Still working on my Greuze study, The White Hat. Here’s where I am after tonight’s session:
White Hat WIP 12-29-09
This is the biggest painting I have done so far, but it’s still only 16×20 inches. Maybe I am fairly close to wrapping this one up? This has progressed pretty speedily…I think I have spent about 12 hours on this, not counting the drawing part.
Here’s the most recent version of my Lila Lee painting:
Lila Lee WIP 12-13-09
By the way, if you notice a similarity between this and my new version of Alice’s Picnic in Wonderland, that’s ’cause I used the same person (Cheryl ‘Rainbeaux’ Smith) as inspiration for my Alice redo…I thought she totally fit the bill of Alice 
I’m changing my Alice in Wonderland painting. Here’s what I’ve done so far:
Alice in Wonderland redo - work in progress 12-13-09
I’m also going back and changing some other stuff, like my Bouguereau piece.
*Update 12-13-09: I updated the photo in this post with the most recent version.
I’m currently working on my third miniature portrait…this time it’s Lila Lee from the film Lemora. The actress who portrayed her was the late Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith.
Lila Lee from Lemora
This is oil on wood panel and I’m painting the face in a raw umber dead layer but using color on most other stuff. I will glaze over the monochromatic underpainting once I think it looks correct.
I’m also using her as a reference to re-paint the face on my recent Alice in Wonderland painting…she is perfect for Alice!
Oh, here is the initial drawing I did for this…it’s unfinished:
lila-drawing
I finished my oil painting portrait of Brother Cadfael. This is based on the excellent show starring Sir Derek Jacobi…it’s a favorite of mine. I started this painting in late March of this year and spent about 24 hours on it over 6 months (including the initial sketch).
To see all 3 posts about this painting, search for ‘cadfael’ then click a post.
Here are photos of the painting both framed and unframed:
Brother Cadfael by Airn LeBus, 8x10 inches, oil on panel, 2009.
Brother Cadfael by Airn LeBus, 8x10 inches, oil on panel, 2009.
I used my current standard technique of making a photocopy of my original drawing so that it will stay intact when I transfer it onto the panel or canvas. I then transferred it by rubbing the back of the photocopy with soft 4B pencil and tracing over it with a pen onto the panel. I then used a fine sharpie over that (on the panel). I put a transparent imprimatura over it to seal it, wash away the pencil, and give some interesting brushstrokes in the background which may show through a bit later.
Next I painted the face as a “dead layer” with just raw umber and white, over many sessions. Once I was mostly satisfied with that I started glazing transparent color over the face. I also added more opaque parts and highlights, and fixed a few things with the features…although they are still a bit off, I settled with the look of it. The hair and robe/cowl were more directly painted but still with some glazing.
Regrettably, I didn’t plan the inscription out properly so it took a while to figure out how to arrange it, what to put, and to actually paint it. It took a few sessions…I used paintings by Albrecht Durer and Hans Holbein the Younger as inspirations for the inscription look and feel. I wrote Cadfael’s full name, “Cadfael ap [son of] Meilyr ap Dafydd” and my little symbol of a cross, eye, crown, and initials ARL. I find that painting text, especially when there is no initial drawing or guide, to be quite difficult…but I enjoy the challenge. Compared to plopping on some text in Photoshop on some digital art, it’s like the contrast between walking into a store and buying a shirt vs. cutting the cloth, designing, and sewing one yourself
I put it in a dark , sturdy, and somewhat simple frame which fits well with the Benedictine nature of Cadfael. I also had played with having his gaze pointed at the viewer but it seemed to fit him better to have him looking off to the side. Pretty happy with this one…overall the mood and look are what I was going for.
The White Hat, after Jean-Baptiste Greuze - work in progress
This is 16×20 inches and is oil on canvas. It’s based on a painting usually referred to as The White Hat by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, originally painted in 1780.
I think I’m almost done with this one. I have been glazing and painting direct color over the raw umber dead layer underpainting. Here’s a detail shot of it:
Brother Cadfael WIP 2
This is oil on wood panel, 8×10 inches.
Here’s the earlier version: Brother Cadfael work in progress 1
(Update 01-04-10: I changed this painting, and switched the pictures here to the new version. See the Alice in Wonderland category for posts about the changes.)
I finished my Alice in Wonderland painting. It’s called Alice’s Picnic in Wonderland and is 11×14 inches, oil on canvas. This will be at the Alice in Wonkaland show at Muddy Waters in Santa Barbara in July.
Here’s the finished painting:
Alice's Picnic in Wonderland
I made extra sure I was happy with the drawing before transferring it to the canvas, so once I started painting it went very smoothly. Almost every painting session was very good and the whole thing overall was very satisfying. The hedge maze took a lot of time to draw, but once it had been planned out it was pretty simple to paint. If you look close you can see she is wearing a little scarab cameo…I felt the need to put something Egyptian in there. I like the contrast of the grinning Cheshire cat (which is totally based on John Tenniel’s famous illustrations) with Alice’s somber expression. I wanted this to be a little dark without doing the whole overdone Gothic Alice thing (which I am waaay sick of).
Here’s a detail view:
Alice's Picnic in Wonderland (detail)
The main thing I would have done differently is use a good reference for the face, which wasn’t based on anyone specific. The face is small, like an inch high, so tiny brushstrokes yielded big changes…it was pretty tough. Since it’s on canvas the texture also makes the painting look a little different depending on what angle you look at it, etc, so there was a ton of stepping back, looking in other light, upside down, and the like. Well, I do a lot of that normally anyway. I did use an old vintage photo for the general figure reference but changed the dress, face, head shape, hair, etc. I didn’t use a grid or anything, I have been doing a grid when I am studying a master work and trying to copy it almost exactly but whenever possible I’m working on my drawing skillz without a grid.
My palette for this was something along the lines of mars black, titanium white, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow light hue, vermillion hue, burnt umber, raw umber, burnt sienna, french ultramarine, and phthalo blue. The greens are mostly black + cadmium yellow light with some earth tones and yellow ochre. These are all pretty much the standard colors I use lately, except I am going to switch to cadmium red hue since it looks very similar to the vermillion but does not contain lead. I use that in the flesh tones: yellow ochre + red + white + burnt umber in darker areas. I hear that using a complementary color in the shadows is supposed to be nice but so far it hasn’t worked out too well for me
This painting was pretty much “direct”…I did not do a monochromatic underpainting for the flesh tones, like I normally do when painting on panel for portrait stuff (this is on canvas).
I spent about 6 hours over 2 weeks drawing this, and then about 16 hours painting it. That is about half the time my last two paintings took, this was a quick one since everything just fell into place, mostly. I started it in early May and finished in late June.
For other posts about Alice and my other Wonderland-related paintings, see the Alice in Wonderland category.
I finished my Petrus Christus master study. This painting is usually referred to as “Portrait of a Young Lady” or “Portrait of a Girl”, etc. His version was painted c. 1470.
Here’s my version, completed and in a nice frame. Portrait of a Young Lady, Airn LeBus after Petrus Christus, 11×14 inches, oil on panel, 2009:
Portrait of a Young Lady, Airn LeBus after Petrus Christus, 11x14 inches, oil on panel, 2009.
My version differs from the original in many ways, mostly on purpose with a couple things unintentional
Here’s the original: Petrus painting at wikimedia
I wasn’t looking to copy the original painting exactly and did my own thing on stuff like the background, eyes, highlights, and overall tone. Also, because the original is very cracked and small I had difficulty seeing how some parts looked. The necklace and decorative metalwork of the hennin hat look a lot different than his.
Petrus Christus study - detail
I painted this with oil on panel, and used a “dead layer” underpainting in raw umber first for the face and body. After I was satisfied with the way it looked, I started glazing flesh tones over the dead layer, very thin, with bleached linseed oil and just a small amount of paint.
The main colors I used in this painting were mars black, raw umber, burnt sienna and burnt umber, vermilion (hue), yellow ochre, and titanium white.
I wanted to do the text inscription after looking at some paintings by Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein the Younger. That part on my painting was pretty painstaking to execute and plan; it was the most complicated text I have painted so far. I did it over 4 or 5 sessions, getting the overall lettering correct first and letting it dry before embellishing it, and putting the raw umber drop shadows last when the rest was dry to avoid smearing what I had already done. I lightly oiled out the area each time before starting a new session.
Here’s a photo without the frame, you can see the detail of the inscription and stuff better:
Petrus Christus study without the frame
One of my favorite things about this painting is that her gaze really follows you around the room. Anywhere you are, if you glance towards the painting she is looking right at you. It’s a little creepy
I spent about 45 hours painting this. The drawing took an additional 6 hours or so. A lot of the painting time was spent painting and repainting the metalwork and trying to figure out how to do that and the necklace. I spent at least 3 times longer on the necklace and maybe 6 times longer on the hat metalwork than I would have if I had known exactly how to proceed. So as always, this was a learning process…that was one of the primary reasons I did this painting in the first place, so I guess it worked out
I have two other posts about this painting, to see them look at the master study category.
My framed Petrus Christus study next to my Cleopatra drawing (after Michelangelo). The cool Medusa statue was purchased at Michael’s craft store last Halloween
Petrus Christus study, Cleopatra, and Medusa
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