A few months back...i guess almost a year now. I started a commission for friend and fellow artist Lee Gilmore. He wanted a painting of Jerry Reed, his favorite musician and, consiquentially, a new lust of my own. I posted the step by step on flickr but I suppose it'd be fun to show it on here too. This blog hasn't been very heavy with my own work so here is a chance to check some of that out...if you want to.

This is basically the finished product. Following will be what led to this point.


To get the image to scale I normally scan it in and break it apart with Photoshop into 11x17 pieces. Print them out and then put them back together.


I normally start with a blank white canvas like this. Other times I'll put a glaze of color down first. I then use carbon paper and transfer the basic shapes of the predominant figure onto the canvas.


Detail of the drawing.


After the image is drawn I carve it out with the BG color. The background color usually sets the tone for the image other times it goes away almost completely depending on how the figure or predominant image works itself onto the canvas.


I then start to lay color down on the figure.


I should have taken more pictures from the last image to this one but the face comes into fruition slowly by using a number of different colors that at a distance merge together to appear uniform. Sometimes this works better than others. When I do mess up,at times it leads to happy accidents when you can see the history through the layers. I actually love that about painting.


More laying in of color. I've also began to play with the background. Introducing new colors and the like. A lot of the colors that are featured in the background get used in the figure as well to create a cohesive painting.


More of the same.


Greens, Blues, Pinks, Yellows merging to create the texture and landscape of the face.


I've now started laying in colors for the guitar and chair. Both of those proved very difficult for me but overall I like the way they turned out. Very abstract but obvious as to what they are.


The painting next to it is an example of me starting with a colored canvas. I used Yellow to give the painting a warm feeling, in opposition to the blue Jerry Reed Painting.


I put some stripes in that were supposed to mirror the wood panel on the wall but not "Be" wood panel. I like the way it turned out.


This is close to completion right before i added the pink punches to add movement and drama to the image...