Three Lucky Pennies at JRB Art Gallery 2010.11.05
Self Portrait: Three Lucky Pennies, acrylic on canvas, 8 x 8 x 1.5 inches, 2010
Three Lucky Pennies will be in the annual Small Works show at JRB Art Gallery at the Elms in Oklahoma City (map link) for the month of November 2010. The opening reception is Friday, November 5th, 6-10 pm.
The Small Works show at JRB will feature 100 8×8-inch canvases by 100 artists, each piece priced at $180.00. Artists Skip Hill, Nick Wu, Carlos Tello and Sohail Sheheda will be featured in the gallery’s other spaces.
Here’s a look at how I created this piece.
The idea for this self portrait popped into my head a couple of weeks ago. I imagined a ratty, thrift-store leopard-print coat, but that item seems to be missing from my closet. I took reference photos of myself wearing this wonderful purple kimono that my Mom has had for years. I settled on the two best shots, and spliced them together in PhotoShop.
I always enjoy painting the edges of a canvas. Luckily, the canvases this gallery provides for the Small Works show have lovely 1.5″ edges. Using Adobe InDesign, I created a grid and placed my reference photo under it. This is a useful tool when working from a single reference.
This is an unofficial companion to my painting for 2009′s Small Works show. I like to see what I can squeeze onto the edge.
I had to turn this painting around in just a couple of days, so I knew that a good underdrawing would be key. I couldn’t afford to take time working all the shadows out in paint alone. I often do underdrawings in graphite, and I prefer not to use spray fixative because it’s water-resistant and stinky. Here I’ve blended the shadows using my finger, from which a small amount of skin oil helps the graphite adhere to the canvas. When I put the first wash down, I do it gently, so as not to smear the drawing. One acrylic wash seals it.
Usually I put down a burnt sienna or pepto-bismol-pink wash for figure painting, but I pictured this piece with yellow undertones. The wash here is a mixture of Naples yellow and a cadmium-based pale pink.
When painting patterns, I prefer a loose interpretation to a slavish reproduction. I drew the pattern on the canvas in pencil, mostly not looking at what I was drawing. (I love drawing blind.) I went over the lines using Payne’s gray and a #1 liner brush.
I put in the big shadows with Payne’s gray (how I love thee), and began blocking in the skin tones with quinacradone violet, napthol red, titanium white, Indian yellow, Naples yellow, Pyrrole red, light umber, and burnt sienna. These days I’m using a lot of Golden Fluid Acrylics, recommended to me by professor Bob Dorsey for their high pigment concentration and versatility. He also recommends Windsor Newton Series 7 brushes, which are indeed “worth every penny.”
Here I’ve added washes of quinacradone violet and more Payne’s gray to the robe. Continuing to block in the skin tones. The background is tinanium white with just a drop of Payne’s gray to cool it off, and contrast with the warmth of the figure. I laid it on thick, allowing hints of the yellow underpainting to show through.
To finish, I overglazed the skin with more titanium white, napthol red tint, and Naples yellow, using some Golden glazing medium in yellow ochre and iridescent red. More glazes of quinacradone violet were added to the robe.
I can paint your portrait, too! Click here to view pricing and contact information.
Feeling Stumped?
Here are some tools that can help spur your creativity. Don’t try to execute every idea all at once — pick a link at random and follow it.
The Brainstormer (Read a history of The Brainsormer here.)
Directors Bureau Idea Generator
Michael Nobbs‘ 75 ways to Draw More and Draw Your Life
A methodology for creating new ideas (written by professional illustrator Nate Williams)
An extensive list of ideation tools
Keith Haring knew that anything worth drawing once was worth drawing a hundred times.
I like to go to movies and draw in the dark. And I love love love blind gesture drawing.
Join the BookMooch Journal Project (or just browse their blog or their Flickr pool) or 1001 Journals
Participate in the quarterly Worldwide Sketch Crawl Day.
Illustration Friday suggests a new topic once a week!
Following are some idea-generation links oriented toward writers, but they could just as easily apply to image-makers.
No one cares what you had for lunch.
Idea Generator Blog Writing Prompts
Googobs of Creative Writing Prompts
Now rock out with your socks out.
Related Posts
How (and Why) to Title Your Work (Includes some prompts to help you create interesting titles.)
Project Idea: Object Sketchbook
Illustration Friday: Blur
Whatcher Yennough, Patron Saint of First Impressions, acrylic and collage on found plywood, 2009. (Detail view.) Click image to view source.
He’s, I don’t know, maybe medium-sized, you know, average height, with short brown hair. I think he wears glasses. Eyes? Maybe bluish-brownish. Kinda dark, but, you know, not like dark dark. He was kinda funny-lookin’.
Whatcher is available at aka gallery in Oklahoma City. Detail views here and here.
Profile on the Society of Illustrators LA Blog
Margaret V, acrylic and graphite on masonite, 2005 by Sarah Atlee
The Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles blog has posted a profile of me and my work. Click here to read it.
Thank you, SILA, for providing your members with an online gallery, and helping the public get to know us a little better.
Reference Photo and Collage Sources on Flickr
Smorgasbord by Flickr user CharlesFred. Click image to visit on Flickr.
Say it with me, illustrators: “Photo references are good. Use them.” Using references is not copying, it is not cheating. Image references are tools. What’s an easy way to make sure you’re not trodding on another artist’s toes? Search within the Creative Commons.
What is Creative Commons? The Creative Commons license is a legal way for creators to easily share their content with the public. It is not a negation of copyright. There are different kinds of licenses depending on the type of content (music, images, literature, software, and so on) and how the creator wishes to share this material. I release my work under a Creative Commons license (there’s a link over in the left column of this page) because I believe that information and influence should (and do) flow freely among creators. The license does not prevent me from earning income from my art. I still own what I make. Creative Commons makes it easier for me to share it with others. You can read more about Creative Commons here.
Even with the Creative Commons license, copyright and usage is a slippery slope. When in doubt, contact the creator, ask permission, and give them credit.
The Flickr Creative Commons search is a fantastic tool for finding photo references for drawing, painting, illustration, or the medium of your choice. You need a Flickr account to use it – it’s easy to sign up. Click on the word “Search” in the upper right-hand corner, then click on “Advanced Search.” Enter your search terms and parameters, then scroll down to the bottom of the search form, where you will find the Creative Commons box. Click “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content.” And go. You can also browse by license.
UPDATE: Here’s a tip from optimization expert Tim Ferriss. Do a Creative Commons search on Flickr, then sort the results by “Most Interesting.” You’ll get the best images first.
The Flickr Commons (sounds the same, but isn’t) is another bountiful image resource. Here are some goodies I found there.
My collaborative sketchbook pal Karo recently posted her favorite Flickr groups for gathering collage material. They are Collage Images, Vintage Illustration, and Mid-Century Illustrated. These groups collect and display images that are old enough to be public domain, or with no known copyright restrictions. Some of the images in the Collage pool are contemporary creations whose owners have provided them for use by others. The ownership of certain original ephemera objects (which are scanned and uploaded to Flickr) are sometimes in question, but this community of artists (usually) acts responsibly in investigating and attributing the sources of these images. Here is a discussion thread on that topic.
These are just a few of the tools artists can use to build their photo reference library. (Beware, your collection will grow when you’re not looking. Mine takes up a full filing cabinet.)
Related:
Figurative Collage set on Flickr
Great anatomical reference site
Winston Smith, collage artist
Lawrence Lessig, copyright reform guru
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