Finishing what I Started part 4

Finally finished this piece in time to submit it for judging for entry in the San Diego Co. fair this year. I should say that it is finished to the point that I needed to stop fiddling with it! I did not want to be working on it up until almost the last day, but I did. The last 2 months I Have been so committed to completing it that I started to get stressed out at times thinking I was not going to meet the deadline. It was not as bad for me as last year but I did notice it. There were some areas that I felt like painting out and starting over, but didn't. And parts that I did even though I did not want to. Always the perfectionist! This painting has taken on a special meaning for me also. Something that I have been dealing with for the last couple of years in my life and I will get into that later. My goal for this year was to be back in the fair with another painting and not even think about weather I will win anything or not. I am more focused right now on just, “staying in the game”! To be honest, there were times I contemplated weather this is as good or better of a painting than the one I submitted last year. That is my ass talking because my head knows better. Thought that about the bird painting I entered a year ago and ended up wining first place in acrylic animals with it. Whether it is or isn't does not matter! What does, is being back! I am excited and hopeful about seeing my art in the fair again this year regardless of what happens!

As I left off with my last post about this painting, see part 3. My focus was on finishing the sky. Things had started out quite nicely. There where some parts of it that I did not like but was confident that I could fix them as I moved along. A couple of months ago I was talking to an artist friend of mine at work about how things were progressing with the painting. Told her I was trying not to put to much detail into the sky because the focus needed to be on the whales. She said, “if it is not working for the painting then paint something that is”! My first thought was, “I know what I am doing” true to form for a man, right ladies! But one night as I was working on an area of the sky. I became vary frustrated with how it was looking. It seemed like no matter what I did it was getting worse. I remember taking a step back form the painting and looking at it for a few minuets. As much as I did not want to start over I reached for a bigger brush and some blue paint. I did not paint over the whole thing just the top half which I am glad I did. What I ended up with looks a lot better for the whole painting than what I started out with. There are areas of the old sky that I am going to use for another painting so some good came out of it.

This is where I started out with the sky.

I used a little of the first sky I painted, from way back in the beginning. The clouds were showing through in some areas of what I had painted over so I decided to graft them in to the new one.

At this point I was happy with how the sky was coming along. It still needed some tweaking but I was confident I could fix it. The upper right half of the sky was the area that got away from me. Felt like no matter what I did I was making it worse. Probably because I was trying to put to much detail into it. I don't have any pictures of how it looked before I changed it. But you will see how much it did later on.

Once the sky was done and it was time to leave it alone, I turned my focus to other parts of the painting. The area of the ocean above the waterline I am not sure if the color and lighting are right in some areas. But like the sky it is not the focus of the painting. As work progressed on the sky I felt like the whale at the bottom of the painting was to distant and needed to be bigger and closer to the mother. Once I settled on how much bigger I realized that some of the whale I had done before was not going to be completely covered. Started dreading the thought of having to re-do the background. But I was able to fix it and even I have a hard time seeing it! I think the sky just fell. A little sarcasm her folks. The area below the waterline, in the upper right of the painting. At first, I was thinking of having some people swimming with the whales and a boat just on the service. It need something there because it was looking bare to me. So I decide to go with another whale. My first thought was to have it more in the distance, vary faded. But I went with a little detail so that it looks closer. At one point I kicked around the idea of adding a fifth whale to the painting. Decided to use that idea for another whale painting.

Here is were I started work on making the whale at the bottom bigger

Trying to get the basic color and shape painted back in.

In this picture you can see the old tail sticking out to the right of the new. I was able to fix it though.

The fourth whale being added in the upper right.

Beginning to paint some basic color, shape and lighting for this whale.

At this point the whale at the bottom and the upper right were pretty much done. I did do a little more tweaking on them. Time to finish the mother and baby. You can also see here how much I changed the sky. It helps the whales to stand out more. Sometimes less is better!

Once I had those two whales done. My attention turned to the mother and calf. The mothers tail was an area that I had struggled with from the beginning, Mainly as to the shape of it. At one point I was going to completely paint it out and start over. After looking at some pictures I had taken of the painting as it progressed along, I left it alone. Again, it was the right choise. I still struggled at times trying to get the color, lighting and reflections right. Reworking the tail over and over again along with other parts of her to. I am happy with how she finally turned out though. As for the baby I am still not sure if I have it right. I did tweak it some more but like the other areas of the painting it was time to stop! The last thing I added to the piece was a guy in a boat. I felt it needed something in that area and sense it was an idea I had for the painting form the beginning, it finish’s it off nicely! An artist friend of mine asked me this week if I was done with the piece? I said, “yes”. I told her I had to stop working on it! Or maybe I should say stop fiddling with it. She gave me some good advice. She couldn't remember just how it went though. “If you don't know when to stop fiddling or messing with your art, then you are not being a professional artist”! Sometimes I am not good at letting go of things. I have thought about getting a vault to stick my art in and put a padlock on it. Then give the key to someone so I can't mess with them anymore. I probably would find a way to get into it though. Hi, My name is Mark and I am a fiddle-a-holic. Maybe I should call myself a tweak-a-holic. Would they be considered compulive disorders? Duh! Now lets see, where did I hide that whale painting? I am just kidding everyone.

All most done. Just a little more to do on the mother and baby. I added some rays of light coming done through the water. The background seemed to flat to me and I feel it adds some depth to the painting.

The man in the boat.

I had been trying to think of what to name this painting. Kicked around a couple of ideas but nothing seem to click for me. It finally came to me when I painted the guy and the boat in. Can't explain why but all of a sudden I felt like, “that is me”!. This is when the painting took on a special meaning for me. For the last couple of years I have been trying to figure out some sense of family in my life. If they haven't past away they have moved away. Boy, sometimes I feel like, where the hell did everyone go? And what do I do now?. As I look at the painting, I am the guy in the boat. Looking back on family and what I feel like I have lost, heading out, hoping to find some since of it again in my life. So I have named the piece, “Ohana”. In Hawaiian it means family. This was not my idea for the painting in the beginning. It came from a YouTube video of a baby whale leaping out of the water. I guess as artist we either try to put meaning into our art, or it becomes meaning for us. All in all it is a nice ending to the piece.

The finished piece.

I am looking forward to hopefully having another painting in the fair this year. Been looking at my to do list trying to figure out what to start on next. Got back to work on the portrait painting of a friend and her son and started a small piece for another art show that is in August. But I need to figure out what to do for the fair next year. The clock is ticking and it will be here sooner than I want.

A portrait in the works

This is my first attempt at painting a portrait, if you don't take into consideration the stuff I did as a kid. I had asked a friend of mine if I could do one of her and her son after seeing a picture she had posted on Facebook about two years ago. I am finally getting around to it. She asked me if it would take a year to do it. “Oh no, not that long” was my reply. Two years later and I am finally starting it. I had primed a board last year specifically to do a portrait painting.

For this painting I primed the board orange. A couple of years ago I was at the La Jolla Festival of Arts here in San Diego, CA where I reside. I came upon the artist Annette Hammer. She had a display at her booth of one of her paintings which showed a progression of the painting from start to finish. I noticed that she had used orange for her base color. I asked her why she had done that and she told me that Rembrandt used the color orange for the base color of his paintings. Being the novice artist that I am, white is all that I have ever known or been taught to use. I guess I need to get out and learn more! I have seen black and gray gesso in the art stores and kind of wondered why anyone would use them. Using the black gesso reminds me of the black velvet paintings from the 60’s and 70's. Since then I have learned and thought of some ways I could use those colors to prime my boards. It is similar to using color in glazes to set the tone of a painting.

So I decided to give it a try. Off to the internet I went to see if I could find some more information about what Rembrandt did. No such luck! I could not find anything about him using the color orange to prime his boards. I even found a book at the local book store about Rembrandt but there was nothing in it about that subject. What did I do next might you ask? Well I thought about going onto the internet and asking some people for help. But being the shy boy that I am, hell maybe I should say the prideful, arrogant man in me claimed I don't need any help, so I went at it myself. I figured if it doesn’t work I can always paint it over with white primer and start again. My first attempt I added some orange to the gesso as I primed the board. It didn't look very orange to me though. Hello Mark! What do you think will happen when you add a lot of white to a little orange? It looked a lot like the color of a 50/50 ice cream bar. I still had two more coats of gesso to apply to the board so I decided to add some red to the mix. It looked a lot better but at first it was leaning to the salmon orange side of the spectrum. I was talking to an artist friend of mine about it and she helped me to realize that I am experimenting and it may be just the color I am looking for. If not, she recommended I try something different next time. I really need to get past the whole thinking of, “It has to be perfect every time or it is not going to be right!” I am working on it but old habits are hard to let go of sometimes!

My first attempt

For my second attempt I used the scale at work that we use for mixing ink for printing. I was probably being a little to picky! but by doing this I know how much of each color I used for future reference. 

This is my second attempt. "Definitely oranger"

Two years ago I had the chance to talk to Annette Hammer again about this and she gave me some more insight into what she does. She primes the board with white first and then goes over it with a somewhat thinned down orange. I told her what I had done and she said try adding some yellow to my mix next time. I love her work! The amount of detail she puts into her paintings is amazing.

One of the reasons it has taken me so long to do this piece is that I was trying to figure out what to paint in the background. I liked the picture my friend had of her and her son but wanted to do something different for the background. I asked her if she had anything she might like but she pretty much left it up to me. When she posted some pictures on Facebook a while back of a waterfall she and he family went to, I said to myself, “that is it”. She only had two pictures so I had to go onto the internet to help me fill in what I didn't have.

Once I got everything I needed, it then came down to working out the composition. I moved the tracings around on the board trying to figure out what would look the best. At one point I thought about doing the painting in a vertical format but came back to the horizontal. I also wanted to have a dark area behind her and her son with the waterfall being pretty much the only area in the background that is lit up. Rembrandt used dark backgrounds in some of his portrait paintings with the subject in the foreground being lit up. That is what I am attempting to do with this piece so we will see what happens. 

There is not much to look at right now because I am just getting started and because I have been focusing more on my whale painting lately. Trying to complete more than one piece a year! Reminds me of what a lady friend of mine once told me, "One is not enough but ten are to many". Of course she was talking about boyfriends. She was joking about that! At least I think she was. Anyways, I keep telling people, "I am not a multitasker"! Even though it my frustrate me at times that I am not doing more. I would rather do one painting that is a masterpiece, than ten that are mediocre! Even if it takes me a year.

Finishing what I started part 3

I am finally getting back into the studio to paint. My job has been keeping me busy lately and by the time I get home I don't feel much like doing anything! I was starting to get frustrated with myself for not painting. Over Thanksgiving I was determined to do something on this piece, even if it was not much. Last year flew by so fast and I am nowhere near where I should be or want to be with my art. My goal was to have this painting, along with others, done by now. There are two shows this year that I hope to be in, but it is not going to happen if I don't paint!

I decided to focus on the above water scene before finishing the whales, which is what I should do anyways. That part of the painting was not set in stone and I came up with a couple of ideas as to what I might do even as the painting progressed. In the beginning, the rough sketch I did for this piece included painting in some clouds and an island off to one side. Then I thought of doing a panorama scene that would show the Hawaiian islands of Maui, Molokai and Lanai. I spent about a month looking at so many photos of the three islands trying to piece together what I thought might look good. But it was just not clicking for me. The size of this painting is 18” x 24” and the area it would fit in is only three inches high by the width of the piece. I finally decided that a larger painting would do more justice to that idea. So I have put it on my “to do” list (which keeps growing all the time). The idea I settled on was a South Pacific island scene. While looking for reference material for my last whale painting I came upon a site on the internet for a whale watching adventure tour to the South Pacific islands of Tonga. They say they are the only place in the world where you can actually swim with Humpback whales, up close! And yes it is on my bucket list now!

After acquiring some reference photos, it was time to get to work. As usual, at first I was a little gun-shy about starting but once I did, things began to click. I painted a couple of islands and then started to do some clouds. I like where I am with the piece so far but I am also somewhat worried that I am trying to do too much with the above water scene, sounds like an oxymoron doesn't it? I want people to focus on the whales and not the sky. I am kind of at the same point I was with the bird painting I did last year. I thought about toning it down a bit but knowing me I will probably keep going in the direction I am! I do like detail in my work! People loved the sky and the bird as well in my last painting so I need to stop worrying about it. It feels good to get back to painting. Something I need to be doing! This piece is finally at the point where it is starting to come together and that has me excited right now. The motivation may be back but I need to stay focused on it and get it done! The San Diego county fair is four and a half months away and that time is going to fly by before I know it. Time to become a monk in the studio again!

Finishing what I started part 2

Did some more work on my whale painting recently. I had been struggling with how I wanted the baby to look. When I get an idea for a painting, I have a tendency to come up with different ways I can do it. I am the kind of person who likes to think things through before I do them and as much as I hate to admit this, I know I can be indecisive at times because of that! They may all seem like they are the best choice but it comes to the point that I have to tell myself, “Just pick one, Mark, and go with it!” I can always do another painting using the other ideas at a later date. My problem is that I hate to make mistakes, but more often than not that is how I learn! I need to stop trying to make everything perfect!

At first I was going to have the baby jumping out of the water, but then I thought, how many times have you seen that in Humpback whale paintings? Not that that is a bad thing, for this piece I went with the baby just breaking the surface of the water. I felt it would look better in relationship to the mother below it. 

This is the rough sketch I did for the painting. As you can see, I had a couple of different ideas for the baby.

Down the road I will do a painting with a whale leaping, it is what Humpbacks love to do. It is pretty awesome to see, not that I have seen it in person yet. Of all my trips to Hawaii, the most I have experienced is a whale slapping its flipper on the surface about a mile off shore and the back of one just coming out of the water while on a snorkel cruise. Hopefully the next time I go I will see a whale breaching. My ultimate dream is to some day actually swim with whales. I guess I need to put that on my bucket list!

My dad made a wood carving of a Humpback whale back in the 90's and I have been using it for the different poses of the whales for this piece. It has been a big help to me to look at it from different angles, giving me ideas for more paintings. 

Once I settled on the pose of the baby, it was time to transfer the tracing to the painting. And guess what? I applied a graphite smug to the piece. This time I was able to get it off with out any problems. Have you ever tried so hard to be careful not to screw up and then take a step back and say, “How in the hell did I do that?!” I even had a couple of sheets of paper laid down just so I wouldn't have that problem again. This time instead of an eraser, I used my finger with some water and it came right off. My goal was not to do a lot of work on the baby, just get some basic color and shading down, and then once it dried I will come back and do more later. 

I did a little tweaking on the mother’s tail also. The shape of it did not look right to me, mister perfectionist again! I added a shadow on top of her also, to connect the two together. Otherwise the baby looks like it is farther behind, instead of right above the mother, which is how I want it to look. I am stoked about how everything is coming along with the painting so far. More to do though!

Finishing what I started!

Psalm 104:24-26 O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships; there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.

Last year when I completed my Humpback whale painting that I interred in the fair I really wanted to keep the momentum moving forward with more art. I did not want to repeat what I had done 7 years ago! This was not my first choice for another painting, I have several ideas for more sea life art but this one just kind of stuck in my head. I love the ocean and will always be working on something that has to do with it. The bird painting I just completed for the fair this year was started at about the same time last summer as this one. I put all my focus on it though for the fair this year and set this one off to the side. So it is time to finish it. A friend of mine after seeing a picture of my bird painting asked me if I had anything else done. I showed him a picture of this piece and said I need to finish it though. He said, “Why, its not done”? No, I still have more to do on it. This year my goal is to complete more than one painting and I know to do that I will have to work really hard, but it is doable.

My inspiration for this painting came from a You Tube video of a mother and calf I had found wile looking for some more reference material. The calf at on point leaped out of the ocean and I immediate thought, “that would make an interesting painting”.

At first I was going to do the same thing with this one that I did with my last whale painting by having an angle to the surface of the water. I like that type of effect and will use it in the future but decided to come back to a flat surface for this one. When I started on the blue for the water and sky I was having some trouble blending the colors together. I was using some slow-dry blending gel medium but it just didn't seem to be working for me. It was the first time I had used it and I thought I was doing something wrong. When I let it set for a day it looked a lot better.

The blank board. Funny how every painting starts this way. When I get an idea, I can see the finished piece in my mind. It is bring it to completion that I sometimes struggle with.

My first attempt for the sky and water. I don't know why I had a harder time blending the water, as to the gradation from top to bottom, on this piece, then with the last whale painting I did. It was the first time I had used a slow-dry blending gel medium. I need to be a little more patient with it next time! The sky is a mix of light blue permanent, brilliant blue, titanium white and just a little ultramarine Blue(green shade). The bird painting I completed this year I switched to using cerulean blue for the sky instead of brilliant blue because of a suggestion from a you tube video on painting skies and clouds. I like the cerulean blue a lot better because the light blue permanent and brilliant blue, I feel, have more of a green tint to them, which works great for the water. For the water I am using a lot more brilliant and ultramarine blue.

Next was the sky. I was happy with how it was looking so I decided to start on the whale that would be in the background at the bottom of the painting. When I started this piece I was undecided with the direction the whales would be going in the painting but I settled on my original plan of them moving from left to right. As I finished transferring the tracing to the board I noticed a pencil smug just below the whale. I tried to remove it but I made it worse. I was dreading the thought of having to redo the background, especially after all the trouble I had in the beginning. There was no getting around it so back at it I went. Again, I felt I was having the same problems blending the colors but when I let it set for a day it looked great. I went over the sky to because I noticed that some of the paint from re-doing the underwater splashed up into that area. I learned a good lesson though on how I transfer my drawings to the board. Sometimes I have noticed that I will get graphite from the pencil tracing on my hand and that is probably how the smug got their. When you are starting out on a blank canvas it is no problem but if you are laying it down on top of a painted area, well I am more careful now. There are other ways you can do it but it works the best for me. I would love to have a digital projector but they are a little out of my price range right now.

I was so happy with how the clouds were looking. I should have taped that area off when I re-did the water. I didn't think I was going to splash paint up their! Oh well.

Here I am laying out the arrangement for two of the whales that will be in the painting. I changed the look of the mothers tail, as you will see in the photos below. It was looking to much like the one on the mother of the last whale painting I did.

I know you can't really see the smug here, but If you look at the center of the picture, come down about half way, it is just to the left. I tried to use an eraser to get rid of it but that just made it worse. The blending gel medium I used also retards the drying time of the paint and that probably added to my problem.   

My second attempt for the sky and water. I could say a third time would be a charm but I don't even want to go there! I learned some new techniques, so that is a good thing!

last year wile working on my previous whale painting I came upon this art book by the artist Wyland at a local art supply store. There are some great techniques in his book. Some are just your basics but it helped me more when I started this painting, because of how fare I was along with the other one last year. It is fun when you come upon techniques that other artist have been or are using and can say, “Hay, I am doing that”! I am not trying to be cocky. I do not have a BA or Masters degree in art. For the most part I am a self taught artist. Some of it does come from natural abilities to! I am trying to build up my library with books of artist and their techniques. Wyland uses a technique for the outline of his whales in his paintings with white paint. I decided to try it but came back to using black paint. He works wet on wet and can do a painting in one setting which I admire! His method allows him to blend the background to the whales in the foreground but I like to let the background areas dry first and then come back in and paint my foreground objects. For me right now I like to use a method of building my layers of paint up a little at a time because of the results that I achieve when I do. I am a caucus person, not good at taking risks! I am not knocking his way of painting. I have learned some good techniques form his book and will use them in the future. We all have our way that works best for us but it does help to know what other artist are doing. Especially when you get stuck!

Back to adding the tracing of the whale that would be in the background. After I had the tracing down again and outlined it with white paint I started filling it in. I was amazed at how fast it progressed. The only thing I would do to it now is maybe some more highlights but that is it. And maybe try and fade the image some more to give it depth. Like it is farther back in the water.

I decided to do some work on the ocean surface to. I was nervous to start it at first but really like the the way it is coming along. I also added the whale in the foreground. This also moved along good and I am happy with the progress so far but still have a lot more to do on it. 

 I decided to use Wyland's method of outlining the whale with white paint. I was going to redo the clouds but I decided to get started on the whales instead.

Here I have added the surface of the water to the painting. My goal was to just get the basic idea down because I felt it would help me with the placement of the mother and calf, which it has and it also defines the sky from the water below. Boy was I nervous about doing it. As I have said before, I don't like making mistakes, (mister perfection), but it is part of my learning process! I either fix it or start all over again. The main thing is to keep at it!!!

Closeup of the whale above. I started out using ultramarine blue instead of black to see if it would blend the whale into the water better.

 The mother whale being add. The drawing of the baby at the surface was an idea I was thinking of using at the time.

In the photo above and blow I went back to using black paint to outline and add basic features to the mother. I use a thinned down black because I want the background to show through a little to help it blend in with the water. 

Once the basic outline and features are done, I start adding some color to define the shape of the whales more. Below I have added some white to the mother along with some simple reflections to both whales.

I then decided to focus all of my attention on this whale. The next several pictures show the progression of  it to where I stopped.

Closeup of one of the flippers. Working on blending and fading it in to the water.

This is where I stopped. I am vary happy with how it looks so fare! It took me about 15 min's to complete. I might tweak it a little more but not much!  

I then decided to do some work on the surface of the water, just above the mother's tail. Please bare with me everyone. I know I have a tendency to jump around on my paintings and I am Trying to break that habit! I added some details to the top and underside of the waters surface to make it look more realistic. I also want it to look like the mother has churned up the surface of the water as she dives back under.

 Here and the next two pictures below I am working on defined the shape, color, and my light source for the mother.

 The rest of the photos here is where I stopped last December. I changed the color on the mother's flipper somewhat, not sure if I am going to keep it that way. Some Humpback whales do not have all white on the top of their flippers.

The baby whale I am going to add to the painting has been frustrating me as to how it should look. My original idea for the painting has changed somewhat so I am still undecided on what I am going to do. This is where I am at with it so fare. More to come soon!