The “Black Queen” Oil Painting
I just put the finishing touches on this last night. It’s 100% oil paint. I painted it to donate to the upcoming Heroes Comic book convention art auction. The proceeds of which go to help Heroes comic book store owner Sheldon Drum put on the Heroes comic book convention every year. It’s the best comic convention I’ve ever been too because the focus is almost exclusively on comics, the books, the writers and the artists. It’s a great show and I’m very excited to be able to set up a table in artist alley there. If you get a chance stop by and say hello and bid heavily on the painting at the auction Saturday night at the Westin Hotel in downtown Charlotte, NC.
I really happy with how Jean Grey, aka the Black Queen came out but I hate to say that for better or worse the original looks so much better. Most people don’t realize the short comings of photography and scanning. They just don’t do the original justice. I’m an amateur photographer but I often wonder what I might be missing that a professional photographer could do with my work. Oh well, when my paintings start making a lot more money I’ll pay for some lessons from a pro. Until then you’re stuck with my Nikon D80.
I hope you like the painting and remember, I’m always open for commissions and job offers.
“Domino” Commission Pencils
I’ve recently been giving my work a lot of thought in regards to what I want my art medium to be. To that end I’ve decided that I’m going to focus more intently from here on out on my oil painting. This extends, hopefully, to my commissions. I’ve never painted this fast before and I hope it’ll turn out well. Whereas I normally do an oil piece in 2 to 3 weeks this time around I’m going for 2-3 days. Last night I did some thumbnails and figured out an image I thought would be fun to paint. Then I took some quick reference. If I had any guts I share that too but this is the Internet and since I used myself as reference, that’s not going to happen. Yes, I know Domino is a hot babe and I’m a slightly above average manimal but you’d be surprised how the artist mind wields reference shots and imagination. My wife got a good laugh out of it asking me why in the world was I standing like that. Here are the pencils before the paint.
And just for FYI, I’ve finished the oil paints on the black queen image I’d been working on. I just have to wait for a few of the white parts to dry some I can put some retouch varnish over it to bring back the colors.
Hela Commission – part 3
Finally finished. I’m happy with the result but as always the picture in my head was 10 times better. That’s progress as I can remember a time not so long ago with the pictures in my head were easily 1,000 times better when what my hands produced.
After the inks were dry I broke out my acrylics and threw down some washes of color. I like a messy, let the color do it’s thing, kind of painting when water is involved. You can get some great color intensities and effects. After I laid in my initial washes I started to actually paint opaquely in spots careful not to over paint the inks. They still had to show through. In fact, I considered this finished when I approached the point where I could no longer keep going unless I started to paint over the blacks and if I did that this would quickly turn from a commissioned sketch to a full painting. There wasn’t the time (or the budget) for that.
When I was finish a piece I alwasy let it sit a day or two because after some time away from a painting I alwasy see glaring things that I missed. In this case it was some cool colors in the shadows. I had such a warm intense yellow light hitting all that green that I really needed to cool my shadows. Remember what Richard Schmid says in his wonderful book, “Everything I know about painting“.
If there is one rule about color it’s that “warm light produces cool shadows and cool light produces warm shadows.“
I didn’t want to paint over the blacks so I put strokes of blue and purple in lower light areas and areas of my halftone where the dark meets the light. I think this really helps the color harmony and add a lot more visual interest to the piece.
The most important part is that the client loved it and has already commission a second piece.
Hela Commission – part 2
Next on the project list was to ink Hela. I use to use a brush a lot in my work but found over time that I really like a “dead” line and for that I’ve found inking with a brush to difficult. I use Sakura Pigma Micron Pens for the line work and an old brush and black magic (or whatever is handy) ink to fill in the large parts. The fact that I don’t do a ton of ink work probably reflects my lack of a favorite ink.
I don’t like to use a lot of halftone as I really like large areas of black and white. Plus, I’m leaving something for the color to do beside just fill in white areas.
I won’t talk a ton about it as I’m working on an upcoming post about the subject of reference but I will mention that I do use it. I combine photos from the Internet, magazines, and many that I produce myself as I’m also a novice photographer. This image is a combination of 3 or 4 photos that I put together in photoshop where I can digitally paint over top of them to create special effects or retool the lighting so that it all matches. I’ve found through hard trial and error that the more time I take with preliminary things to prepare for a drawing or painting the better (and easier) they come out.
After I’ve got the photoshopped reference printed out I transfer it to my 14×17 bristol board. I do this with a classic grid method. Be careful if you use this method as if you don’t already know how to draw it can become a significant crutch. I use it to make sure my proportions and angles are correct. I bounce back and forth between drawing from reference to straight out of my head because while I want a correct looking drawing, I want it to be my drawing and not just a reproduction of the photos. This can be a very fine line and the line is different for different artists. (This topic sounds like a post in it’s own right)
Now that the ink work is done it’s on to the colors which I’ve already finished but I’ll give you a few days to absorb the ink before I post the color.
Phoenix Painting Update #1
Ok, so a couple of posts back I showed a sketch that I was working on of Jean Grey, aka, Phoenix. Well, I played around with it some more and since I’m my own editor on this I told myself to have some more fun with it. I said self, wouldn’t it be more fun (and hot) to paint good ol’ Jean from her Hellfire club days. To try and capture that time when she and Scott were young and in love. Before Jean had to exit stage left and Emma Frost stole her man. Plus, the outfit was a lot hotter. Sue me.
Here is the initial sketch of the revisited image. I got some reference this time as it’s time for me to take myself seriously and not just let myself try to pull the artwork out of my butt fully formed. I’ve fallen into that pit to many times in the past. The image just comes out covered in..well, let’s just say the aroma is a tad more unpleasant than the cobalt dryer I use in my painting medium. Then again I’m sure there are those that would disagree. That cobalt stuff is deadly.
I just got the sign off on a few freelance assignment so it may be a week or so before I get back on this one. I know you can’t hardly wait but I can only work on one project at the time. Just check back every day and tell all your friends to come to. The ego of a freelance artist can always use a boost.
Oh yeah, the website is going through some growing pains. Overlook the mess.
