1952 Forest Green MGTD

(Click image to see enlarged view)

The photograph for this painting originally had the car sitting in a grassy field with other antique cars and people wandering around in the background. I decided to paint a birch grove as an alternative background.

I had trouble with the green color by getting too much sap green and a bit of indigo in the mix. It initially made it too dark/drab. I pumped it up by adding some phalo green which is a truer, brighter hue.

I completed the background first and then started the car. I thought at first that I should have painted the car a different color. The background was primarily green so having a green car made the painting look pretty monochromatic. But once I had the darker values painted, the background faded a bit and the car popped out.

One thing always surprises me (and I don't know why I haven't figured it out yet) is how much the dark values like shadows make the painting. In this one the shadows under the headlights, to the left of the radiator and underneath the car were critical.

I like the left front wheel and the chrome on the grill and headlights.

LOST MARBLES

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18" x 15" unframed

I had a photo of some marbles that I thought I might paint. The photo wasn't that good and I had trouble defining the composition and values. So I decided to take my own picture. But where to find the marbles? I ended up buying a bag of marbles from a local toy store. And although there was one bigger marble and about 25 smaller ones, they were all the same design.

I set up the photo so I'd have the size and shape of the marbles then changed the designs of the marbles when I drew the image on the watercolor paper. Originally I had the larger marble on top of the crayons at the mouth of the jar. But my "art director" felt it looked awkward so I moved it off to the left.

I realize that I've done crayons and jars before. I guess I can't get enough of them. In reality I wasn't confident enough in my ability to make the marbles realistic to make the composition just marbles. My next painting will be marbles only.

This was a tough painting to draw. Getting the marbles round without tracing an object took some work and I wasn't totally successful. Getting the crayons at the correct angle also took some time. And finally drawing the mouth of the Mason jar was difficult. I probably spent two hours drawing the entire composition.

In the end I was happy with how this turned out. I'm glad I "invented" the marble designs and made each different. I think a little highlighting gives the impression of glass. I added between 5-6 layers of paint on each of the crayons to get the color and intensity I wanted. Adding the black bands around each crayon makes a huge difference in defining the objects. I also am glad I left a lot of white space on this one and didn't try to fill in just for the sake of painting on paper.

I will be showing this painting and the ham sandwich painting at the 2007 Asian Celebration this weekend.

STREET VENDOR

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This painting is from a photograph by friend Tim Craig. Tim has spent a lot of time in the Middle East and has taken pictures wherever he goes.

This image is of a street vendor who was selling cigarettes. I modified the drawing a bit for the painting by simplifying the background and cropping the size.

The challenge with this painting was to get the blue cloth to look right. There are a lot of folds and shadows. I do like the depth of the background with the shadows of the wood against the brick wall. I'm also satisfied with the man's craggy face.

The man's right hand looks too large, but it appears that way in the picture. I don't know if there is something wrong with his hand or the camera lens just made it look bigger than it really is.