June 8th The drawing phase

First part of drawing

Here's the first part of the drawing..  This is drawn based off the original sketch I did.  I was happy with the sketch so I just enlarged it and went for it.  I have a projector that I can use to enlarge my sketches.  The only bad thing about the projector is it needs to be done at night when I can get the studio nice and dark.  When I enlarge the sketch, or whatever, it generally goes fast.  This drawing was just a couple of minutes.  It all free hand so it's messy.  I then take rulers and other tools and create a good drawing.  Once I had this drawing up and going I started to doubt the placement of the whale.  He seemed off balance to me - or as if he doesn't have any room to swim to - he doesn't fit.  I could follow the Fibonacci method and mathematical plot my painting or I could use a lot of other gimmicks to make the perfect composition, but I don't.  The painting's mine and I paint it how I want.  If it doesn't feel right to me then I change it till it does.  Technical stuff - huh?

Moving the whale.

Moving the whale is easy.  I grab a piece of tracing paper and redraw it. I can adjust size if needed too.  Here I'm happy with the size so I just trace him.  Then I can move him about till I feel good about it.  I then grab my trusty old graphite paper (like carbon paper) and use it to transfer the whale down.  This takes maybe 5 minutes.  It's easy when you have the materials on hand to do this. 

Whale is moved

The whale is now moved.  Much better.

If I hadn't been so pleased with my original sketch I would have completed a smaller final drawing on a sheet of regular typing paper.  I would have worked out things on a smaller scale.  I could have then taken this smaller sketch into photoshop (computer editing program) and could have made additional changes - like moving the whale.  I would still have the same  step of enlarging this digitally adjusted sketch up to full size though.  And it never fails - when you draw small like 8 x 10 and enlarge to big like 36x48 there will be things that just don't look right.  But changes are easy, break out the tracing paper and make the changes.

Whale final drawing

Here's the final drawing.  The painting won't look this straight.  I draw it straight so I can mess it up a bit with the paint.  It's funner that way.  Anyone think they know what this painting is about yet?  Any ideas?  I don't have it 100% but it's definitely forming some thoughts.  It's these thoughts that made me add the old Denny's sign, power pole, truck, surfer, and ornate columns.  Hmmm?

I didn't get the 3rd layer on my painting surface today (the black layer).  I'll try and get that on tomorrow.

I do have this, if you're interested.  Someone had asked me to explain what "cradled" meant in relation to my painting panels.  This is what I do to the back of my boards to make them stronger and less prone to bow.  The wood on the edge of the panel that form the frame is what I call a cradle.  I think it's an actual term but not 100% sure.  Here's a picture:

Back side of Painting panel.

What's next?  Need to figure out how I'm going to color this thing.

Tomorrow.

Larry