take care to observe and address the situations that arise each day, then I tend to encounter the unexpected on my way to a beautiful outcome.  Sometimes (a lot of the time) it's scary, aggravating, or delightful, but always worth it.

Ultimately, this image called for the softness of gouache washes and the detail that could be achieved with color pencil.  I don't know how I could have envisioned it any other way.

Mural Project - ALL DONE!

What to do with a plain, white wall...click below to see

I shared some glimpses into the mural project that I was working on a few posts back.  Well, the project is complete and you can see the end result at my art business blog Doodlebird Studio.  Lots of fun to do and I'd love to paint some more murals.  Maybe I'll start in my house...with all of this "free time" I have.

So Ungrateful.! Why did I bother?

We're coming up on Christmas Vacation and I'm excited about having a little extra free time.  Maybe I'll get to work on a more personal creative project.


In the meantime, I'm continuing to sketch my sermon notes at church.  This last Sunday was a little different because the text really came together for me in a single visual.  I'd had a few sketches and notes about Deuteronomy 32:15+, but when I came home I found that a particular character kept popping into my head rather urgently.  The result is below...

Normally, my notes are what they are and don't change much from the original sketches if I revisit them at home.  However, even though this character demanded to be brought into existance, you can probably tell that he has little to no appreciation for his creator.  He's probably annoyed with how long it took me to finish (not too long, really) in spite of the fact that I took great care in expressing every detail.


For clarification, feel free to look up the verses. Note that Jeshurun is a reference to Israel in a time that they "grew fat" from the provisions from God yet had an attitude of "scornful esteem" - rolling of the eyes, so to speak, like an impertinent child.  The translation of Jeshurun as "The Upright One" I thought was a striking constrast to the the countenance of the character (which, I think, is a key point to those verses).


Overall, it was a fun drawing to do - artisitically speaking, I think I've come a long way in rendering the figure, body language and expression.

Character Study Reveal : "The Gift" - Feedback Welcome



The Gift

As promised, this is the character study that I've been working on.  Together, the images tell a story that I've entitled "The Gift."  This was done in ink and gouache

The Perfect Gift...

Done with a simple dark background to
emphasize her despair at the realization.

I guess this isn't EXACTLY simple - like I was originally planning. The character is, but I still managed to include more details in the surroundings.  I created a family photo wall (instead of having the story images stand alone) and kept the background black/white/gray so that they would stand out.  It just occurred to me that I didn't put the brown dirt smudges on her clothes that I'd intended before photgraphing this, but I'll get back to that.

Oh Happiness! (with a plan in mind)

This...is...perfect...(grunt, heave)...

I'd appreciate any honest comments and criticisms from those in the illustration biz as I'm not a part of any critique groups.

It's for you!  Don't you like it?

Character Project

One of the things I've been trying to work on is a character study.  I know for illustration I need to be able to recreate the same character in different positions with different expressions.  So, I've been inching my way through such a project using this character that appeared among my doodles.

Although she seems rather simple, she's a good challenge for me (if you hadn't noticed, I tend to get caught up in details).  Instead, I'm trying to capture a lot with a little less than usual.  I'll share as soon as I can.

Illustration Friday: "Contraption"

Well, I've been wanting to get to this all week, but I've been too busy.  So, here I am - sleepless on a Thursday night. Well, I guess it's actually Friday morning, so there'll be another topic soon.  I've posted this one before, but it's perfect for the topic.  I've been working on another project which I hope to share really soon!