Winter Evening: Step 20
Wednesday, July 14th, 2004
So how often do you get to say, “Oh, you know that painting I have been working on off and on for that last five months? Yeah, well, I finished that today.”? I don’t get to say that very often either but let me tell you, in case you don’t ever get the chance, it feels pretty good. Almost as good as standing back after putting the last brush stroke on the signature and thinking to yourself, “Wait a minute…it’s done! Looks pretty good too,” and then standing there staring at the thing for an hour.
The truth is the painting isn’t completely finished yet. I still have at least a full day of touch-up work (I mentioned before the need to re-touch the flames, etc.) and of course there is the varnish. But basically, what you see in these images is a finished piece. The touch-up work probably won’t show up on your monitor anyway…unless your monitor is 48” X 30” and I get a much better camera. Speaking of what you see here, and before I go on to ramble about the various bits I have been working on the past few days, let me explain a little about the images which accompany this post. First of all, these images were taken with a medium grade (by today’s standards) digital camera in indoor, artificial light with a bit of diffused sunlight striking through window blinds from the side. This means that not only are the colors not quite true to the original, they may actually be wildly inaccurate (again depending on the quality of your monitor). The sideways quality of the light tends to exaggerate the texture of the paint and lighten the values of the colors closest to the window (the left side of the image). There may also be some distortion of the shape of the painting…blah, blah, blah…but then you have all taken photos, so there you go. Another concern is the various states of dryness of the paint. Different pigments dry with different surface qualities. For example, as mentioned before, the areas of the painting containing a lot of ivory black will be considerably more matte when dry than the rest of the painting. Matte paint scatters more light and looks much lighter in these images than it will once the painting is varnished. After the varnish is dry, and before I ship the piece, I will have it professionally photographed, and a transparency made. Once scanned in the transparency will yield a more accurate digital image for the gallery’s website.
So, back to the painting. Three images are included with this post. I have included a full view of the entire piece, a close-up of the figure, and a detail of the signature, which I will discuss later. The major changes since the last post are the completion of the figure and the pillow.
I don’t think there is much to say about the feet other than this: feet are weird. Don’t believe me? Try painting some. If you get them just right no one notices… but if they are the slightest bit off all you hear is, “So what’s the deal with those freak feet?” The pants on the other hand were a real treat to paint. They took a bit of time but I couldn’t be more pleased with the result. The biggest challenge with the pants was the color. The model was wearing deep burgundy pants with a pink stripe in the reference photos. I felt that the composition required something a bit more subdued for the large area of the pants, so I went with an earth tone grey. (Also, I think the burgundy would have been weird against the reddish tones of the leather chair.) I also wanted to keep things interesting so I played off the fire by making the stripes bright orange.
The book was comparatively easy to paint, but let me nip the obvious question of what the figure is reading in the bud right now. I can’t see the cover either, so it must not be very important to the theme (either that or I really goofed).
The pillow seems like a small detail but I’m proud of the way it turned out. It was once burgundy as well, but I think it is much nicer in its current orange/gold state. What I did manage to get from the reference material, other than the basic shape, was the sort of fuzzy softness of the thing.
I mentioned earlier that the third image is a detail of the signature. I have been signing each major painting with a version of what has become my monogram… a lower case ‘b’. Each time I have tried to find a way to make the ‘b’ fit the particular painting it adorns by either mimicking the theme or by being composed of objects specific to the piece. I have painted ‘b’s made of wood, built out of blocks, shaped like airplanes or rockets, ‘b’s built into skyscrapers or skylines, sketched out in blueprints, painted on walls or stamped into construction equipment, and on and on. For this painting I considered a stone ‘b’ to match the fireplace, a ‘b’ made out of books or a chapter heading type ‘b’ that you might find in a book. I considered a leather ‘b’. In the end however, the idea of a ‘b’ made out of fire was just too cool to pass up. I have received a lot of feedback, both positive and negative, concerning the large logo-like signatures on my paintings, but I really like them. I am proud of the things I paint.
I will send in one last post on this piece once I have the transparencies back from the photographer. Until then, I encourage anyone with a question or comment about the piece to send it in. I have enjoyed participating in the “Artist’s Studio”. It has given me a chance to take an outside look at a piece while working on it, and to critically analyze some of my thinking and processes as the piece has progressed. I hope to have the chance share more of my upcoming work in the same way.


The next big project was the shirt. It was a bit of a toss-up weather to paint it or the arms first, but I was curious to see if the reflected light on the right side of the face would look right next to the bright fabric of the shirt, so the shirt won. Painting clothing is a bit more delicate than it may seem. Although the folds and wrinkles in the cloth may seem almost random, they speak volumes about the shape of the figure underneath them. It is actually quite surprising what a difference a wrinkle in the wrong place can do. The model was wearing a bright white shirt in the reference photos, but I thought a subtle lavender would be a bit more feminine, so I tweaked the color a bit. I also added a considerable amount of cad yellow to the highlight color to give a bit more of a firelight effect.


