4b. Paint on Canvas

Continuing on with "My Girls," you see my pencil tracing here taped to a stretched canvas. I have already posted how I reach this stage in my work, so I won't go into that detail on this one. You can read my prep techniques in one of my first posts in my archeive (March, 2011 – post 1b).

I have moved to a new house in Costa Rica, but have yet to create a large easel for these big paintings. So, for now I am using two traditional easels, which is a bit of a pain but it works for now.

Once I have transferred my tracing to the canvas I remove the tracing paper and fold it up for my files. Now its time to put some paint on canvas, my favorite part.

Above shows how I am "roughing in" the sky. I have extra canvas on the top and bottom, since that was the size of my stretcher bars and, who knows, I might like the additional area once it is done and change the final size. Since I am working from Costa Rica, this painting will be removed from its temporary stretchers, rolled up and shipped in a tube to the States. Thus, I can cut out any final size I want.

This rough sky is done very fast with a one inch nylon brush that has gotten stiff over time. I rarely throw away large brushes as there is always some use for them as they get old with residue of dried paint that just won't come off during cleaning.

The morning sun is shining its warm colors from the left side of the scene, and these clouds catching that light will set the stage for the rest of the painting. If you look close you can see the pencil tracing lines on the canvas.

Although not always the case, I have decided on this piece to paint the background sky around the penciled rigging of the boats. Sometimes I paint the whole sky in first, let it dry, and then come back with the tracing of the rigging on top of that.

In this case, the majority of the clouded are somewhat away from the rigging and I think I can get away with doing it this way.

When I did my tracing I made a lot of decisions as to what to keep and what to get rid of. There are more riggings than I need to show, and in this older, low-rez photo there are just some things that are blurry and just need to go anyway. I like to keep rigging that will show from viewing the painting at some distance. Most of my rigging is painting with some exaggeration to its size to accomplish this. If its a very thin steel cable, I usually make it look like either thinker cable or old rope. Rope adds some extra charm to old boats, even though they are not so practical for some of its applications. Hey, I'm an artist, not an historian!

Once the basic clouds are painted and I have continued the blue sky across to the right, I start putting in some far background, working back to front for practical reasons.

I should point out here that throughout the painting you will see about four inches on each of the two ends that will be used to stretch the canvas onto its final stretcher bars. So, those areas will not be treated with much detail and will not show in the final photograph. When you view the actual painting, they might be seen on the sides of a "gallery wrap" canvas, as many of my pieces are. I like the idea of a traditional landscape scene presented in a more contemporary format. Or, these areas may disappear behind an actual frame if one is used. That is the choice of the buyer, and people feel differently about this. I'm good either way. 

The original photo i am using as reference had too much stuff in the way to see any water. This little harbor is on the edge of Aransas Bay in Texas and I like showing some of the bay in the distance. It adds another picture plane for depth as the viewer's eye travels through the objects all the way to the horizon.

At this point, I'm not sure about the colors here, but just getting them down in paint. I can always to back and muddy this up and make changes if they don't work out with the paint that will be placed next to them.

This is a giant leap from the last photo. I got carried away and didn't take an interim photo. Mainly because I was "on a roll" with the wet on wet paint flying. this deep-colored buildings and docks only took about an hour to throw down. I eliminated some of the details and kept the paint very loose. The job of this part of the painting, and the dark area to be painted on the right side later, is to give composition "book ends" for the two dramatically lighted boats in the middle. I don't want the viewer's eye to get too caught up in these book ends, so detail will be scarce. 

I went ahead and ran some rough reflections down from the docks while I was at it and had those colors on my palette and brush.

Then, as you can see, I started some work on the small boat's cabin.

Here's the boat further along. I wanted to see the strong light the cabin is catching and how the paint I am using for it works. I came on down with the hull, all wet on wet. Although there wasn't any warm light on the front of the hull, I went ahead and tried some for added drama. These little touches will have to make the final round, but I think I like it.

Now I have roughed in the second boat, and I'm starting to see what I have. The light on these boats will make the painting, particularly when I put in the reflections. 

As usual, I am contrasting warm colors with cool colors. Typical of the palette I often use, the warm colors are: Yellow, Orange, Burnt Sienna and Vandyke Brown and Ivory Black. My cool colors are: Prussian Blue, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Violet and Lamp Black.

I painted the black around the lettering on the hull and will wait until the black is dry to make it easier to paint those in. I continued some of the work on the background, like the oil storage tank, which is also catching some nice warm light.

Working my way across from left to right, I have now tackled the right side. In the original photo there is a ton of stuff here, but I eliminated most of it and settled on fairly simple shapes without so much clutter – again simplifying the background to draw attention to the middle. 

You can see here what I was talking about the crop on the far right. The actual edge of the piece will come close to the roof of the building.

So, backing off now to view the whole canvas at this stage, you can see where I am at. The main objects across the middle have been roughed in, the sky continues to dry, and now its time to bring some reflections down.

Notice anything different? The lettering on the black boat is gone. Since this is a commission, I asked my client if they wanted any personalization on the boats.....that I could live with. That will come later.

You can see here that I started putting in some rough reflections starting from left to right. Once I get all the canvas painted in the water area, I will go back and fix things that need it. Right now, I am still moving fast.

As I go along, I notice things that need immediate attention. These part of the black boat was just too light once I surrounded it with the darks. So, before I go on I have to correct it. I might even make it darker later if i need to.

Now I move on to the reflections on the right side. Like the others, I am just roughing them in, but the basic structure is starting to take shape.

Here is a reminder of the photo I am working with. Lots of things are gone. Next time I will continue with the rough reflections and see where we go from there.

Meanwhile, "Pura Vida" from Costa Rica!