Beginning the Painting
Tuesday, 17th, 2007

Here's what's happened with the project so far.

Here's the sketch with some adjustments from the photograph. The photo is taped to the canvas that I'll put the painting on.

This is all I really need on the canvas to begin.

This is the underpainting--the first layer of paint. I'm just blocking in the major colors and areas--I'll go in after this has dried and adjust the colors, values, and add more detail. Things like the fence posts and weeds will go in last.

Fun stuff, huh?

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Oh! This part is here now. Since this is my personal, rather than professional site, we can have some fun!

I've been thinking about what I can do on small canvases. Certainly it's always best to make studies, but lots of my best paintings have just been launched into with barely a drawing and completed in only a couple or three sessions. Of course that's only been recently, it is the anomoly, and there are still those paintings that I struggle and struggle with and finally turn out beautifully. Of course, my close friends and associates know there are also those that end up in the dust bin. In small pieces, for I won't have scavengers taking them out and doing who knows what with them.

In any case, let's have some fun, and follow a painting from inspiration to completion, and all the ugly stages in between. Ready?

I'll begin with this image from 2005--a near 5,000 mile road trip throughout the west & up into Canada. This particular photo was somewhere in the Sho-Lo country of western-central New Mexico and eastern-central Arizona.

This photo won't be the painting, it's the inspiration. Things I'm planning to do with it even before I begin a drawing are to:

Squish it down. Make it shorter and wider. Add heavy contrast to the stormy sky. It's way too much the same grey.

Add color to the pasture--it's got to be golden, don't you think? The tree is good as a silhouette, but it also requires more color.

The fence line in back will become stronger and sparser. We don't really need 57 fence posts to suggest an infinite line of fence posts. Plus, in the photo they look wimpy. I think they need some meat on their bones.

And our lone tree has to be just a little bit taller--right now it is sitting on the fence line. We've got to separate those elements.

We'll narrow up the foreground a little bit, and if it doesn't drive me nutty, I think those weeds with the little buttons will be a nice addition right there in front, in a dark burnt umber/alizirin crimson contrast to the golden field we'll create. I like that one "braveheart" weed standing up in front. We'll leave him, but I think move a him (or her) bit more to the right to balance out the composition.

Oh, yeah, and isn't that horizon line a little straight? I think we need a bit of a swoop there.

I'm not taking the time to figure out how to make a form for comments on the web site (maybe this winter when I'm cabin-bound) but if you have comments, etc. just hit the "email me" button up on top and I'll incorporate the most relevant into the next post.

All righty then, art afficianodos!