The Bear: Part 2, another failure

Well, needless to say, this week was not my best week. I have struggled with the right colors, the right look, the right way to paint...it has not been awesome. Another case in point, Mrs Bear:

Much like the pronghorn, I painted and I wiped and I painted and I wiped over and over and over again. I decided to throw out the fish circle thing and add silver leaf orbs (like the pronghorn) and then the water splashes were also going to be silver. Sheesh, at least the eyes are kind of cool:

Not that you can tell the bear even has eyes in the images above, it all just kind of blends and is blah and more blah and then even more blah. Also, she kind of looks like she is going to rip your head off, am I right? Maybe I should tone that down a little bit.

Unlike the pronghorn I am not going to start over, instead I am going to put it aside for a bit. Maybe work on the salmon off and on, but then come back to the bear later.

Mr T: Semi Final

Mr. T is giving me heart burn, well not really, but it is fun to say so. I have repainted his bow tie five times now, this may be the sixth, and I am still not happy with it. However, I have decided to leave it for the time being, and so I bring you Mr. T's semi-final image:

After painting the circle around Mr. T my first thought was, "Why, hello Mr. Rockwell."

Growing up I loved Norman Rockwell's paintings. My grandfather read the Saturday Evening Post and kept a solid amount of them with Rockwell's covers. Even now I think that Rockwell is really great, and I guess that it must be the circular motif that reminds me of him (Rockwell used circles a lot, especially for the Post covers). There are worse things for sure. Here is the complete progress for Mr. T:

Chuck Norris: Final

Mr Chuck is done. Initially I wanted to paint him with a dark background, but then got nervous about him blending into the background too much/the pink eye patch popping out too much and wimped out. However, I kept going back to having a dark background and finally just jumped in. I like it.

Here is the final Chuck followed by his progress images (I took a lot of photos of him): 

Pronghorn: Part 1, a failure

Did you know that pronghorns are awesome? It is true, they are. They are not antelope, they are the last surviving member of the Antilocapridae family, which means they are ancient, and lovely. They can run at about 55 mph, second only to the cheetah, but they can run at top speeds for a longer period of time than the cheetah. It is thought that they evolved to run so fast due to the now extinct American cheetah, yep it existed.

I love them. They seem other worldly to me, and so I have decided to paint one... it has not gone so well.

I made a photoshop idea thing, then started painting (the circles were going to be in silver leaf, it was going to be cool...maybe). I painted and painted and then wiped parts away, and then painted some more, and then wiped it all away. I think part of the problem was the image I was using was too pixelated. Another big problem is that I was trying to finish this one with a major time crunch. Whenever I try to get something done in a matter of days, I tend to crash and burn and get depressed, awesome.

So I have decided to start over, I found a new image, not as pretty as the first but close, and now I have a new drawing:

I may have gone a little overboard on the hairs. Like a lot overboard. It is no small secret that I rely heavily upon my underdrawings, but I may have taken this one too far. We shall see.

ps. Pronghorns all have a little Alfalfa tuft of hair on top of their heads, and it is adorable.

Chuck Norris: Part 3

Chuck is really coming along. It makes me feel a little bit bad for Mr. T. He is just sitting there waiting, so patiently, while I work on other things (cough, I have a tendency to personify everything).

Finally a true to color, no glare/funny shadows picture! Yes! I can be taught! Just a couple of things left to do: 1. I need to resolve a few things with his ears and neck, 2. I need to decide on a background color. The blasted background, my old nemesis. Today is also the first day that I actually like the pink eyepatch. 

An Artist's Idea about Etiquette

When I was little, as in very little, like six years old little, my step mother decided that I lacked etiquette and enrolled me, her own daughter, and my older sister into an etiquette class. During these classes I learned to walk, sit, and eat properly, among other things. I am not so sure they had a very lasting or even immediate effect, but it was my first real experience with the idea that there is a polite way and an impolite way to doing things.

This brings me to a short list of impolite and polite ways to deal with a craftsman (I am using this term, instead of artist because I feel that this list can be applied to people of a craft. Ex: stylists, plumbers, photographers, painters, website designers, etc.)

Impolite:

1. It is impolite to assume that a craftsman is willing to preform their craft for free, for you, because you are family or a friend. It took me years to realize that this was rude. I mean a free haircut is great, right? But was it really free for the person who cut your hair? No, no it wasn't. A free painting is awesome, but was it free for the person who painted it? No, it super wasn't. Is it awesome that my sister takes all of our family photos for free because she is a kickass photographer (link to her page is here), yeah, yeah it is, but is it free for her? No, and I feel horrible about this and am going to try to rectify it.

Only recently I have come up with a new rule for myself. If I ask you if I can paint a painting for you, it is free. If you ask me if I can paint a painting for you, it is not. Grandma included.

2. It is impolite, upon finding what type of craftsman the person you are talking to is, to immediately say something demeaning about said craft. Telling a hairstylist or an interior design person that you think people who spend a lot of money on such things are vain and silly isn't the nicest thing you could have said to them. They are most likely proud of their work and do not feel that they are vain or silly.

My sister-in-law is a good example of this. Upon telling her what type of art I would like to paint, animal portraits, she went off for a good fifteen minutes about how weird people are for putting up paintings of their animals, how she would never do it, how she doesn't understand the relationships people develop with their pets, etc etc.

3. It is impolite to ask a craftsman how much money they make at their craft. The assumption that they are just hobbyists is not a nice one.

Polite:

1. Is it polite to ask a craftsman for their website solely because you are curious? Yes. Will said craftsman assume that you are going to pay them to do something for you? No, well... they may hope.

2. Is it polite to give a craftsman advice on how to market themselves? Yes, and usually super wanted, but only if you actually have real, good, "this could help you" advice.

3. Is it polite to tell other people about said craftsman, especially when they are family? Yes! You should be pushing your friends and family their way as much as possible, but only if said family member is actually any good. Is it impolite not to? Yes.

And now, I descend from my soap box.

Mr. T: Part 6, Tartan attempt #1

Well, as Husband said when he noticed,"I think that you have been watching too much 'Vikings.'" Turns out that I have been calling Chuck Norris, Chuck Norse, oops. Vikings is kind of great though (even if it can be a little redundant, I mean...most of the show does revolve around Viking raids of all things).

Today I also worked a little on Mr. T. I had been waiting for him to dry in order to work on his bow tie and today was the day! However, as you are about to see, it did not go as well as I would have hoped:

Even in it's unfinished state, it is obvious that this tartan was no good. So I cleaned it off, repainted the bow tie red and now...well now I have to wait for it to dry again before trying a new approach.

The additional layer of red really makes the bow tie pop, I think that I like it.

Chuck Norris: Part 2

Well, two days ago I was walking around in a t-shirt and shorts, and then today this happened:

Frozen water droplets and snow. I should have taken a picture while it was snowing, it was really quite lovely. The mountains now are dusted with such a beautiful layer of snow, not that you can see them in the photo, the clouds being so low. Give it up for Utah weather!

But I did, however, make a lot of progress on Chuck Norris:

As usual, I apologize for the glare/random shadows. He doesn't really have much of a chin, does he? I will need to fix that. I am hoping to finish him over the next couple of days. You know, I hate starting a painting: I always get so nervous, then while I am painting it I love the process, but in the end I also hate finishing them. I am not sure why that is, but it does mean that I have a lot of unfinished paintings sitting around my apartment.

The Bear: Part 1

Back in January I was going to paint a grizzly bear with salmon all around him for a show at the Hogle Zoo, but some things happen the way you want them and others do not. Now, however, it is time for the bear to make an appearance.

Here is the idea: Bear with salmon in mouth, all painted "realistically," then above him two salmon intertwined into a ball. This could be really cool or really stupid. My default color is blue, always blue, and so naturally I said to myself, "I shall make the background BLUE!" Light blue in front, dark blue in the back, and then a light blue gradation over the ball of fish. I made myself a weak photoshop version of what I have in my head when the thought occurred to me, I could do something other than blue! But would I want to? Here are some options: 

Options 1 and 2:

Options 3 and 4:

Options 5 and 6:

Options 7 and 8:

Options 9 and 10: 

Options 11 and 12: 

Options 13 and 14: 

I think option 2 is my favorite.  

Chuck Norris: Part 1

Without putting my sister's life story out onto the internet, even if it would be through a blog that no one looks at, I would like to introduce you to my sister's little savior, Chuck Norris (this the same sister I painted the lily for a few months back).

Not too long ago Chuck was left home with a couple of "friends." These friends were two large dogs. I guess Chuck and co. must have had a little too much to drink (?), but some kind of accident ensued (it was not an attack, probably just too much rough housing), and when my sister got home Chuck's jaw was broken and he was kind of missing an eye. Yep, an eye. Gross. I am so glad I did not see this.

Anyways, sister, as you can imagine, thought Chuck was going to die and was devastated. Happily, Chuck pulled through and her little hero is still by her side, pirate patch and all.

 

An Artist: Stephen Mackey

Stephen Mackey is an enigma of sorts. He has very little web presence. I could only find information about his paintings, but nothing about him personally. What little I was able to find on him I found in a YouTube video description (the video itself is just images of Mackey's paintings). He is seemingly self-taught, and lives in Manchester, England, and I love his paintings.

I don't have the slightest idea as to how one would describe his works, Contemporary Academic Victorian? I have just made up a new genre. Or maybe Contemporary Victorian Fantasy? Or perhaps Contemporary Victorian Romantic Academic? Or the Academy of Contemporary Victorian Romanticism, no that sounds like a school.

Either way, they are lovely. Below is an assortment of his works, although not a complete compilation, he also does figure paintings.

You can see more of his works here and here.