"98 In The Shade", the background story

A few years back I went to Belmont race track to get an introduction to horse racing and some photo reference on what was the last day of racing that year. Even starting out the day was warm, but I dressed in nice attire that I thought was befitting a day at the races. Relying on public transportation, I took the LIRR and got off at the station recommended. Little did I know that the station is no where near the actual race track; it put me in the middle of the suburbs. After about 45 minutes of walking I found the entrance which was also no where near the actual track itself. I sometimes forget once you leave NYC proper, cars rule the land. The day was getting warmer still and as I made my way to the park I found some horses being exercised and hosed down prior to racing so I snapped a few pics. After checking with information, I settled myself close to where the horses enter the track thinking that would be a good place. A few other photographers were there waiting in the increasing heat for the start of the day's events. After a half hour passed and there was no sign of activity, we were told over the loud speaker that the air conditioning system used to cool the horses had broken down and that there would be no races that day. It's a good thing at least one picture came out well and had a nice composition that I was able to use as the reference for this piece. As I do plan on going back to Belmont soon, I will definitely plan my next trip better.

"Inside The Tack Room", in progress part 1.

This is a piece that hopefully I'll be able to get to work on in the upcoming weeks. The photo reference for this came from a visit to a friend's barn in rural Connecticut. While taking a look around, I thought setting up a little still life of commonly used riding gear might prove interesting. I like the balance of the objects compositionally, although in order to get a good exposure, I had to flood the area with light. I'm hoping to do it in a style akin to the Flemish painters with a primarily dark, neutral palette. To this end, I toned the canvas with raw umber. I also started drawing in umber oil paint right on the canvas to work out the elements. This looser/painterly approach is something I enjoy as it's easier to block in areas and shapes with the paint rather than having to work it out in line with the pencil. It's also nice because I can keep things fairly loose in the beginning stages, knowing that I'll tighten it up as it goes along. Note also that to help locate the position of the elements, I marked off the half-way and quarter-way points on the edges of the painting. So keep checking back as I hope to show a couple of stages of the progress of this piece. Take care 'til next time.

Commission a Portrait For A Good Cause

I'm donating my portrait services to a truly worthy cause: a barn fire in Pennsylvania claimed the lives of 6 horses and caused personal and property damage to an up-and-coming star in the eventing field Boyd Martin. The e-Bay auction to aid in the recovery was set up by the Professional Riders Organization and runs through July 11th. If you or anyone you know would be interested in having a painting done of their animal and helping a worthwhile cause, I ask you to check out this link. True Prospect Recovery Fund

All That Is Linus

Linus is a pug that lives on Manhattan's Lower East Side. As he is now a little grey around the muzzle, his owners, Elizabeth and Walker, wanted me to capture a slightly younger version of this little guy. His yellow star tag is his trademark and something that adds a nice splash of color to the composition.

David

The Nobleness of Roscoe

When I was commissioned to do this drawing, Roscoe's owner, Jeff, wanted a piece that portrayed Roscoe's noble spirit despite his diminuitive size. He liked the piece I did of Olive the Boston Terrier and wanted to emulate that. This is what I came up with and both Roscoe and Jeff were very pleased. The piece measures 11 1/4" x 14" and is done in colored pencil on Murano toned paper.

David

Becks-Laying In Of Color

I'm working on a couple of things right now so I wanted to show you where I am in regards to the English-style dog painting that's been put on the back burner while I concentrate on a colored pencil commission (check back in a couple of weeks) which is taking up my immediate attention. Above is the first layer of paint to be put down which consists of my "best guess" in relation to hue, value, and chroma of the scene that I'm depicting. You can still see some of the underpainting color (yellow ochre) peaking through where I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to proceed. I'm pretty happy with the way it's coming together though, knowing that the dog will be darker and the grasses will provide a compositional element leading you back into the painting. Hopefully this illustrates that most paintings don't come together fully-formed, like some Athena bursting forth from Zeus' forehead, but rather as many re-worked layers building up to the finished result. I hope you'll stay tuned to see how it turns out.

'til next time.

Color Thoughts: Why Representational Painters May Not Make Good Decorators

My day job is as a mild-mannered Department Head for an art supply store in Manhattan. I'm often asked about which colors are good for a basic palette and what I would choose. As a representational painter I don't really think of solid colors, but those which can be mixed to create a myriad of choices. Even on a flat white wall, the color and value will vary depending upon how much light a given area is receiving. Varying the color helps to create depth, movement and interest in your piece. You want to have a warm and cool version of each of the primary; mine being perm. yellow lt., perm. yellow med., cadmium red med. or vermillion, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, manganese blue or cobalt blue. I tend to like to mix my greens, but I do have a few that I've found particularly useful, Mir's cinnibar green and Williamsburg makes a great earthy green called Bohemian Green Earth. And I've been using a fair amount of mars violet these days and sometimes dioxazine purple. Aside from these you'll need some earth colors: yellow ochre, raw sienna, burnt sienna, burnt and/or raw umber. For white I tend to stick to the standby, titanium. I hardly ever use black.

The portrait of the cat above is one I did and notice how much color variation there is to the "green" couch. Where the sunlight streaks across it, it's pretty straight yellow, in the shadows there's so much red in there that to see the actual color I used you really wouldn't call it green. But you need to be able to mix all of these colors to create the illusion of a green couch being hit by sunlight. The piece to the right is by Frank Stella and his objective is totally different. He's putting one flat, solid color next to another and seeing how they effect each other.

'til next time.