Lesser Apotheoun
 

I made a smaller version of Apotheoun, with the intent of creating a painting demonstration from start to finish. I am still incomplete on the demonstration images, but am unveiling the finish of this small painting anyway. I called it Lesser Apotheoun for lack of imagination on my part, but it does describe it for what it is.

This is oil on poplar, cradled on the back. It measures 14.5 by 14 inches and is scaled the same as Apotheoun, which is virtually life-size. It has a different feel in its execution, since it is on a smooth panel surface, rather than linen. The poplar panel was sized with Gamblin PVA Size, and then I painted upon it. I should add, it is unframed, so this is the entire image.

Currently is is in an exhibition at the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia, running from January 29 through March 5, 2006; and has received a nice prize dividend as well, I had not expected.

As always, your thoughts and ideas are appreciated.

Garth

Great Garth, I'm anxious to see the demo.

By the way, when are u going to build a website?

Garth,

are you going to show the demo in here ? I may not be the only one to pop in and have a look at it. :D

On Poplar. Reminds me about Leonardo da Vinci who painted all his oils on poplar. Please tell about that also.

It struck me that, no matter how big or small part of the world one chooses to paint, the motif will and should always contain all the elements of a balanced composition. Light and shade, sharp and soft edges, contrasting colors etc..... a fine painting is always a perfect world.

Allan

Ooohhhhh goody -- I can hardly wait! Even if you have just a few images it would be great to see them.

Garth, congratulations on this multi-prizewinning work! I think it would be wonderful as a demo.

Garth, Congratulations!

Looking forward to the demo. . . and let me second Claudemir's question: When are you going to get a web site? It'd be nice to be able to see your work aggregated in one place! :D

Garth, congrats!

And thirdly....website, perhaps (just say yes)...

Truly looking forward to your (to steal some of your secrets) demo!!

Congratulations Garth - and beautiful painting as always!
Im looking forward to a demo as well. And a website. :)

Finally, the link to the Demo!
 

Dear Claudemir, Allan, Michele, Alex, Terri, David, and Kim,

Thanks for your unified chorus of kind words, enthusiasm and arm twisting! There still is no website. However, I did manage to complete an ambitious scheme for a digitally animated painting demonstration, that is unfortunately too involved and large scaled to post here.

So this is the link to the demo at another site.

I thank everyone for their patience and hope the demonstration has been worth the wait!

Thanks again,

Garth

It was not only worth the waiting but also very interesting and instructive.
Thanks for sharing.

The prize was well-deserved too!
I liked the animation very much, are considering recording a video?

Thanks, Garth -- very interesting demo! (Is that the old Nell Arte forum?)

Are the upper layers done with dry brush scumbles with more or less opaque paint? Also, when you show a new step in the animation does that represent one new layer or many new layers?

Dear Claudemir and Michele,

Thanks so much! I see why others do videos now. That would be much easier than what I did.

This demo is posted on the newly established Art and Artistry Forum, up and running since late October. It's a very multi-disciplinary and all encompasing community of artists, and a well mannered bunch.

Michele, I think you are right in that much of the upper layer developments are more or less opaque scumbles to alter and build on the under layers.

The animation steps are partly arbitrary. I was basically just painting, but every so often when I felt something significant had changed in the development, I took a progress photo, thirty in all. The changes in each step may be small or large. To condense the presentation, I combined every three progress shots together forming ten groups of three images each. Each subsequent .GIF animation represents the subsequent three image progressions and there are no overlaps, as useful as that could be in certain instances.

I wish I could post this demonstration directly on this Forum, but if I did it would require significantly scaling it down. Those .GIF files are huge! I am amazed they posted and worked at all. I am glad we can link these and other useful WIP demonstrations from time to time. My preference would be to post the same here too, were it possible.

Thanks again,

Garth

Great Demo Garth!
 

Wow Garth! What a cool way to do the demo.

LOVE the way the images update in stages. You must had had the camera fixed in the same position the whole time to get all those the images so perfectly aligned?

*** :cool: This would be great on your website! ;) ***

Thanks Terri! In truth, I did not have the camera rigidly set. What a help that would have been! I had little foresight of what I would be producing with these casually hand-held progress shots. They were a true nightmare to straighten out and edit. Don't try this at home! Photoshop is amazing, I must say.

Garth

Now on YouTube!
 

Folks,

I failed to mention several months back that I uploaded a 30-frame video demonstration of this painting in progress on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtAYUZl8BnQ

or follow this link .

It would be interesting to get some opinions on this type of demonstration. There are many others worth watching (filmed with actual video cameras, as opposed to mine which was cobbled from digital still photos). I think many here could do the same and post more demos there.

Anyway, it would be nice to get some response from real artists. Here is a recent comment I had to chuckle about:

"Fake,
scan a real picture, then add many different filters until you get something completely different, then cancel one by one all the filters and you have same result, [................]"

Oh well, that one should perhaps be deleted. Another YouTube demo artist just privately suggested I delete it.

Enjoy!

Garth

Great video, and a useful teaching tool. I'll recommend it to my students when I teach a portrait work shop next month.

The music is a hoot -- maybe I should listen to something like that while I paint!

I liked that very much, and I sure will enjoy seeing others like that one.

You always do a great job!

Well it took me longer to make that demo than it took to paint the darned thing in the first place!

Thanks, and again I hope others here add some additional demos. It was pioneering days when I put it up.

Garth

Garth, I found it always interesting when an artist opens a window on his method.
I was struck by the exactness of the tones that you put down, which were all basically right from the beginning.
I remember when you posted photos of your colour mixing process and its complexity. I understand you paint on the palette before than on the canvas.
Thank you for sharing this.
Ilaria