Anatomy of a Special Order Painting

A few months back I was contacted by a kind fan who was interested in having me do a surprise painting for a friend who is also a fan of my work.  The idea was something totally in my style (I'm kind of stuck in the rut of my style for better or worse, but I love it when someone pretty much just wants me to do my thing).  He suggested a figure holding a cat and a dog. And sent a few photos for inspiration. Of course my trio don't look an awful lot like the the real characters but it was fun and easy.

After a bit of discussion I do a pencil sketch for approval. And he loved it.

 Once the sketch is approved the agreement is that the rest is up to me until I'm finished. Above is the red gesso I always start with then after tracing the drawing I start with gold leafing.

 Then it's pretty much flat colors. Since I'm usually working on more than one piece the original layer is usually dry before I return to add shading, and in this case lots of fur.

There is always fine tuning of colors and in this case you can see how things changed as I added more warm colors and exaggerated the shading.

                        And before shipping emailed a finished photo that was well received.

New Paintings

Seems like I'm using a lot more gold leaf lately. I guess I was tired and too lazy with the process there for a while but now I'm back to it. It takes an extra bit of balance when painting. The gold leaf has such a brightness it's like putting your composition in front of a bright window. -It takes a bit of fineness to make it not seem to dark and back lit. (think of taking a portrait photo in front of a bright window)

          These bottom two pieces are recent commission pieces that were both easy and fun.

It Just Looks Like I'm Productive

Sometimes I hear how people are amazed at how much work I do. I probably should keep it to myself but really, there is a lot of couch time going on here.  This has just occurred to me as I get ready to post 6 new paintings as if I just popped them out today. To put it in perspective this is all I have to show since the beginning of December. Since most of the holiday work needs to be in galleries by the end of November I pretty much take the month of December off. This has just sort of evolved over time. The pressure is off, it's time to bake cookies for friends and family, decorate that Christmas bush etc. Then before I new it it was January. Well here are a tiny series for this next upcoming Enormous Tiny Art Show at the Nahcotta Gallery in Portsmouth New Hampshire. It opens Feb 1st.  Everything is also sold online. It's a fun show and since the work is all $50-500  there are always some great deals. (I bought one myself- I like to support my fellow Tinys.

                                  Not to mention that these are 5"x5" with the largest at 6"x7"

Another Special Order Finished

I couple months ago I recieved  a fan mail from someone who had been admiring a painting in a gallery that represents me. After thinking about it for some time he noticed it missing one day when he stopped in. I thought he was joking when he wrote to see if I had that painting available, as I just the DAY BEFORE received a check for it. -He was hoping the gallery had returned it after having it for a while and was suffering some buyers remorse.

I said I wold be happy to work with some of the elements that really drew him to the painting in the first place. We agreed I would do three sketches and and he could choose his favorite for me to work from for the finished work. It was kind of fun, and I ended up liking all three. (ok maybe one more than the others but I won't tell)

 A bit hard to tell in these photos but hopefully you get the idea. Basically working with a gold leaf circle large foreground/background split, and a very soulful face that wasn't to kooky.

The finished piece. I like how it came out. Waiting for the paint to dry, but the customer loved the photo.

Special Order Recession Buster

Here are a two small pieces I did for a customer who loves my work and just couldn't afford a larger framed original painting. She gave me several paintings of mine she really liked and things about them and I agreed to do two paintings and she could choose her favorite.

                      Luckily the subject matter was easy and fun. (These are each 6"x 7")

She loved them both and decided to go with this guy above.

So the other piece joins it's friends on the wall. -All currently available priced between $200-400. (most are $250.)

New Paintings Part One

Just getting around to putting these up on the blog. The one at the bottom is one that was a bit of a struggle (which I will do a short post on later). I like how it came out in the end. The first two were 'easy peasy'. The middle one seemed a bit boring to me half way through but now that it's done I quite like like it.

This guy on top was fun and easy until there seemed somehow not enough going on color wise. I have to literally look around sometimes when a piece doesn't work and think 'the balance is off- it's all a bunch of greens and browns. What other colors are there that would wake it up a bit?' Then I added all the blueish stuff behind on one side. It fixed it for me.

Getting Ready for The Studio Tour

I'm working on a few last minute paintings for this year's upcoming Ojai Studio Artist's Tour. My studio will be featured among others on a new Concierge Tour Option. Last I heard they were sold out Saturday but there may still be availability for Sunday. Of course you can always visit me and all the OSA artists with the regular ticket.  Click here for advance purchase tickets and to check on the Concierge tour availability: 

 http://www.ojaistudioartists.org/studio_tour.html

And the Winner Is.........

Well yesterday marked the last day of July. I'm always half loving summer and yet somehow sad that it will be over soon. And I now live were it is almost virtually always summer climate-wise. I think I have a residual thing from when I was a kid and couldn't wait for school to be over so I could be FREE! -Then of course before you know it school and winter would be looming. As an adult I have one of the free-est jobs there is- No freezing cold winter, and somehow the brain (or heart) still hangs onto those patterns.
  Anyhow I remembered it was time to pick a winner for my little give away and after throwing the names in a hat the winner is Jan Polacco. Congratulations Jan!

 Jan's new friend......And thank you for all you who entered and added your kind comments and encouraging words. I will continue to do a couple of these a year, so stay tuned.

 I have been working on some tiny paintings for the upcoming Enormous Tiny Art Show in Portsmouth New Hampshire. Here are are a couple of them below.

And of course my faithful companion.

Give Away and New Paintings

Happy summer everyone! To celebrate and offer my continued thanks to you all here is a little give away for you. The below sketch is a pencil drawing from my sketchbook that I hand colored with pencils. If you are interested just say hi (and a name please) in the comment section below and you will be entered for a random drawing. I will ship to the winner at the end of July.

Getting some new ready work for upcoming shows. I have a few new galleries I will let you know about soon but thought I would include a few paintings with their original inspirations to show you a bit of the process.

 The white pencil sketch was just a mindless thing that happened but I liked it enough and decided to make it into one of my small paintings on board.

 I seem to have a thing for these old fashioned phones and like the symbolism behind the communication aspect of them too.

 This above shot is sadly out of focus but it gives you the idea. It is one of my paper bag drawings that I added just a hint of color to. I loved how it came out and the painting ended up having quite a different feeling but hopefully lovable as well.

 Thank you to you all and enjoy the sweetness of summer. -Chris