Studio Tour

While I’m getting my next painting together, I thought I’d do a post about my studio.

My studio is located on the 2nd floor of the Old Firehouse Art Center in Longmont Colorado. There are five studios on the 2nd floor.  The OFAC used to be a working firehouse.  It’s located in downtown Longmont, just 4 blocks from my home.  Now it’s an art gallery, with exhibits from all over the country.

I go in through the side door.

Then I go up the steps.

Turn left.  My door is in the center.

This panoramic composite shot makes my studio look bigger that it really is.

Here’s my drawing table, and what I worked on today.

Study of Archie Brown.

Painting Sara | Day 6

Finished.

Painting Sara | Day 5

Today I worked on the face . . . adjusting, adjusting and adjusting.

It’s getting there.  Other than final details, like defining the glasses and some highlights, I’m afraid I’ll overwork the face if I keep fussing with it.  Some work on the hands, and finalizing the necklace, should finish it.  I’ll do that tomorrow.

Painting Sara | Day 4

Here’s a sequence of images from today’s session. It’s been a few days since I’ve been able to work on this, so I tried to cover a lot of ground today.

Today's palette

I’m concentrating on ‘flesh’ areas today.

 

Adding details

 

Darkening the background

 

The palette after some mixing and other additions.

 

Looking at the photo, I’m thinking that’s something is not right with the mouth.  I’ve discovered that looking at a photo of the painting in progress side-by-side with the original photo on a computer screen helps uncover problems in the painting.  I’ll do that to help troubleshoot the mouth issue I think I’m seeing.

Posting a painting in progress in this manner is something of a ‘high wire’ act.  I’m assuming that the work will turn out well (what artist doesn’t think that when starting a new piece?).  But it could turn out a misfire . . . . I’m interested to see if the blog process contributes to the success of the piece.  Stay tuned.

Painting Sara | Day 3

I’m starting to fill in blocks of colors.  I’m concentrating on the background, and non-flesh areas.  I’m using a green tone for the dark areas; we’ll see how that goes.  Some of the fringe details of the figure get lost in the ‘black’ of the photograph.  I’ve printed out a few different versions of the photo, manipulated in Photoshop for various levels of contrast and brightness.

Detail of painting (in progress)

Painting Sara | Day 2

Now that the drawing is ready, I stain a canvas panel with venitian red wash.  After it’s dry, I trace the drawing onto the panel.  I have photographed the drawing, and am using a printout for the trace.

Drawing traced onto canvas panel.

Then, I start drawing with paint, using the trace as a guide.

Detail of canvas panel

I work for about 2 hours, filling in and shading with washes of the venitian red.

I’ll let this dry overnight and start on the next phase tomorrow.

Study of Sara Sheldon

Study of Sara Sheldon

This is my latest drawing, a study of my friend Sara, in prep for an oil painting.

I’ve taken many photos of Sara in hopes of getting the right image to use for a painting, but, until last week, was usually disappointed with the results.  The problem was that I did not have control over the setting for the photos.  I would meet with Sara for coffee, have my camera with me, and grab snapshots in whatever setting was available. In this type of situation, I would be lucky to get 1 good image out of 100+ attempts.

It dawned on me that I needed to have more control over the setting and lighting of my subjects.  I set up an area of my studio for portrait photography.  Basically, I set up an area with a black cloth on the wall, and two lights that I can manipuate to light the subject.  I think this first use with Sara shows I’m on the right track.  I’m going to add to the setup by getting an assortment of colored cloth for backdrops, and also invest in more light options.

Photo of Sara used for above study.

Story of a Painting | Part 5 | Paint!

The following sequence of images show the painting’s various states from start to finish.  I spent about 8 hours over the course of a week working on finishing the piece.

 

Story of a Painting | Part 4 | Painting

When the drawing is finished, I photograph the drawing and print it out.  Then I trace on to canvas panel using Saral transfer paper.

Next step is to set up a palette to begin painting.  I generally only lay out colors I think I’ll use, rather than a classic palette setup.  I mix Liquin with the paint, to thin and to speed drying time.  I also brew up a cup of tea to sip while painting.

On my easel, I set up several printouts of the subject.  I print out more than one version, with different contrast settings to bring out hidden details and shadings.

Easel set up

Detail of painting in progress

Story of a Painting | Part 3 | Materials

My studio at the Old Firehouse Art Center in Longmont

Yesterday’s post prompted a question about the materials I use.  Here’s a partial list:

• Nikon D40 camera
• Photoshop CS4
• Prismacolor Drawing Pencils (and an assortment of odd brands)
• Strathmore Dry Media Drawing Pad
• Saral Transfer Paper (to transfer drawing to canvas board)
• Blick Canvas Panel
• Brushes – an assortment, but I particularly like Blick Master Synthetic brushes
• Paints – an assortment, favoring Gamblin and Utrecht

I’ll try to go into more detail about paints and such when I show my painting progress in future posts.