Anyhow, I’ve been working (and procrastinating at times) on my first big commission project for a couple of months, and since I’m coming to the end of it, I thought it might be fun to document the process of one of the paintings.
This particular client wanted two paintings done – a 16x20” of the Flatirons (a rock formation in Boulder, CO) and a 24x36” of Mt. Evans (one of the 14,000 ft. peaks that towers over the front range). The painting of the Flatirons was no problem – I had a good reference photo and got to work right away. The painting of Mt. Evans is a completely different story.
Mt. Evans is highly visible from most places in Denver, but it’s nearly impossible to get a good picture of it without buildings or highways filling the foreground. This client wanted a painting of the mountain as seen from Denver, but not as an urban landscape. The best I could do for a reference photo was from a grocery store parking lot up on a hill, and the picture was taken with the 12X zoom of my digital camera.
The result? A reference photo that is definitely not suitable for a 24x36” painting!!
![](http://usera.imagecave.com/Stacers/sketch.jpg)
![](http://usera.imagecave.com/Stacers/FallRefMtEvans.jpg)
I went down to the lake by my house and shot some pictures of cottonwoods to use as the foreground, and came up with the following:
![](http://usera.imagecave.com/Stacers/MtEvans1.jpg)
I was finally ready to start, so I started with a loose underpainting in thin acrylic paint on the canvas. This is what I like to refer to as the UGLY stage of my paintings. They all go through it, and my husband is always wondering how I’ll salvage a decent oil painting from the wreckage at this point, but it’s very valuable for me.
Here’s the underpainting for the Mt. Evans commission:
![](http://usera.imagecave.com/Stacers/MtEvansUnderpainting.jpg)
This stage of painting probably takes me anywhere from ½ hour to an hour for a painting this size, and I find it to be very valuable. It allows me to troubleshoot ahead of time, without going to the trouble of doing a separate study.
Now it’s time to lay the oil paint on and let the painting take shape. That will be done over the next few days, so I’ll post my progress as I go and hopefully it will turn out well!!
Thanks for posting the process! Read it with interest.
ReplyDeleteThat is a really interesting look behind the scenes. I didn't realize there was so much pre thought and work just to get prepared.
ReplyDeleteHi Stacers, nice to see your process! And I am impressed with your willingness to do commissions. I am far too crabby to have a client telling me what they want! And call me crazy, but I really like the "ugly" stage.
ReplyDeleteWow - is this what Denver would look like if we removed the buildings? :)
ReplyDeleteOkay - just kidding. Although it is an improvement of sorts.
Thanks for documenting and sharing this - I found it quite interesting.
This is, oddly, fascinating to me as well. Well, maybe it's not so odd. Creative processes do interest me. And yours is just as helpful to me in my writing as someone's writing process would be. And that IS odd.
ReplyDelete