Wordless Wednesday

"Sufficient Reason"
9" x 9"

I'm moving my Blog

Sorry for the delay in posting - I've been busy organizing my new presence on the web!

I'd like to prepare all my readers for a big change...
I've moved my website, including my blog, over to SquareSpace, where I can have everything together - blog, website, gallery, etc.

The new address is: www.christydekoning.com

That's it - just drop the "blogspot" and you're there! I've set up RSS, and have moved my posts up until now over to the new site.

I will be doing a few promotions soon to get things moving, but for now let's just say I've been busy cleaning house!

Artistically, I'm working on my next Classic Car painting, and I also finished up the last 4 in my Vintage Perfume Bottle ACEO series. Here's how they turned out:


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A Slice of Bugatti Please, & make mine Yellow.

I have some rather exciting news to share with you this year. I've begun a series of paintings, my first ever, focusing on the beautiful chrome and sensual lines of classic automobiles. The first (to the left) is a 1936 Bugatti Type 57S Atlante Coupe.

Not only was I fortunate enough to have a private tour of the RM Auctions showroom, where I was in seventh heaven among the jewels of the Classic Car Universe, but I also had the privilege of taking over 100 reference photos to use as a basis for this project.

To add a bit more cherry to the pie, I get to add a little zing to the whole series, too. I purchased the rights from CGM to use a photograph of Ms. Monroe as an artist reference for a painting. I'm planning a portrait involving a classic car and Marilyn Monroe -nothing cheesy, just vintage beauty.

I'll be posting the progress of these paintings here on my blog - completion date (goal, I should say) is set for the middle of May. Here are a couple "work-in-progress" photos of the painting shown above:

I used an H pencil for the initial sketch, and chose Cadmium Yellow Pale (hue - I don't like to have real Cadmium in my paintings for obvious health reasons) for the first glaze. The tire is a mix of Idanthrone Blue and Burnt Sienna, and the first light washes of blue are Cerulean (which is almost impossible to "lift" so it makes a great base)

The subsequent glazes of yellow include Aureolin and Cadmium Red, with a little Alizarin Crimson added to the shadows at the bottom of the headlight (see finished painting). The chrome effect is made up of Cerulean Blue, French Ultramarine Blue, Idanthrone Blue and Indigo for the darkest shadows. The grille was probably the trickiest - I didn't want it to look too "perfect" but it still needed structure. I took a rather brave leap and washed a shadow of Indigo OVER the lines I had already painted. This was risky, because I didn't know if it would bleed too much and make a mess of everything - lucky for me, it gave me just the effect I was looking for. I finished off the grille with a few touches of white gouache in the shadowed area for highlights.

Ironically, the part of the painting that pleases me most is the reddish-shadowed area under the grille. I say this because I almost made a very big mistake here. I was working from a b&w photo and was so immersed in the chromed areas, that I started applying blue to the wrong area! And as I said, it is almost impossible to lift. So I added as much water to it as I dared, lifting out as much as I could without ruining the paper, and let it dry. It took 6 layers of yellow and red glazing over the top to get to the finished stage, but I have to say it was a mistake that ended up working out. I think the blue undertone gives it a little bit more depth & pop!

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Feeling a bit Irish? Sock Monkey Can Help!

Feeling a bit Irish?

With St. Patrick's Day almost upon us, I took my standard Sock Monkey illustration and sketched him this time holding a Shamrock. A bit of Irish Luck for this sunny Wednesday!

The background I painted with a mix of Sap Green & Cobalt Yellow paint first, then I let it dry. I "painted" shamrocks all over the background with Masking Fluid, allowed it to dry completely, then used a straight wash of Sap Green over the background again. Once it was dry, I used a soft eraser to gently remove the masking fluid.

The original ACEO I posted last night on Art Fire, but then I had some fun making a couple new items over at Zazzle that I thought I'd share with you:

St. Patrick's Day Sock Monkey Button by ChristyDeKoning

Sock Monkey & Shamrock by ChristyDeKoning
The inside verse reads:
Sock Monkey says:
"Never Iron a 4-Leaf Clover...
You don't want to press your luck!"

RANDOM NOTES:
Why am I always ending each post with this?
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Because when you register on Art Fire by using this link, it helps me out too!
(mucho thanks)

How to fix a portrait gone wrong...

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you just can't figure out where you veered off course when drawing a portrait.

Here I will show you how using a transparent overlay can help you to define the areas that "went wrong" when you just can't see it yourself.

This method will only work if your reference photo is the same size as the portrait you are drawing.

I am going to use a recent ACEO portrait of a young couple that I was working on around Valentine's Day. Because of the small size (2.5 x 3.5 inches) I like to get started directly on the watercolor paper. I don't like fiddling around with a sketch first on plain paper, then trying to transfer it - my pencils don't stay sharp enough to transfer such small images anyway!

To the left, here's what my initial sketch looked like. Using an "H" pencil, I lightly mapped the facial structure and features. I prefer "H" because it doesn't smudge very much, and it keeps a good point.

The next image shows where I've defined the important features - and then erased all the mess off the excess graphite. I want to be careful here to not ruin the paper by excessive rubbing.








I've laid in some initial color - the eyes & mouth are defined, and a suggestion of skin tone. When painting brown eyes, it's important to start with any warm undertones first. Remember these are very small in the painting, so not a lot of detail is expected.

I add to the first layers, dropping some color into the hair (wet-in-wet) for highlights.

Time for the background so that I can get a better contrast ratio, then back to the hair. I have several photos of the young lady to work from, and her hair isn't usually curly - I prefer the straight version so I go with that. Also it appears in the photos that she has a lot of highlights, so I keep the hair lighter too. We're starting to get somewhere now - almost done.




I've completed the portrait, but it doesn't look right. I can't figure it out, & I'm going nuts looking at the reference photo. I email the proof to my client and she agrees - both subjects are "off". I go back one more time, and even though it's clear as mud now (as I'm writing this) at the time it evaded me.

HOW TO FIX IT:
I took a sheet of very clear tracing paper and traced the outline of each subject, as well as the eyes, nose and mouth. This is where we usually go wrong.

The problem jumped right out - I had placed the girl's right eye (left to the viewer) too high , including the brow line. Luckily for me, very easy to fix. A little water on a stiff brush easily lifted out the paint and once it dried I was able to fix it. The other problem was the boy's nose. I had too much of a concave curve to it. Once again, easy to fix using the same method. I finished off the eyes - adding a bit of green to the boy's and lightening up the girl's.

I've placed them side by side here so you can easily see the small but important changes I made. In the end, all was not lost - not even my sanity.

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