Cradling and prep for a painting surface ( oil )

Went to Lowes Tues and picked up most of the supplies I'll need to make the panels for the open house. My favorite thing about going to get my hardboard cut is the scrap pieces, always fun to think of what you can do with them, more paintings and such. Four of the 5 painting boards I'm making for the open house were scrap pieces, so never throw em away when they ask if you want the scraps, they come in handy, and your paying for em.

This month I'll be going through the whole painting process, from surface construction to finished painting, to help those who want to know how to do it, and for those who are just curious what goes into making your surface from about as close to scratch as you can get with out growing the trees yourself.

Here you have a sheet of hardboard, it's also called Masonite, but that's the brand name not the product, the actual wood being called hardboard. Then the board you use to cradle with is poplar, I prefer this over pine, from what I've been told pine has a greater chance of warping over time.



Cut the size you need to go around the inside area of the hardboard from the poplar, making a 45 degree angle cut on both ends. The longest end of the cut, where it tapers off, should be the length of your board. So if your board is 16x20, cut your poplar to 16 and 20 inch cuts, don't over compensate for the outside edge, because these are cradling the hardboard, not framing it.

Using wood glue and vice grips ( and if your cheap like me weights cause you didn't have enough vice grips) set the poplar pieces to the edge of the hard board, making the two woods flush with one another to make a smooth edge. This should set for at least 30min, or even longer if you want to make sure you have a tight fit. Don't stress newly glued joints for 24hrs after gluing.

Your corners should look like this if you did the 45 degree angle. You can also elbow joint it if you want, not sure if either is better structural makeup, I just prefer the look of the 45 degree angle fit.

Just continue to glue the poplar down to the edge of the board to make a flat edge, try your best to get no hang over of the poplar or hardboard.

The finished cradle with a cross bar. Right now time and money wont permit, but I think from now on just for looks and better structure I'm going to start putting in corner bars too. People may never see this side of your painting, but it's still important to me to have good craftsmanship and aesthetics. This is only my 2nd cradled board so there's always room for improvement, corner bars next time!

Now we begin prepping the board. First thing, tape off the edge of your cradle to protect from the dripping of all the paint, polymer, and materials you'll be using. This will give you a nice clean edge on your board.

Now apply GAC 100 from golden. This helps keep the hardboard from damaging the paint after your finished. A lot of hardboard comes tempered with chemicals that can eventually damage and seep into your painting over time, causing discoloring. I do two coats to make sure the surface is well and sealed.

Now go back in with another polymer medium to seal off the edges of the tape more, here I'm using regular gel gloss from Golden. This will help do the same thing the tape will do, but in my experience I've had oil washes seep down between the cradle and tape, so here I do this to help protect against thin downed materials that will sometimes breach the tape.

Finally we get to gesso the board. Here I apply 3 to 4 coats to cover up and color of the hardboard and to make a solid surface barrier between the board and the paint. This will help with adhesion of the paint and a more archival surface for the paint to rest on.


Should have enough coats of gesso so that areas like these don't show any of the hardboard underneath. Go for completely white.


Board finished and ready to paint on. I'll add my steps of painting as I get this guy done over the next 3 weeks. Peace.

More sketchy mc sketcherson

Going to be adding a lot of sketches this month for the 5 piece painting I'm doing for the Wheeler open house in dec. I'll try and add some of the other things I'm working on, still got the logo in the works, and I'll post what I've done with hat lately later tonight. Gonna be fairly busy with the open house I think, so I probably wont get to updating my website anymore until next month, when I'll have more time to work on the more commercial pieces I started last month all done in vector illustration.

This was one of the earliest sketches I had of the matriarch when I first thought of the image. Not really what I'm going for, but this was the start, and figured it'd be worth it to show more of my process than what I usually do. For the most part drawings like these would never see the light of day, considering the final product is usually fairly different.

These two head pieces are more of what I've been going for. As for the facial paint I've decided to stick with the dark colored bottom half of the jaw with the bottom lip a light color for contrast. This with be constant through all masks to make them all uniform, while other face paint will differ to give more character and fill out the costume more.


First initial sketch for the five paintings. I'll be finalizing the center image first and starting on it first since it's the largest. The others I'll be working out soon and I'll share those then, at that time I'll give you a better idea of what I'm going for and the narrative behind this.

Early paint test

Here's one of the test paintings I have going for the series I'm working on. I figure I'll work on as many of these for the next week then construct the cradles for the boards so I have almost 3 weeks to work on the main five paintings. For this first set of tests I used no reference or sketches, just went straight on working more with the materials than anything else. Also trying to hone in on a color palette I can be happy with. Don't know if I'll do anything more to this but will post if I do. If anything I can see going in and repainting the face from some reference. The eyes are way to small and features like the cheeks are over done.


The image on the left is still in progress and is being done with an acrylic wash and local color pass to give it a solid base to work off of, after which I'll go into it with oils and thicker paint. The image on the right is just oil paint with nothing added to it other than mineral spirits to thin down for washes. This is my first attempt in a long time at oils and I'm ok with the result, although I'm gonna have to work hard to get to the point where I'm going to be happy with the final five, so we'll have to wait and see. The medium itself is great, and I'm excited to start doing more of this to balance out the digital stuff, long hours in front of the easel are much easier than long hours in front of the computer.



Another pic to give a sense of scale. Really not that big, considering the main image of the 5 paintings I'm doing is 32x56, these are both just 10x14.

new sketches for paintings

Sketches for paintings I'm working on for the upcoming open house at the Wheeler Dec. 4. Exploring more ideas in masks and other weird looking things, should be five paintings. I'll post the sketches and layout once I get to it this week, these drawings here are just trying out different ideas for the Matriarch's head piece. I'm hoping to start doing more traditional work to show around town, don't really ever do shows but I'm looking to change that.


These are a little to clownish for me, although I'm happy with some of the shapes, I think some of the paint could be changed up a bit.


I'm happier with the out come of these, more along the lines of whats in my head. I've been working on two minor paintings and hopefully a few more this week if time permits to beef up on my traditional painting since I haven't done it in so long, with the exception of Art vs Art. I'll post those when I get them to a state that I feel like sharing.

No room to move, just work.

Oh yeah almost forgot, meant to say something last post, but I added a few new people to the people to check out list. Ryan Burosh and Chris Magee are 2 artist I work with at the art store, good peoples, good skillz, and Megan Zoeller is a friend from WAY back, killer tattoo artist. I'll add morre as I go, and hopefully talk a few other people into starting blogs/websites.

I always like seeing what other peoples studios and work areas look like so I figured I'd share mine. So here goes.

Here's the computer set up in my living room. I moved the desk closer to the tv so I can have all three screens hooked up, although I only use 2 at a time, one for the main image I'm working on, and the 2nd for reference, other work ect. I'll occasionally use the tv as a screen, but it's nicer to have it playing music and scrolling through my favorite artist while I work on my laptop hooked up to the 2nd screen to the right.

My easel area, in the dining room next to the kitchen. Most important thing here is to have plenty of room to step back, especially when your working on something large. You can barely see the large glass table to the left with the orange box full of oil paints, but that's where I put my materials when painting.... and I have another small glass table that I'm really tempted to make into a glass palette. Probably will heh. Then there will be absolutely no where for any one to put their things, drinks and such.... not a super inviting environment to hang out in but what ever.

The first closet filled with supplies and such. I need to organize it again, but it's been a while since I did the traditional stuff, so that will be in November.... tomorrow.

More storage space, another closet filled with large area art materials, and old drawings some from classes back in college.

This my bedroom where the speed bag and drying table are. I use this mainly for priming and constructing cradles and boards, as well as repairing and anything else that requires a lot of room and a flat surface. Its a clean spot right now cause I just moved everything around, plus a lot of what I've been doing lately has been on the comp, this next month that will change for the Wheeler show in December.

If you spend a lot of time in your studio, or if your home is your studio I highly recommend getting some form of exercise equipment or something that helps you burn off energy, or work some up when you've been in front of your comp/easel for to long. Of course I picked the nosiest one, so it doesn't help much at 3am when my neighbors are trying to sleep. But it sure is a hell of a lot of fun, sorry downstairs.



Here's the muscle of the operation. She makes sure clients pay up on time, with chips and dip.

Precision to make the decision

Here's one of the finished images for the website update.

More work going on the website

Some more line work of some of the things going on the new site. Hopefully it'll all be up by Saturday night else I might be spending another Halloween inside, which sucks cause I really enjoy the holiday. Had I thought of it earlier and didn't procrastinate on getting my site up I would have started something new this year as tradition. Been really into masks and strange morphed faces, so I figure if I remember to do so maybe I'll start making masks for Halloween next year, but not like latex rubber ones as much as wood carved, various materials, almost like historical and tribal looking. Chris at work the other day suggested that I look for good reference for masks from a guy named Benda. Apparently this guy was the ILM of his day for mask making when theater was more prominent, during the 1920's I think. Looked at a few and yes, they are in fact THE SHIT.




All three are Benda Masks, thx google image search.

To be completely honest it seems like a lot of things from the 20's seem to be real appealing right now. Not a huge fan of the flapper look, but the theatrical makeup and other fashions are so much more appealing than a lot of the stuff we got today. On a side note, seriously, I hate people who wear crocs, have some dignity.
A friend of mine who's getting married in the next few months posted a great picture of what she wants her wedding makeup to look like, just classic, but not even sure if it's 20's.

Also check out the movie " Changeling," Angelina Jolie is rocking the style in there looking proper. Beware though, movie is crazy depressing. Especially if you got kids. Anyways look for the site on Sat.

Karate Zone

Working on some stuff to put up on my website which I hope to have done by the end of the week.... yeah it'll be interesting to see how awake I am by then. Here's a sketch tweaked in Illustrator, gonna color this one tonight. Gotta love late night illustration fests. I'll post what I get done.... if it's not horrible.

I bet your mom knows Karate

Not usually this pleased with my sketches, but for once I feel like I could take any one of these and make a decent image. Draw! More! Go go!



I'm not even gonna attempt to type a lot right now, it's to late, and I'm in to good of mood to make any sense. Lets just say even though I wasn't able to make the modeling session, I had a great time with good company, and some good ideas.

More sketchy sketchy

Don't ask whats up with the top left corner. I was feeling a little silly, but in hind sight, should a goofy ass face really take up this much room? I consider it a lost opportunity, and ponder what kind of person I'd be had I taken the alternate route, the one not leading to suckdom. I hate you silly face, a lot.




I usually go through about two pages of sketches before I find something I want to explore more. In this case I didn't really have an image in mind was just doodling, and I felt a little interested in this one.



Just some sketches that I did last night before getting entirely to drunk. I tried to get some more drawings done after the fact, and well...... hey at least I got these up right? All worth it though, even the hangover this morning, considering I just don't get out enough, so easy to fall into the same old routine. Maybe I just need to start caring a sketch book with me and draw my friends and people at the bar, although I've always had trouble drawing and holding conversation, so that would probably suck for my friends, haha.

On a side note, my dog seems to really enjoy Mastadon as well...... kinda funny to watch a Chihuahua go nuts on her stuffed polar bear that she demolished the minute you put certain types of music on. Just saying, my dog owns all and is hard as bricks.

Late night/ early morning doodles

Got a ton of stuff done sunday by around 8 o'clock so I decided to lay down for a quick nap so I could get up later and maybe do a little more. Woke up face planted in my couch around 3 am haha. Guess I was tired. Then I couldn't sleep so I put on some music (Mastadon is bad ass and kinda funny to listen to when drawing pretty things...) and decided to draw some floral designs.... yeah. Actually been interested in these for a while, had a great stock image book of some design motifs for borders that I can't seem to find, maybe a friend has it. One of the things I did today was a quick color comp for a friend of a drawing she did for a business card, which had a floral design in it, was one of the more fun things I did sunday so decided to do some of my own. Thinking about exploring more symbolism in animals, plants and flowers and maybe using these in some paintings I've been wanting to do for a while. I'll probably do a digital proof before I do the paintings so I'll post those when they're done.

More Illustrator cs4 work

More color tests from the logo job for my cousin.
I just realized this was the cymk version I sent for prints, so the black is coming out gray. I'll try and convert it at some point to give a better image, but right now it's low on the to do list, sorry!



The Fluer DI Ly I made from the previous composites and what attributes were chosen.

Tuesday night life drawing

No water colors or oils this time. Didn't feel happy enough with my initial drawings, so I stuck with dry media the whole night. Over all wasn't a horrible return, I feel so-so about my drawings, it was the first night back after not going for like 5 months maybe? Even longer possibly. Good times, hopefully I'll get back in there with some color, with oils or w/c. Won't be there for Thursday due to work, but hopefully soon.