"Malia" the Hawaiian mermaid is done!

I finished the final glazing of the woodgrain and added in 23 karat gold leaf to the areas where the sun reflects, such as the water, sarong, scales. Peter Mounier photographed her last week and here are the final shots.
Now it's all in the hands of the glasser now...she is getting her final coat of gloss polish resin today. the art should have a lot of depth and richness after the final buffing.

Hawaiian mermaid update

Here are the latest photos of the Hawaiian mermaid on the faux wooden board. Due to the hot dry weather lately, it's been difficult to paint in acrylic glazes because they dry so fast, so it's taking quite a lot of work to get her looking how I want. I still probably have another week on her and will be posting weekly updates.

I've been able to work more on the mermaid; developing colors for her skin tone. I have been using a wide variety of warm and cool reds as glazes, when normally I just stick with my warm red for fairer skin tones. Being a Hawaiian mermaid, she will have a sarong draped across her chest and a plumeria in her hair.

The artist with up-and-coming artist son, busy at at work in the studio.

Here is an update of the woodgrained longboard I am currently working on. The Hawaiian mermaid is coming along, but still lots of glazing, detail, rocks and background info to be added. More updates next week.

Fiberglass to Wood

I forgot to take a picture of this board when it was handed to me by Jeff Malmen--he shaped it especially for me to paint. It's a nice size of 8' and is an incredible shape. For now it is just hot coated, which I what I prefer to paint on. When I'm done painting it, I will deliver it to Jeff so he can put the final gorgeous coat of gloss resin on it. He will buff it out to a shine.

This board was solid white, with a 1/4" basswood stringer and a redwood glassed-on fin. Here is the work in progress:

Faux redwood and heartgrain wood with crossfire

You can see where I am going to paint a Hawaiian mermaid on the bottom of this board. She will be laying on lava rock, near the edge of the shore.

More updates to come as I work come closer to finishing it.....

From Doodle to Work of Art

If you've ever wanted to see the various steps that go into completing a painting, now's your chance!

The Idea: It all starts with an idea, and I wanted to create a flowing composition with kelp, ocean critters local to the central coast, and a dynamic struggle between opposite colors: blue and orange. Of course I wanted to to all revolve around a beautiful mermaid.

The doodle: you sketch it out a few times on a really small scale, just to get ideas, make a small "rough." Hard to imagine a completed painting from this, right?

The Sketch: The next step is to finalize the sketch. As you can see, I don't do much detail in my final sketches. Most of the time I end up working out the elements directly on the canvas (which sometimes makes me want to kick myself for not working it out on paper first).

Blocking in color: Next, you lay it out on canvas with vine charcoal. This charcoal can be easily wiped off so if you make mistakes and change your mind a lot like I do, it's very helpful. After this step, I paint in the final lines, still correcting and changing as I go.

Mixing color: I spend quite a bit of time mixing up all my fleshtones and the neutrals for painting skin. Every element in the painting reflects its color on the skin of your subject.

Blocking in: Then it's time for the first coats of paint to be blocked in in large areas of flat color.

Glazing, Blending and half tones: Transitions between areas of shadow and light are very important. I try to not make mine too smooth, so to avoid an "airbrushed" look. I enjoy seeing thick areas of painted piled up to define space, and luminous tones that "emerge" from the background. Glazing really gives the water a 3 dimensional glass-like appearance. You have to wait for each layer to try, but it's worth it.

She's not done, but she's close! I have to wait for her to cure up so I can glaze a bunch more, put a fish shadow on her skin, and to spend a bit more time on the water and kelp. Final photo coming in a couple weeks!

Why do redheads make wonderful sirens?

Here are a couple of my latest figurative works, of a model posing on a jade rock. The photos are not great, mainly because I took them. I love painting human skin, with all of it's transparency and challenges.

The first one, as soon as it dries really well, will be gold leafed with 23K gold. Gold Leafing, or guilding,  is a process that dates back at least 7,000 years, Egyptians being some of the first known  to use gold leaf. They washed the sand from the Nile for gold, then melted it in a sealed kettle to get pure gold, then they and hammered out flat gold sheets. 

Today the process is for making it is slightly different, but the result is the same: you take sheets of pure gold and burnish them into the areas where you have applied adhesive. The effect is resonant and beautiful, and the gold will never tarnish, unlike other metals.