Hi Everyone,

    I thought for this blog entry I would take you through the process
of how I bring a painting to life. Not the plein air type painting, or
the pure landscape painting, where just a photo or standing in a single spot on location gives you everything you need to paint a picture. No, I'm talking about story scenes.  From getting an idea for a painting (no matter how you get that idea), taking different pictures for reference, doing sketches that put them all together into a composition that works best. Then, if the light effect is different than your photos, doing a small color study to help you work out the lighting and color  temps. So that when it's time to do the finished painting, you give yourself the best chance at success and can concentrate on the actual application of paint to the canvas. At least that's how it works for me, and for most of the artists I know who do these types of paintings.

Let's take the painting Learnin' the Ropes and talk about how it came to be. I started with a photo of a young boy at a rodeo who was sitting on a horse practicing with his lariat before his competition started. I liked the general feeling of this photo and from this came up with the idea for the painting. However, there were some problems that every photo seems to come with that had to be addressed. First, the horses head was turned and in the wrong position. You couldn't see much of it, so I had to add a different head. Second, the photo was cropped just below the horses belly and there were no legs showing. I had to invent the scene of the dusty herd of cattle behind him and the brush, trees, mountains and sky all around him. And the light effect had to all match. So I started with compositional sketches and worked out what I needed to do to arrange the various elements. Unfortunately, I didn't save any of these sketches since they are usually throw aways and didn't think of doing this blog until recently. Let's just say, it's rough at this stage and is only for composition. Varying the size and shapes to make an arrangement that's pleasing to the eye. Fortunately  though, I did keep the next step, which was to do a more detailed drawing where the elements are more detailed and worked out. This tells me if the idea works with the unknowns filled in. Things like the different pieces of reference you've brought together to try to morph into one. Some things will work together and some won't. The trick is knowing the difference early enough to make the change without wasting a lot of time. Here is the first tighter sketch.
So now its time to start on the finished painting. I transfer the drawing to the canvas and begin painting. As this one progresses, I decide that I'm not happy with the pose of the horse I'm putting in (one of the things I should have caught at the pencil stage). I always get myself in trouble and make more work than I should by not listening to that small voice that tells me to pay attention. The lighting is not right for the scene. I decide it should be more of a backlit horse, almost a silhouette with the edges lit up. I have another horse that will work with minimal changes, so I scrape off the first one, but before I commit to the new light effect, I decide to paint a smaller study that has a very similar lighting condition that I photographed while in Tubac Arizona last year. This will take a little extra time, but it will save me time in the long run by familiarizing me with this new light effect. Also, I'd been wanting to paint the Tubac scene and in the end, I would have another nice little painting, Here is the completed painting, which I've titled
 

    
                         Got Shade?


  With the study to guide me, I proceed with painting the new horse and I know right away that this was the right call. It sits in the scene easily and naturally. The entire scene reads as a whole. It works.

After I get it to where I think its close, I need to put it aside for awhile, a week is best, but a few days will do in a pinch. No peeking. Then I look at it again with fresh eyes. Do any values jump out at me as being too dark or too light? Are there enough temperature changes where they make sense. Does it look finished, or are there any parts that look like I was unsure of myself as I painted it? Those do stand out.  Does the focal point draw you to it? I decide to reduce the size of the loop of the lariat that frames the boy's face, I think it's just a  bit too large, and I know that if I leave it and sell the painting, I will always wish I had changed it. Like Richard Schmid says, "Never leave anything on your canvas that you know is wrong".  I also live by another quote my illustration teacher told once me, 'Never accept things in your work that you wouldn't accept in another's work" (poor drawing, colors, composition, etc.) . I call it the "Good Enough" syndrome.  It's some of the best advice I ever got, or give, thats for sure!

So here's the finished painting with the new horse and all the detail. I kept the lightest areas around the boy to keep the focus where I want it.



Thanks for looking and Happy Painting!    

     Steve