The making of Sang de Monstre

Here is my process broken into steps so you can see the different stages of how I go about making a painting. This painting is very small (7.5"X 5") so only took about 10 days (6 full days of working plus 4 in between waiting for paint to dry). Depending on the weather and how much extra oil I've added to the paint, I usually only have to wait for about a day between layers.

This began with a detailed drawing in my sketchbook
Next I transfer the drawing onto a prepared panel
This painting happens to be in a birch panel covered with several layers of venetian red gesso and sanded until smooth. I use a white charcoal pencil to amend the drawing at this stage.

Underpainting in Burnt Umber and White to set the values for the painting (sorry for the glare in the picture)

After the underpainting dries I paint a layer (or two or three) of color on top of the white and umber
Finally another layer of color and some details added as well as a green glaze to adjust the color of the back wall

And it's finished!

A small update

In the studio!
Thanks Robyn, I do realize the irony of, "There will be many posts in 2007." This post at leasts 2, which is "many" in some situtations, say heart attacks in a year. I have lots of drawings I plan on posting and several new paintings as well. For now, since I mentioned the Philadelphia show, this picture was taking right before the work was sent, the pieces in the background are some of the paintings that went out.
Here is my 2008 calendar so far:

January 5(?): M Modern Gallery, Palm Springs, CA. Group show, only 1 painting

January 18: Brooks Barrow Gallery, Milwaukee, WI. 3 paintings

March 21: Modified Gallery, Phoenix, AZ. Solo show 20 paintings

April 5: Last Rites Gallery, NY, NY. Grand Opening Group show. 1 painting (alongside H.R. Giger, Chet Zar, Travis Louie, Matthew Bone and like 15 other awesome artists)

June 6(?): Gallery at Central Arizona College, AZ. Solo show, 12 paintings 10 drawings.

Happy New Year and a new image!

Happy New Year! There have been many requests for bug paintings, so here's one! It's called Eupatorus gracilicornis and the Golden Kiwi. I'm crazy busy getting ready for my May 2007 show at Trinity Gallery in Philadelphia. There will be many posts in 2007!

It's been a long time!

I was so busy preparing for the show currently up at Modified Arts that I neglected my weekly post goal! I'll try to make up for it by posting more often. Thanks to everyone that came to the first opening (there's a second 'opening' on December 1st 7-10ish) Lots of work sold, honestly much more than I expected, which was a really nice surprise. I never got around to posting a finished image of Norman Osborn's Mistress so here it is!
Now that I have sold most of the work in the current show, I really have to double my efforts for my solo show at Trinity gallery in May!
A reminder that Stephen Strange (of the Strange family circus) will be modeling for Dr. Sketchy's at the Trunk Space this Sunday at 7pm. It's going to be bizarre and wonderful, so come on out for it!

Drawing Marathon

I've been working on some drawings for a drawing show at Perihelion in November and this in addition to the Dr. Sketchy's events we've been hosting has reminded me how much I love to draw. What better way to burn that love into the ground than by forcing myself to do a drawing marathon, that's right, 26.2 solid hours of drawing from a rotating crew of life drawing models complete with gatorade and power bars. This will be captured on video and a time-lapse documentation will be created in addition to one very intense drawing. Any Phoenix-area models that are interested in this (you will be compensated) please contact me.

Dr. Sketchy's in the paper

Yay, we're in the paper for Dr. Sketchy's!http://www.azcentral.com/ent/calendar/articles/0908sketchyart.html
More new images later this week.

New Painting image

The first of several new paintings has been loaded to the gallery on my webpage. If you haven't checked out the rest of them here's the link. These paintings look at least 10 times better in real life, so come see them in person! On October 6th this painting will be in the 7th annual Chaos Theory show at Legend City. (521 W. Van Buren, Downtown Phoenix)