5FTABaA (continued)

Coming in at #2 on the list of my favorite things about being an artist is finishing a tube of paint. It is amazing to think of how 150 ml of pure color can be mixed in every different way and then influence years of paintings. But I as I don't know it's born on date and fat finger deleted a pic of the recently departed crushed and cap-less tube of olive green, I will not wax philosophic in it's eulogy and instead skip to it's single painting epitaph, "us 20 (dream brother)":


- jb boyd

As The Wall I Paint On...

...gently vibrate as the edge of Hurricane Irene blasts my house with winds, all I can think of is: baton down the hatches my northern brethren! And I'm also hoping that the water turned clear. More to follow on that.


Tonight I had a little double barrel palette action going on. The show is coming together!

- jb boyd

It Ain't Done...

...but it ain't a bad start either!



- jb boyd

Decisions, Decisions...

I get to paint the walls for my show, and I am stoked! I think I know which way I am leaning, but here is your chance to chip in your two cents.


Or here, you can judge the colors against a painting.


Thanks in advance for any input, and a chance at blog glory later for any well worded, fun, or sound advice!

Have a great one!

jb.

In The Studio Tonight...

The center third of four feet tall by two feet wide painting in progress.


- jb boyd

My Computer Ate...

...the photos of the ovals going through the panel making process, but I thought I would post these instead.


Here I included my palette to appease all the people who thought I made mine up for the Palette & Palette show.


After the sky was dry, it was on to filling in the water, all four feet of it, as this painting measures 2x4'.


Gradually, and over several painting sessions, the small shapes give way to larger ones and the going gets easier.


Not bad for a first layer, so I am going to leave this one to finish in the gallery during my September show!


- jb boyd

Circles!

I'm excited about painting in a new format, and with water paintings, what works better than round, porthole sized (if you are on the Titanic), circles? Shown below, there are four. The top one is the print of the photograph. The second is the panel I paint on, with a warm burnt sienna undertone. Then there is the panel sized, black and white print out. The back is covered in charcoal, then I place the print out over the panel and trace the dominant shapes, here by value of lights and darks.


Finally, there is my computer, which I set up somewhere else, but keep in view because my printer likes to add in phantom colors and turn the greens black. (Note: I sometimes split the screen to sort of watch but mainly listen to TV, lately the wonderful webisodes of Dr. Horibble's Sing-A-Long Blog and The Guild on repeat. If you like awkward comedy and smarmy superheros, check them both out! PS. Thanks Charlie!)


Here is the panel, with the faint lines from the tracing just barely visible. The wavy lines are, well, the waves, while the vertical lines are hashing to separate the dark spaces from the lighter ones. A majority of the shapes are really created while painting, but once again using available technology, this is a quick way to hammer out the perspective inherent in the size of shapes to get the level of detail I seek.


Finally, here is the first layer completed over two long studio sessions. And thanks to my less than ideal old iPhone camera, it looks pretty good! But in reality it sucks hard, and will need another complete layer of paint followed by a glaze to smooth out the transitions and build in detail. But not a bad start...

- jb boyd

I Thought Half The Fun...

…of making paintings of water would be getting to go swim an count it as "work." Sadly, getting drilled in the face by oncoming waves gets old pretty quick.


But I must say it does beat the swarms of no-see-ums that lurk in the marsh, so this is not a complaint. And each new challenge necessitates new approaches. This time, a waterproof white balance card is my new favorite solution, pictured here floating behind me:


White balance cards rock because they tell your camera what the temperature of light is, resulting in fairly accurate colors, which is key, especially in the changing light of dawn and dusk. Try it at home by dragging out your camera's manual and looking up "custom white balance" in the index, then use a sheet of white paper for your card. You may be amazed at the results, especially in low or indoor lighting. But the real hero here is my now not so new waterproof, shockproof, freezeproof (aka JB-proof) camera.


Without using this available technology, I'd never be able to take on the level of detail that I try to maintain in my paintings. Or I could, but I would have to spend half a lifetime on one subject (google Venice water paintings or better yet, visit the Getty next time you are near LA), and what is the fun of that? Speaking of my other half of fun, back to painting!


- jb boyd