Here are some shots of day 1 taking down the first mural and getting ready to put up canvas #2.
I have three months to paint two of the largest commissions of my professional career. Follow me to the finish line.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Day 1 - Take Down "The Damned"
Welcome back to my blog, Three Months in Heaven and Hell. Originally the commission was for me to finish two enormous paintings in three months by the end of December 2014. After a few delays in the project I completed the first painting in 60 days by early 2015. The second painting, The Final Judgement was on hold until August 2015 when I got the green light to start on it. It's funny to note that even though both of these paintings were nearly a year apart, I am still working under the same deadline of "three months" so the title of this blog isn't really as off as I thought it was. If I had to say, truthfully, how many days I truly worked on the first painting during the Christmas season, it was more like 45-50 days out of the 60. With only 5 1/2 weeks to work on this new painting the math all works out.
Here are some shots of day 1 taking down the first mural and getting ready to put up canvas #2.
Here are some shots of day 1 taking down the first mural and getting ready to put up canvas #2.
Friday, September 11, 2015
Some Last Minute Changes to The Damned - Officially Moving on to The Final Judgement
After a few days of making some alterations to the first painting "The Damned" I'm officially moving on to the second painting in the commission "The Final Judgement." My client wanted a little more people in the mid-ground and background of the painting and a few of the figures to be altered. I did a final glaze of Cadmium Red and Vermillion on all the flesh to marry the skin tones to the environment. After it dries in the next 24 hours I will be rolling up the canvas onto a tube and getting the second canvas ready to be taped on the walls of my studio. Some shots before the changes and after are posted below.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Painting Two, The Final Judgement, is in the works...
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| In front of "The Damnation" in January 2015 oil on canvas 8ft x 14ft |
Now that my client is ready for me to resume the second part of this commission I will be starting on a companion piece to The Damned which will be The Final Judgement. This painting will also be 8ft x 14ft with about 100 figures. It will show both Heaven above and demons dividing up and dragging people to Hell. It will be the most ambitious painting of my career so far. That is saying a lot considering the last painting was as challenging as it was. From what I know at this time it will have to be completed by October so it will make for an accelerated timeline again. In plain terms, no sleep for another two months. I will post once I make a few alterations to the Damned painting and I get the new canvas secured to the wall of my studio. You'll hear from me again soon. Get ready for a crazy ride...
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| The Crucifixion - commissioned for St. Sebastian RC Church in Akron, Ohio March 2015 |
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| "Circe" oil on birch 4ft x 5ft May 2015 Shortlisted for the Figurativas International Painting Competition in Barcelona, Spain |
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Day 69
2:57 AM
As promised here are some overall shots of "The Damned" from this past Friday. The photographer and I are still piecing the file together we shot of the painting but here is an overall shot of it that I created from the skewed photo that was taken from the side. The resolution on the camera was pretty incredible and it allowed me to give you a descent overall shot once I stretched it out in Photoshop. There is loss of resolution on the left side but it at least gives you a chance to see everything.
There will be some edits to the painting in the next week or so as I am requesting final approval. With that said, here it is as of Friday, January 23rd.
As promised here are some overall shots of "The Damned" from this past Friday. The photographer and I are still piecing the file together we shot of the painting but here is an overall shot of it that I created from the skewed photo that was taken from the side. The resolution on the camera was pretty incredible and it allowed me to give you a descent overall shot once I stretched it out in Photoshop. There is loss of resolution on the left side but it at least gives you a chance to see everything.
There will be some edits to the painting in the next week or so as I am requesting final approval. With that said, here it is as of Friday, January 23rd.
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| The Damned as of January 23rd. 8ft x 14ft completed in 63 days |
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| This is how the shot looked in my studio. I stretched this out to get the first photo. |
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Day 68
I just wanted to make a quick post to tell everyone that I'll be posting some high quality shots of "The Damned" painting tomorrow. I took some photos of it with photographer Darren Penrod this past Friday. I have a pretty good overall photo, which I haven't been able to take until now due to the enormous size of the painting in the small studio I paint in.
We are still piecing together a VERY large, high quality photo of the painting. Darren shot the painting in 21 pieces which we are assembling in Photoshop. He put the tripod in one spot shot one at 7ft, one at 4ft and one at 1ft then we moved the camera two feet to the right and repeated the process. It's hard to imagine, I'm sure but in the end the file will have little or no loss of resolution.
So stay tuned, tomorrow morning I'll post an overall shot and I'll have some close ups to show as well. For now here's another shot he did of me working.
We are still piecing together a VERY large, high quality photo of the painting. Darren shot the painting in 21 pieces which we are assembling in Photoshop. He put the tripod in one spot shot one at 7ft, one at 4ft and one at 1ft then we moved the camera two feet to the right and repeated the process. It's hard to imagine, I'm sure but in the end the file will have little or no loss of resolution.
So stay tuned, tomorrow morning I'll post an overall shot and I'll have some close ups to show as well. For now here's another shot he did of me working.
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| Working on one of the small figures in "The Damned" painting |
Friday, January 23, 2015
Day 64
12:01 PM
I finished up painting around 3AM last night. I finally started to paint in some of the little people in the background on the right side. In all I probably painted in at least 100 little people. It's funny because I used to have a body of work that centered on little people in these huge apocalyptic skies and landscapes in the mid 90s. I started working on them in college at the encouragement of my art professors who found no merit whatsoever in the beautiful large figurative pieces I was working on at the time. Funny how I remember one of them telling me in a critique, "You'll never make it as an artist painting traditional figurative paintings." Yeah, right..
I digress..
The painting looks great with the little people. I'm going to add more after today but I wanted to wrap things up to have a professional photographer shoot it this afternoon. I've had an impossible time photographing the painting because of my lack of experience, equipment and the size of the room I'm trying to paint this in. After today you'll FINALLY get to see what this painting looks like for me.
Anyhow, I have to go. We need to move some things around to start photographing. I'll be posting them next week for you. I'll also be starting the Final Judgement!!!
You'd think I'd be rejoining after finishing up such a large project, but I'm only, barely, halfway there....
I finished up painting around 3AM last night. I finally started to paint in some of the little people in the background on the right side. In all I probably painted in at least 100 little people. It's funny because I used to have a body of work that centered on little people in these huge apocalyptic skies and landscapes in the mid 90s. I started working on them in college at the encouragement of my art professors who found no merit whatsoever in the beautiful large figurative pieces I was working on at the time. Funny how I remember one of them telling me in a critique, "You'll never make it as an artist painting traditional figurative paintings." Yeah, right..
I digress..
The painting looks great with the little people. I'm going to add more after today but I wanted to wrap things up to have a professional photographer shoot it this afternoon. I've had an impossible time photographing the painting because of my lack of experience, equipment and the size of the room I'm trying to paint this in. After today you'll FINALLY get to see what this painting looks like for me.
Anyhow, I have to go. We need to move some things around to start photographing. I'll be posting them next week for you. I'll also be starting the Final Judgement!!!
You'd think I'd be rejoining after finishing up such a large project, but I'm only, barely, halfway there....
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Day 63
10:40 AM
Back to painting after a busy morning. Poor Alexei woke up numerous times last night with a fever. He's been battling the flu so he's asleep on the couch. Fortunately his temperature is coming down but he isn't eating or drinking anything but Gatorade.
After a whirlwind morning helping Rebekah to organize the house I'm back to resume work. I've been looking forward to today's work for some time. I have to put in a bunch of little people in the background. I didn't want to do much of this until I finished the larger figures throughout the painting. Now with that finished I can have a little fun.
I just found a video my daughter filmed of me from my phone. I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the work on the demons being roughed in.
1:38 AM
Getting to bed a little early tonight. Last night was a little too late. Once I go past the 3:00 AM window I'm in trouble the next day. Fortunately I had a great day painting today. I painted four figures. Tomorrow all I have to paint is the snakes crawling up the leg of "Sloth." After that I have a few adjustments to some of the figures. After that I am going to do a lot of fill in with smaller figures in the background. I'm really excited to do this because it has been almost 20 years since I did paintings with little people. This is an opportunity to show off a lot of ideas I have very quickly. I've done enough studying torture for this reference, the past few weeks that I am ready to move on to something a little less gruesome. I am painting a Crucifixion for a church next week and somehow that seems serene.
I filled in an area on the right side of the painting with a "Catherine Wheel." I have a figure chained to it and he is being turned upside down in the flames. Envy is also painted. I'm looking forward to a few hours extra sleep tonight.
Back to painting after a busy morning. Poor Alexei woke up numerous times last night with a fever. He's been battling the flu so he's asleep on the couch. Fortunately his temperature is coming down but he isn't eating or drinking anything but Gatorade.
After a whirlwind morning helping Rebekah to organize the house I'm back to resume work. I've been looking forward to today's work for some time. I have to put in a bunch of little people in the background. I didn't want to do much of this until I finished the larger figures throughout the painting. Now with that finished I can have a little fun.
I just found a video my daughter filmed of me from my phone. I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the work on the demons being roughed in.
1:38 AM
Getting to bed a little early tonight. Last night was a little too late. Once I go past the 3:00 AM window I'm in trouble the next day. Fortunately I had a great day painting today. I painted four figures. Tomorrow all I have to paint is the snakes crawling up the leg of "Sloth." After that I have a few adjustments to some of the figures. After that I am going to do a lot of fill in with smaller figures in the background. I'm really excited to do this because it has been almost 20 years since I did paintings with little people. This is an opportunity to show off a lot of ideas I have very quickly. I've done enough studying torture for this reference, the past few weeks that I am ready to move on to something a little less gruesome. I am painting a Crucifixion for a church next week and somehow that seems serene.
I filled in an area on the right side of the painting with a "Catherine Wheel." I have a figure chained to it and he is being turned upside down in the flames. Envy is also painted. I'm looking forward to a few hours extra sleep tonight.
Good night.
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