Tuesday, October 17, 2006

A WIP! and Shed and Los Feliz




I hoped my little story could make up for a lack of exciting paintings this post. That clearly didn't work, so I'll try another angle with a WIP.

I hate doing these in case I choke, but what the hell live life dangerously. This is a 12x16 the usual Linen Ray Mar. first I did a wash on Gamsol and Alizarin Crimson, Venetian Red and Indian Yellow to get a cool red to warm red to yellowish tone. This is done keeping in mind the cool mostly darker complementaryish cool colors that will go over the top. After that’s dry, I then come in with a brown mix for the drawing. This is a bit more drawing than I usually do do to the complex perspective. I'll add to this post as I go. The observant regular will note this is a slightly closer and bigger version of "Engine." We will cleverly refer to this one as Engine #2.



the darkest darks and lightest lights. You have to establish them to judge the rest of your colors and values. Of course my battery started to die in the camera at this moment.




Could this photo suck any worse? at this point I worked on this a little longer than I planned as I was waiting for the battery to charge, so got a wild hair up my ass from looking at Edgar Payne a bit to much lately and wanted to try some "broken" Color on a more fussy level than I usually do just to make thins painting different form the other engine. But the main choice of what was next was my next biggest areas of darkness, the foreground shadow.



Another bad photo. Put the sky in and added more secondary mid- tones. Fixed some of the details in the darks... Feeling a bit on the fence on all the little fussy brushstrokes, I have no idea way I chose this one to try it out on. Maybe I like to crash and burn in the public arena?


Didn't like some of the choices I made so I got out the knife and did some scraping back mainly on the trains on the right and the bridges. I also did a little knife work on the ground and some rail detail. Generally stated to tighten up adjusting some spots. Next photo will most likely be the final.




Here are two poor little lost PA's that have found there way onto the bolg that needs to be fed while I wait for other paintings to dry in this cool weather. Both are 6x8 on linen oil. The shed was done one morning in Tuolumne behind the house of the owner of the Vault Gallery in about an hour tops. Sheep watch me for about 20 minutes before they go board and shuffled off.

The other is a view of the the overpass for Los Feliz, painted on the upper part of the LA river with J- Mac.
A shirtless, belly scared, sag titted, (but nicely tanned) thousand year old man came up to me and accusatorially asked if a pile of trash (about 50 feet from us,) belonged to me. Despite general respect for my elders, I sternly cut off his coming reprimand by acting shocked and insulted he would dare imply we were homeless trashs makers. I told him he was the half naked one and was closer to the trash pile, there for a far more likely a suspect for leaving a pile of garbage than the fully dressed two of us. He back peddled and offered his credentials that he had been walking this river for 25 years. I told him that was impossible as I painted there every day for 30 years and had never seen him before. I let him blink and sputter a few times before I told him I was pulling his old chicken leg. He than told me in prideful detail about his many operations and his golf game, despite that I still got though my painting and enjoyed the morning.

18 Comments:

Blogger Karen Jacobs said...

That's funny! Or are you pulling our collective chicken legs? Ah, to be so quick witted and fearless in this day.

4:30 AM  
Blogger william wray said...

all true. He wasn't much to be scared of. ;-)

2:32 PM  
Blogger Felix Lim said...

The story was an entertaining read!
and oooh The beautiful warm tones of the underpainting, cant wait to see the next step.

11:45 PM  
Blogger BoneDaddy said...

I like how the first one just looks lik a big sandstorm. I think it'd be great left like that.
I wish I had a shed out in the woods.

12:39 AM  
Blogger Brian said...

Ha! The story has a great fairy tale-esq tone to it. I have had a few serendipidous encounters w/ the elderly eccentric and I can't help but wonder if the old man was really the Budda or something. If you had been less kind would he have cursed you & your village to be overrun w/ trash and to never quaf cold beer again?

6:50 AM  
Blogger Leslie Sealey said...

Looks like you have another very strong design going; I love the drama created by the big foreground shadow! Can't wait to see the finish on this one. : )

12:09 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

thanks Felix, I'm struggling with it...

1:47 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

He BG , one of these days I need to try that, . Stop at super minimal underpainting and call it my style.

1:49 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Brian, I'm glad you tough I was kind, I thought some might think I was mean.

1:50 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Leslie, I want to get it over with believe me. Stopping and posting and taking photos kills the momentum.

1:52 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

Leslie, I may or may not show the finish in a bad photo. I'm thinking I might wait until I can scan it. I'm 95% done and it came out better than I was think it world, but I often worry in a negative way, maybe I need that to stay focused.

11:12 PM  
Blogger Leslie Sealey said...

Go buy some new batteries for your camera! ; - )
One thing I love about this painting is how massive the engine looks even though you've placed it in the background (I guess it's because you have that bridge behind it to show the scale). "Negative worry" just means you have certain standards and you know when the painting is right, that's a good thing.

8:20 AM  
Blogger glamaFez said...

Bill, did you use an underpainting in the small PA of the LA River?

You wrote some very interesting stuff about underpainting. I learn something every time I read your blog.

10:24 AM  
Blogger william wray said...

BG:Yes I used a wash of Alizarin Crimson and Indian yellow.

12:27 AM  
Blogger Michael Pieczonka said...

LOL HAHA.. that's a great story for the overpass painting (and a great painting to boot!). You should write a little story on the back of that 6x8 so that whoever buys it can appreciate what artists have to endure in the field to create good work!

11:53 PM  
Blogger Michael Pieczonka said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

11:56 PM  
Blogger william wray said...

michael,

I have it easy I go to out of the way spots in neighborhoods people are afraid to go in. I don't know how people paint in high traffic areas.

11:44 AM  
Blogger Ron Guthrie said...

Too funny Bill. I somehow missed this. That train is friggin' AWESOME! I dig everything about this painting...not the grungy yard look but more the classic impressionsit (Monet) look. Absolute deadly execution on the side highlight. The vertical pull on perspective of the train is another winner here. You rock dude!
Ron

8:50 AM  

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