Steve

Jean Kelly · 01-28-2004, 01:18 PM

Hi, it's been a while since I've done a person, so thought I better have someone look over my shoulder. This is Steve, Jaque's son and a good friend of ours. It's 40" x 30", oil on canvas.

He's a self-employed carpenter, and plays Santa every year, dyes his beard and eyebrows white for the season and visits children all over our area. He's as much of a character as his mother was.

I am putting him outdoors, with wood, and in a sunny location, fall with all its colors seemed appropriate for his personality. A coffee cup may go on the bench next to him. I've toned the canvas and many areas are not painted at all yet, and these first layers are very thin.

I'm using Daniel Greene's palette from the "Artist's Magazine' so will be rereading the thread on him. I need two palettes to mix all the paint and so far it's taken 1.5 hours just to get ready! So please advise if necessary, and thank you for looking.

Jean

P.S. His reference photo is in the photo critique section. I'll post it here when I can get it back in my photo program. He also comes over often for life work.

Kimberly Dow · 01-29-2004, 02:13 AM

This looks interesting so far Jean - great character. I am not able to see what is going on with his hand closest to us though. Is there something in his fingers?

Jean Kelly · 01-29-2004, 01:58 PM

Hi Kim,

Yes he's holding his big, fat, ever present, stogie. He doesn't smoke it when playing Santa though. Sometimes it's lit, most times it's not. His hand will make more sense when all the parts are in.

I tried using the mix of Alizarin Crimson and Sap Green for the warm shadows and don't like it at all. It seems too warm and violet. I may have mixed it wrong so will try again or use something else. (3/4 AC +1/4 SG)

My foreground is not going to be that intense green (Sap Green) it has many grasses poking up through the bench and table, also on the left side. I'm just trying it as a "base" color. I'm doing this as a freebie, so can experiment as much as I want. Steve is providing me with wood scraps to paint on, sanding services, and other misc. stuff, so I can have some fun with this one.

Jean

ps, I'll be fixing his deformed cheek (his left) today.

Steven Sweeney · 01-30-2004, 02:17 PM

Jean, you mentioned wanting to get the reference photo in here, so I figured I'd copy it into the thread. Hope this is the right one:

Jean Kelly · 01-30-2004, 03:29 PM

Hi Steven,

Yes that's it, thank you!

Last night I must have been possessed by the evil color painting demon, so will be wiping out much today. Maybe this palette has too many colors for me! I'll post again when it no longer has the potential to cause heart attacks.

Jean

Jean Kelly · 01-31-2004, 05:15 PM

Hi again,

Well, I'm muddling my way around this painting in my normal scattered way. Done more work on his face, I'm using a different reference for his facial features. The reference is very poor for his face due to the shadowed area (under the porch). He also has changed glasses so wanted his new ones in the painting. He'll be here for the Super Bowl tomorrow so I plan to work on his left elbow and arm, I will put him in the pose with his elbow resting on a table to get a better feel for the weight of his arm and table angle.

The area under the table will be quite dark, with golden grasses peeking out. The grasses continue to the left side of the canvas and will break up the blocky square feel of the bench against the side of the canvas. The strong parallel line at the bottom of the bench will be broken up.

His left nostril is too low, and I'll be fixing that. I find this palette to be confusing right now and have been struggling with temperature in skin tones. I'll be changing the violet tint of the shadows to a green tint. I hope this makes some sense. I had used the alizirin crimson/sap green mix to create warm shadows and did not like it at all. (Hence the heart attack issue) so I'm back square one.

Jean

Jean Kelly · 01-31-2004, 05:19 PM

Oops! Photo didn't post.

Jean Kelly · 01-31-2004, 05:26 PM

This is the reference for his facial features.

Jean

I seem to be having some problems posting images today, I'll be back in later.

Jean Kelly · 02-02-2004, 02:59 PM

Hello again,

I'm still struggling along with this palette, but am doing better. At least he's not a strange shade of violet anymore. I have a lot of work to do on values in his face. As I wrote before, I'm not using the actual photo ref posted for his face due to the heavy shadow.

I'm working all over the canvas, and there are still areas that have no paint at all. And the Sap Green has been toned way down.

Jean

Jean Kelly · 02-02-2004, 03:11 PM

A little closer. The photo posted too dark and with too much contrast, so I brightened a decreased the contrast on this one. Hopefully it will be more true to the original. Steve will be over tonight to "smoke his stogie" so I can try to capture the smoke and color of a lit cigar. These are a very deep brown Nicaraguan cigar and one of the few that actually smell quite nice.

The earlier pgoto also looked too red.

Jean