Saturday, April 30, 2011

Another step-by-step

I have been invited to paint a portrait of a well known PBS television star during an important luncheon at Sacramento's local PBS broadcasting station. The keynote speaker at the luncheon will be the president of PBS. I will also have on display four other PBS stars to help promote my portraiture business. This is the very first PBS star that I painted last week. About five hours, on a 20 inch by 20 inch stretched canvas. The first photo shows my "start". I am working from a reference photo. The first thing I did was outline the contours of the face with a 1/8 inch wide flat brush. After that, I painted in the basic value shapes. I kept things very rough at this stage as you can see. All I did was build my contour/value shape foundation in one color. In this case, I chose purple. Color is not that important at this stage as it will be totally covered as I move along on the painting process. The next stage shows the face's local skin color painted in along with the background color. I always keep in my mind the ENTIRE painting as a harmonious entity, especially the colors. In all of these steps, I am painted with various sized (small, medium, and large) flat brushes. I used flat brushes to get a sculpted/chisel look. In the next stage, I have most of the colors painted in. I like to be somewhat expressive in my color choices. As long as I can maintain the value structure of the face and keep colors harmonized, I'm in good shape. The final photo shows the lower lip painted in and brings my effort to a conclusion. Note the bits of tourqoise and local skin tones distributed throughout the painting to maintain that color harmony. Again, I gave a rough hewn quality to this painting. This will be the model for the other to follow. As I complete them in the next week or two, I shall post the results. Do you know who this dude is??

Thursday, April 28, 2011

From Start to Finish

This a sketch I did of one of my drawing students. I was working from a photograph I took of him, but if I were drawing him live, the same steps would apply. Enjoy and please let me know if you have any questions.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Point Of View

So many points of view and so little time!! If you are going to paint something, thoroughly determine an exciting point of view. It is amazing how many you can find if you are diligent at searching them out.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Lobenberg's"2nd Annual Tour De Cluck" art extravaganza workshop!

Last year was the very first "Tour De Cluck" in Davis, California. The tour raises money to promote healthy food in the local school cafeterias. They sell tickets to tour residential, backyard chicken coups. One can drive, walk or bicycle. Davis is known nationwide as a HUGH bicycle town, and thus most people took the tour on bikes. In conjunction with the tour last year, I offered the 1st Annual Tour De Cluck art workshop. It was a huge success. My artists did fantastic chicken art in a variety of mediums, and donated some of their pieces for the silent auction tent set up at a local park on the day of the tour. Their art sold so well, that we were invited back this year! The workshop will be on May 7 and the event on May 14. The Chinese style rooster is a watercolor that I did last year to help promote the workshop. This year I decided to do the same rooster in acrylic on canvas. Which painting should I use for this year's promotion dear reader?

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Spring Has Sprung!

A loosey, goosey, inky, washy from Ye Old Lobenberg Archive. I haven't a clue as to what that Chinese chop says. Maybe it says "Spring has Sprung".

Monday, April 11, 2011

THE NAMES!

Herewith are the names of the four great 20th century jazz artists that I watercolor awhile back and showed in my previous post. They are: Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday (aka: Lady Day), Louie Armstrong (aka: Pops), and John Coltane. Here also is a younger Ella in action that I watercolored a few years ago.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Auch, du lieber!...yet a ANOTHER DAMN BRIDGE from the Lobenberg archive!

Not only is this yet another damn bridge but it shows you how the pros paint! I don't need no stinkin easel!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Another Archived Lobenberg Bridge Watercolor

Since I posted the previous bridge, I remembered this one from Ye Old Lobenberg Archive. This one is painted even looser, and I really like the style. What do you think? The structure is the Tower Bridge and leads into downtown Sacramento and crosses the Sacramento River. It was built in the early 1930's when the nation's economy was in the dumpster...kinda like it is with our economy now!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Rainbow Bridge

Another watercolor from Ye Old Lobenberg Archive. I did this shortly after 9/1/01 hence old glory hanging from the bridge. Hope you like it. Painted on a full sheet of 140 lb. Arches cold press.