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.

Bunny Painting

Here is the Bunny I was telling you all about. It is based on a series of sketches and I pieced together the bits I liked most from them and sketched this image onto a small piece of hotpress watercolour paper. I then painted it using oils and that is that. I had a lot of fun and intend to do a monkey for my daughter who is in her own right, a monkey. Beth suggested I get going on that since two of our friends now have these kind of paintings and we have none of our own in the house. More stuff coming, the final pages of the sketchbook project which I am proud to say, both my father and myself have completed. We will be mailing them this week. I'm glad I did it, but I am also glad that it is over and I can return to my painting and other art projects. I will be in touch with you all very soon.

Respect.