Beaker: Painting Process

So here is my painting process.

I primed a board and sketched the image onto it freehand from a sketch I had done prior. I will post my sketch variations in the next couple of days.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a shot of the sketch before I applied the blue wash. So then I applied a blue wash I'm not sure how much influence it actually had over the painting as the oils have a high level of opacity. I did it none the less.




I then started to knock in the background colours.




I then blocked in the main Beacker colours and then started to work in the various light to dark contrasts.






All of this was done in my basement and in my kitchen between the hours of 9PM and 12AM. As I mentioned previously I will post the original sketches soon. If anyone has any specific questions about my process please leave a comment. Constructive criticism is also welcome.

Beaker

Well, here he is.

About one and a half months late, but here he is.

As I have mentioned before some frinds requested a couple of months ago, that I do a painting of the Muppet Beaker following the creation of my Gonzo in a flight suit painting. I have documented the process and will post the progression in the next couple of days. This was a real blast to work on. I paid special attention to the eyes in this painting making sure the pupil's do not reflect light, but that the ping-pong ball eyes give enough sense of roundness. I think it was quite successful.

This is something I attempted with Gonzo and was also successful with, but with practice comes improvement, and I think the sense of depth and lighting are superior in this painting. Going back to the eyes of both Muppets, I made a point of not adding highlights to the pupils of the eyes as that denotes that there is a wet reflective surface. What I find interesting as with the actual puppets themselves, even though they have essentially dead eyes they still feel full of energy and life.

I've often found it strange that even though they are in fact puppets, that I never think of them as puppets. Beaker is Beaker and Gonzo is Gonzo (Real life characters to me.) I thought for a while that this phenomena was due to the fusion of puppeteering and television. The ability to always crop the puppeteers out of the scene, but just watch kids or even the adult actors interact with the Muppets live. You will notice the suspension of disbelief with all of them. Even directly confronted with the puppeteer controlling the Muppet.

Although there are many things I tried to do with this painting concerning lighting and painting techniques. I regret not doing a proper colour comp. This I think slowed me down considerably in my decision making process during the actual execution of this painting. What I am very happy about is the green background and the vignette. The green is as close as I could get to the actual colour of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and the vignette gives a dark and slightly ominous feeling, like the Dr. is about to unleash some horribly useful invention upon Beaker.

I can not folks who suggest I paint Beaker enough for their idea to do this painting. This painting proved to be a very rewarding and pleasurable experience. Thanks to the both of you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

I can now focus back on finishing my mini Peter Pan paintings and then get back on track with my Folk Fest series and other things.

Until next post,
Stay Golden Pony Boys and Girls

The Great Gonzo: Oil Painting

Here it is. I've been talking about it for a while and now for your viewing pleasure the oil painting of The Great Gonzo. I did this painting based on the song "I'm Going to Go Back There Some Day" from the The Muppet Movie. It is a great song and a great movie. It took a while to get this painting done but when the smoke had cleared I look at this as one of my best paintings to date. I will soon be painting another Muppet of renown. But you'll just have to wait and see who it is.

Gonzo Painting Colour Rough

Here is the colour rough I knocked out for the painting that I did of Gonzo for the Winnipeg Art Club Inspired by Song night. I painted it using a Nintendo DS using a program called Colors. I love doing this because I do not need to cart a paint set and paper when I'm on the bus in the morning and when it is -36 C and it's going to take you an hour to get to work it's nice to have handy. I got the Idea from two artists. Christian Pearce and Greg Broadmore, exceptionally talented artists from New Zealand they did 99 paintings each using the DS and then put on and art show called the 99 DS Challenge. Very sweet, some people may have seen it as a novelty but I see two guys who are obviously video games fans who found something they could turn into a practical artist tool. I use it for colour and quick compositions all the time.

So thanks compadres, keep on keep'n on.

I have a bunch more of these to post, some alright, some good and some not so good. None the less, they shall be posted.

Gonzo the Great

I am participating in an art show on Friday. I have done a painting inspired by a song.

"I'm going to go back there some day" from the Muppet Movie sung by Gonzo.

The sketch turned out nice and I am very happy with the painting. It is drying and I am giving it to the Art Group guys tonight. I had the painting ready to go for months and then I got ill and busy with the latest issue of Kayak. I've had to execute it little faster than I am comfortable with, but it has been a valuable experience none the less.

If you would like to see what the final painting looks like Please stop by the Edge Gallery this Friday at 8:00 pm. You will see many talented winnipeg artists work.