Odd Job, Day 4

Yesterday I showed you the not-so-good green on the background of the odd job, a Coat of Arms for my customer/friend. (Remember, “odd” means “unusual” – I am NOT insulting my friend or her job here!)

Since beginning to oil paint, I have met up with two new yellows and one new blue. It is time to get a grasp on how they all interact to make greens.

My friend said, and I agree, “More Kelly than lime”. Photoshop Junior used Kelly green, but I wasn’t very careful with mixing in the first pass over the canvas.

Clearly we need the second green down in the middle row.

Better, but too wet to continue. 

Tomorrow is the end of the month listicle. 

This coat of arms will have to wait. Another odd job awaits! (How’s that for an exciting cliff-hanger?)

Completed Commission

When I told you the story of painting a commissioned piece of Lost Canyon, I may have accidentally misled you into thinking that all the changes and decisions were a nuisance. 

Drying in the painting workshop (the studio shows through the window – that’s the little building where I draw, a much less messy activity.)

Not so!

The customer and I had a great working partnership. He was discerning and decisive and helpful, not a pain in the least. My goal was to paint exactly what he wanted, but also to help him explore the idea even further than his initial request. We both enjoyed the process and ended up happy with the result. (The color is way better in person!)

Odd Job

I was asked to paint something highly unusual in an oval canvas. It had some built-in difficulties: the subject matter took some research, it was particularly challenging to get onto the canvas, and an oval is a little difficult to secure on an easel. 

All the customer had to show me was these 2 blurry little labels.

How are you supposed to paint from those?

Glad you asked – I knew people who could help. Those good folks sent me this:

How is that helpful?

It is less blurry and Photoshop Elements will help me get it ready to use.

How is this going to turn into an oil painting? 

Great question – thanks for asking. I converted it to black and white, enlarged it to fit the canvas, borrowed some graphite paper, and traced it onto the oval canvas. 

Why does someone want this, who do you know, and why did you say yes to such a weird challenge?

More will be revealed next week. Stay tuned!

Loves Pencil, Loves to Draw

This is my most recent pencil drawing commission. A group of friends are getting this for another friend. That’s all I’m allowed to say, not knowing the the scope of readership of this blog or degree of silence required for this gift.

Beginning stages
First scanned

This is the scanned, cleaned up version using Photoshop Junior, which is actually Photoshop Elements. It is converted to grayscale mode and anything that is paper color on the drawing gets “erased”  so it looks almost as clean here as it does in person.

Saw/Saw 3

Saw/Saw, a mini mural of Sawtooth Peak on a round saw blade, was almost finished.

I fixed the camera setting, stood on the ladder to photograph it, and then realized that the trees on the bottom were crooked. Of course I only noticed this after putting the photo in an email to the customers, but immediately after sending it, I straightened them up. This is tricky business on a circle – how do I know vertical is vertical without straight edges of the canvas or wall to guide me?

That’s why I get paid the Big Bucks. (Fall down laughing.)

Saw/Saw 2

Welcome back! I knew you would be interested to know how Saw/Saw turned out. Not sure if this qualifies as a real mural or not; I think it might just be an Odd Job.

Time to start on the ridges in front of Sawtooth, and meanwhile I am still wondering why things look darker on the camera screen. I also realized that if I would put a circular mask over the rectangular photo that I’d get things more proportionally correct.

Sawtooth didn’t have quite the right angle, so here I corrected my shapes.

Better, as each step and layer ought to be.

First coating on the rest of the blade.

Correcting the colors and shapes on the lower parts.

Finally, I figured out what was wonky with my camera. I had been experimenting with the settings, still not quite understanding what they all meant. When I changed “Poster Effect” to “Program” (who chooses these words??), It photographed more accurately.

But now the computer is not behaving properly, and when I export the photo of the finished Saw/Saw, it says it goes somewhere, and then it isn’t there.

My Mac is lying to me and cheating you out of seeing the finished saw blade!

Boy am I mad.

Maybe it will fix itself and work tomorrow. Besides, a job is never finished until these 2 things happen: A. The customer is happy and B. I have signed it.

Saw/Saw

What is “Saw/Saw”?

Glad you asked!

I have been commissioned to paint Sawtooth on a saw blade. Hence, saw/saw.

The blade is about 4′ in diameter and is heavy metal. I lifted it onto my round table and then couldn’t figure out whether or not I should lean on the teeth to get the balance off myself and onto the table. The weight made the decision for me – it was too heavy to hold while I decided whether or not the teeth would hurt me.

Round blade on a round table.

This photo was the customer’s preferred view and seems to be the most popular version of Sawtooth I’ve ever painted. I got lucky with my timing on that photo, which is how most of my good reference photos happen. Wait. It isn’t luck; it is Divine Intervention.

Most of the colors were already mixed in my mural paints.

Starting from back to front means sky first, clouds next.

That went fast. Here are the colors I might need for Sawtooth.

Sawtooth’s colors look different all the time, so I don’t have to match the photo, just make it look good.

Oops. The camera was on a weird setting (Poster effect? What means that??) I wondered why things were looking darker on my camera than in real life!

And that’s all you get to see today. Tomorrow is Friday, and Fridays are for Mineral King.

See you on Monday? I’ll show you . . . the rest of the story! (Anyone else around here grow up listening to Paul Harvey?)

Summer of Animals?

This summer is shaping up to be full of wild animals for this California artist.

First, we were hiking in Mineral King and saw this:

While on that hike I thought of doing these oil paintings:

They are each 4×4″, and from left to right are a mule deer buck, golden mantle squirrel, yellow-bellied marmot, and a black bear. (They are called that even when they are brown or cinnamon or blond.)

After that, I painted this bear for the Sierra Lodge in Three Rivers:

After which, they asked me to refresh this bear:

So that he would look like this:

With all that wildlife around, particularly the ferocious bear, you might be a bit concerned about unfriendly encounters or a bit of danger. There was one small incident that ended up looking like this:

I love teal. It looks particularly striking with brown.

P.S. The bear on the flag of this California artist’s state is a grizzly, not a black bear. I’m happy to report we don’t have them in California any more. This is not an environmentally correct view, but I am more concerned with personal safety than being correct. This might make me a pig. See? animal summer!