I grew up in Edmond, just a stone’s throw north of Oklahoma City. When I would drive into the city, I traveled down Classen Boulevard, unknowingly retracing a portion of old Route 66 Highway.  That was over forty years ago.  One of the landmark buildings along the way was this really cool old milk-bottle grocery. It was a small building shaped something like a slice of pie, with a huge white milk bottle on its roof.   The grocery is no longer in business, but the milk bottle still stands on top of the building.   The “Milk” sign is my own artistic license; as is the “Fresh Squeezed” sign on the side of the building.  I lengthened one wall to add the signage.  This is a trip back in time for milk and cookies with an old dime store milk truck and a marble out of pocket.

Prints are soon to be available on my web site WWW.LSTEPHENSON.COM

Welcome to Larry’s World. Let’s not pretend that there is some big fascination about artists’ studios.  If you have seen one, you have seen them all.  However, the topic does come up in conversation from time to time.  I have never understood exactly why it is, but people always want to know if I have a studio.  I guess that it is a way of making conversation.   I am often asked if people can ever stop in for a visit should they be traveling through town.  No problem.  I am open by appointment.

My studio is my office.  It is the place where I go to work every day just like anyone else who is employed and brings home a paycheck.  My place of employment just happens to be in the basement of my own home and it is a lot more casual than the usual eight-to-five.  That does not mean, that doing what I do for a living, requires any less attention to detail; or that the workload is any lighter.  It is a job like any other.  Perhaps working as an artist is perceived as being a bit different from the norm.  I have no problem with perceptions.  I cannot say that I ever feel like an animal in the zoo, but working in my field seems to stir more than a little interest from an inquisitive few.  I welcome their interest and embrace the concept that making art for a living is a little unusual.  And because this is not some secret fraternity, limited only to social fruit heads  and creative wingnuts, I don’t mind sharing the inside scoop.  Follow me downstairs, inside the studio, for a virtual tour.  I promise that it is worth the price of admission.  It is free.

My 60 inch mat cutter where I cut my own mats.

My first job out of high school was working for Attic Arts, a small manufacturing firm in Oklahoma City, that sold a wholesale line of high end framed designer art to the furniture industry.  It was there that I learned how to construct picture frames from milled wood and apply faux finishes to the completed frame.  I quickly learned the entire framing process and have always framed my own artwork ever since.  That job provided a weekly paycheck, but the knowledge that I learned early on about framing my own artwork has paid me many times over.

A long bank of framing tables, mounted on saw horses, line up against one wall.   These are 4 x 8 finished office partitions that were salvaged during a remodel.  The painting in the background is five feet wide.  I need big tables for what I do.  The tables provide ample space for laying out artwork where matting and glass is put into custom frames.

My studio is not a lot different from any that of any other working artist.  It is a working studio and it is not always kept as neat as a pin.  House cleaning is not first on my list, although it is not what I would call unclean.  Let’s call it comfortable.  Paint is spattered on the walls.  Drawings in progress are taped up with masking tape.  Bicycles hang from the ceiling.  Maybe it is simply this left brain right brain thing.  I find that some creative people tend to prioritize in different areas, while managing to overlook the clutter.  An engineer would never be able to work in the environment that I prefer for myself.  I find the collection of oddities surrounding my workspace to be quite stimulating.  One simply has to look past the vintage bicycles hung from the ceiling and mounted to the walls; beyond the disheveled shelves of antique toys and scattered memorabilia to see the bigger picture.  There is order in all this disarray.  All of the tools of the trade are assigned their places and different tasks are preformed in different sections of the studio.

Security

The downstairs is also home to “Kitty,” our shelter cat; queen of her own domain.  God only help any stray bug or varmint dumb enough to stumble through “airport security”  into her space.  For some odd reason she has claimed the studio turf as her own.  You can often find her nestled in front of the fireplace, or perched on a chair, seemingly unaware of anything else around her.  At night she is my guard kitty. She sits wide awake in front of the fireplace watching  for intruders as if she were guarding Fort Knox.  All the while, the dogs are both upstairs snoring away.

One cold winter’s night I heard a noise downstairs and got out of bed to see what was all the clatter.  Kitty had a stray cat cornered and hissing back at her.  The stray had somehow found its way into house. Upon seeing me, this disgruntled feline, found her way back outside as quickly as she had found her way in.   Kitty did not back up an inch.  Enough said.

Going to Work.

I must admit that it is nice to jump out of bed, and travel no farther when going to work, than a short journey down a flight of stairs.  That is a pretty short commute, and I never think about carrying an umbrella or stopping in a drive thru to get coffee along the way.  My work space consist of about eight hundred square feet of finished walkout basement. We have lived here the past eleven years.  The house was new when we bought it, and one of the main selling points was the fact that the back of the house faces north.  North light is the most even lighting for a painter, like myself.  Some people dream of a big kitchen with granite counter tops or a master bedroom  with a sunken tub.  My number one priority when going house hunting was focused around a potential art studio.

Antique Oak Drafting Table

My downstairs studio space consists of three large rooms, plus two ample storage spaces.  One of the storage rooms has a large dry mount machine.  This is a hot and cold machine that can flatten paintings in a vacuum or dry mount art to a rigid surface.  The painting room, would have been built as a guest bedroom.  It is a 12 x 12 room with added lighting and a big window.  My painting table is located in front of this large window facing north.  It is a large drafting table with a bit of history.  I bought it at auction maybe twenty-five years ago from another artist forced to leave it behind when he made a move.  The table had probably been used by geologists in the Marland Oil Company of the 1920’s and 30’s for mapping oil prospects.  My artist friend had acquired it when he had worked in the art department at Conoco Oil.  Those early oil days were the times when gushers blew in spraying black crude for miles.  There is much interesting history surrounding the oil pioneers of the state of Oklahoma.  My grandmother, lived in the town of Edmond, north of Oklahoma City.  She once told me a story about a gusher that blew in on the state capitol grounds spraying oil in the wind for miles.  It blackened her clean white wash drying on an outside line in the 1940’s.   After college I moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma.  The Marland Oil Company had been headquartered in  Ponca City.  E.W. Marland was a flamboyant oil man and wildcatter who later became the Governor of the state of Oklahoma.  Marland eventually fell on hard times and went broke.  The Marland Oil Company was sold to the Conoco Oil company.  Conoco kept the Marland company logo and headquartered for the next three decades in Ponca City before moving its corporate headquarters to Houston in the 1970’s.   I often wonder who has sat at this drafting table, and what stories it could tell.   The drafting table is six feet wide and constructed of well worn heavy oak.

There is also a downstairs bathroom and a shower which is seldom, if ever used.  I use the bathroom primarily for cleaning brushes and getting fresh water.  The large middle room is totally dedicated to framing.  It could have just as easily have been used for a large game room or family area.  We took out the carpeting and put down  porcelain tiled flooring, which is easy to keep clean.

Wall mounted glass cutter.

This piece of equipment will square and cut both plexiglas and glass, as well as mat board.  I generally frame my larger paintings using plastic sheeting.  Plex will not break and it is also substantially lighter weight.  I purchase large 48 X 96 inch sheets of plastic sheeting for this purpose and cut them to fit.

All the coziness of a fireplace in winter.

Toys and more toys.

Throughout the studio models from previous paintings are to be found on shelves and on the mantle of the fireplace.  I collect antique toys.  During the late 1990’s I was contracted on a retainer to a large stationery and greeting card company.   I helped design and illustrate a line of artwork licensed for a number of gift and stationery products.  It was pleasing to see my artwork in numerous retail stores throughout the country, but the work itself was grueling.  One day my wife, Sheryl, made an intelligent observation.  She told me that my creativity should not only be about the money.  What she was telling me was that I should consider creating artwork for myself, rather than working for art directors and corporate executives.  That comment put in motion a plan that finally met with fruition in 2000 with the birth of a collection of paintings using the toys I loved to collect.

The computer room.

Years ago I was traveling across New Mexico with my artist friend, Jerry Ellis.  This would have been the early 1980’s.   PC’s and word processors were replacing typewriters and becoming commonplace office fare.  My sister worked as an account executive for a large advertising agency and was a big fan of Apple computers.  The creative people in the Agency used Macs for all of their work.   I knew little about computers myself, but had listened to what she had to say.  I told Jerry that there might come a day when artists completed pieces of fine art on computers alone.  It was loose talk at the time, but not far off the mark.  Years later, my oldest son, Cullen, graduated with his MFA from Canbrook Academy of Art, outside of  Detroit in 2006.  His creative focus is centered around digital technology and applying it to making all kinds of art including film.  He is light years ahead of me in his thinking, but I have also learned to apply technology to much of my own creative process.  I can readily solve problems in composition by moving components around and seeing them on a computer screen before I ever pick up a brush or a pencil.  I also can design patterns and repeats, as well as commercial applications and illustrations using painting software like Corel Painter or Adobe Photoshop.

I have a separate room totally dedicated to office space where I do my graphic work on the computer, as well as all correspondence, and printing.   Much of my initial design work in done on computer.  The Macintosh in this room is an extension of my right arm.  Also located in that portion of the studio is a large Epson 9800 commercial printer.  I do all of my own printing for my signed and limited edition prints. None of the digital work is farmed out.  This not only insures quality; it also provides my customers the best pricing available.  This type of reproduction work is done one print at a time and every care is taken during the process to provide an archival print of museum standards.

I learned digital printing techniques from some of the best in the business.   During the 1990’s my wife and I owned a fine art poster publishing company that distributed prints wholesale to art dealers and frame shops worldwide.  We printed in runs of five and ten thousand on commercial offset printing presses.  Before engaging a large print run, we would generally make a single digital proof for checking color and overall quality.  This was done on an Iris printer.  An Iris was a highly technical digital printer that produced the highest quality printing known at the time.  The company doing my offset printing, told me that the Iris machine was a $100,000.00 investment.  Like any new technology, the prices soon came down.  The photographer who photographed all of my images purchased his own Iris machine for $36,000.00 in the late 90’s.  Artists and photographers began using the Iris in the early 90’s to produce museum quality printing.  The process was expensive, but it did not require large print runs either.  The main advantage of an Iris was that printing could be done one print at a time.   Because of the high expense of owning and operating an Iris, there were relatively few available.  Advances in printing technology has changed all of that.  Today, any artist willing to learn the necessary technology for color correction, can own and operate a quality commercial printer.  Owning a quality printer, alone, does not insure success.  It requires certain technological skills and a good eye for the correction process.  No matter the quality of the machine, the printer is no more capable of printing better quality than the digital information entered into the computer.  Thus, the statement, “trash in, trash out.” But technology does provide some powerful creative tools for the artists willing to learn how to use them.   There is little doubt in my own mind, had Rembrandt had similar artistic tools available in his day, he would have learned to use them well.

EPSON 9800 COLOR PRINTER

I can print images up to 96 inches long and 44 inches wide using current software.  I have a friend who uses similar printers to print wall coverings and architectural applications from original artwork.   These machines can print on canvas as well as they can on paper.

A HOME FOR MY COLLECTABLES.

1937 Hawthorne Zep

I am fascinated by vintage balloon tire bicycles.  This old Zeppelin bike hangs on the wall in my painting room.  The same bicycle was used as the model for my painting, King of Hearts, in 2001.

Wooden lures with glass eyes.

These bad boys have seen some action over the years.  I collect a few vintage fishing lures and keep them around for the occasional painting or two.

This is the second, in a series of step by step explanations, describing how I paint my paintings.   The previous article was about a painting that I used to work out a few problems in advance of beginning this commissioned piece of artwork. My goal is to provide my customer with a suitable piece of custom art that fits his decorating needs, and at the same time, meets his own personal choice of subject matter.

I am sometimes asked why I choose to travel and do art fairs verses simply showing my art in galleries.  I tell customers that both are great ways to market one’s art.  For me it may go back to when I used to do the Art Expo at the Jacob Javits in New York City.  I personally met art buyers from all over the world.   I enjoyed meeting people up close and personal.  A few years back I met a potential customer while doing an art fair in Sausalito, California.  A year or so passed.  Then while traveling through Kansas this same art patron called for an appointment.  After visiting the studio we kept in touch.  He would call me from time to time discussing the possibilities of my doing a commission piece of his choosing.   It has taken time for all of this to bear fruit, but I am currently developing the final stages of that commission.   What follows is this work of art as it is progressing.

My customer wanted me to do a painting with comics in the background.  He chose the toy car that will appear in the painting.  It is a blue fifty vintage Courtland Toy Company tin windup woody.   My customer also loved the toy ray gun in another painting that is shown on my web site called “Atomic Disintegrator.”   This gun is a classic cap gun made by Hubley in the late 40’s and early 50’s.  The car I am using can be viewed in the painting, “Family Portrait.”  His request asked that I combine these two items along with Dick Tracy comics and a few marbles.  This is great because I love to sometimes use marbles to establish scale.  Marbles are also an icon of the times that we will be attempting to capture in the painting.   My customer has a spot in mind for the framed painting and we established the size of the finished artwork before I ever began designing the composition.  Below is a rendering that I did in photoshop as a suggested composition for my customer before starting the painting.

What you see above is a compilation of both photographs and items selected from former paintings.  The ray gun is taken directly from a former painting and placed on a photograph of old comics along with painted marbles from two other paintings.  I liked the coloring in these particular marbles.  I could have just as easily used any of the hundreds of marbles that I have in my own collection of memorabilia.  The car is was photographed along with the comics.  I knew the both the perspective that I wanted to use for the painting and the exact placement of the car.  The other items, including the gun and marbles, were moved around and studied until a final composition was decided on.   You may take note that the same Tracy segment appears both bottom center and above the cap gun.  I moved this segment from the bottom center of the composition and placed it underneath the top of the gun.  This required me to adjust and redraw the perspective inside photoshop.  I will replace that segment that is now duplicated in the bottom center in the final composition.  This is the virtual drawing that I showed to my customer for approval before progressing any further.  I should also note that all the shadows were also done inside photoshop.

Using photoshop allows me to do things a bit more quickly and study variations in advance.  I can combine my own drawings and paintings in combination with photos taken in the studio.  I can also draw and paint inside photoshop or erase or clone portions of a composition so that I can see examples before progressing further.  This saves for a lot of wasted time.  When doing commission work I can also design and draw conceptional elements of a  composition to be combined with the real life objects should I so choose.

The first thing that I do after transferring a graphite drawing to my painting surface is begin to paint the blackened ink comic outlines.  The initial drawing was done on a separate piece of paper and transferred.  This allowed for all changes and eraser marks to be done prior to transferring it to the virgin painting surface.  This is an additional step that adds considerable time, but it makes for a much cleaner watercolor painting.  I mix a small amount of matte acrylic medium to the watercolor paint to make it permanent.  This will keep this initial outline from running as the painting surface receives numerous transparent washes and future coloration.

The black is not a full deep black.  Instead it is a variation of an extremely dark gray.  This is because the lighting helps determine value even in the blacks.  I am careful to mix enough color to paint the entire section in one pass without remixing the paint.  This painting  process is all done with brushes and may take several days for completion.  The car, ray gun, and marbles are left unpainted at this stage since the only coloration to this point is the black outline of the comics.

Monday, December 28

The thing about having a studio in the lower portion of the house is that I can go to work any time I wish.  I actually found time to work on my commission piece throughout the Christmas holiday for a few hours at a time.  Sheryl was nice enough to also help me do a few things around the studio yesterday like squaring up my 60 inch mat cutter, as well as squaring my wall-mounted glass cutter that I use to cut large pieces of Plexiglas. (yes, that is how you spell the brand name for plex.) We took a few moments and rearranged things along with a thorough cleaning of my work space.  A big snow storm had swept through the plains states and none of the boys made it home for Christmas.  It was a good day to make time for catching up in the studio.  I thank Sheryl for all of her help.  Her reward was a great Indian dinner that I cooked using the fresh spices and herbs that Cullen, our oldest,  mailed us for Christmas.  Yum.

This morning I put broad washes of light yellows and grays onto the comic papers.  It is easy for me to determine the hues in the aged news print that I actually hold up to the painting while reviewing my progress.  Folds in the paper and edges reflect light changing values.  I attempt to recreate these subtle changes.  I also like to mix in variations of light and cool neutral tones for added interest.  Although these neutral tones will later appear as “white” news paper in the areas devoid of “ink,” the paper has considerable color and value when compared to the actual  white of the virgin watercolor paper.

What you see void of any color are the car, ray gun, and marbles.  I took this picture inside the studio.  Outside lighting would have been better for taking the picture.  The weather has not cooperated the last several days.  I will next begin painting in the color of the comics.  I have left the three dimensional items on top of the newspaper comics for later because the white of the paper will help define highlights.  In a transparent watercolor painting, the paper provides whites and highlights.  Reflections on the chrome of the ray gun will be modeled using light washes while allowing the paper whites to show through.  The same is true for the glass marbles.  Shiny surfaces reflect light and the paper provides these highlights.

January 5

A quick update on this commission piece.  I like to take photographs as I progress on any commissioned work of art.  I can email these photographs as I work on the piece and keep communication open.  I am working on this painting daily along with the usual business of operating my art business.

January 11, 2010

Last week I pretty well finished the ray gun.  I still have a little detailing to go on the top of the gun.  I did the underpainting for the marbles and the tin windup car.  Portions of the car will appear as aged white lithographed tin.  This white must be modeled and shaded to create dimension.  It cannot remain pure white.  The whitest whites will be in the reflected light of the glass marbles and the silver ray gun.  So I shade and under painted the marbles and the car before adding the colors.

A detailed close up of the ray gun.

January 15

I finished the painting two days ago.  Today, the weather cooperated enough to take this painting outside an photograph it in brightly overcast sunlight.   Below is the finished painting.

This painting will be framed with a portion of the white paper still showing inside the matting.  I use an 8 ply rag antique white mat board.  This is a very deep (thick) mat.  I prefer something very simple and architectural in appearance.  A black aluminum molding will frame the painting.   The archival framing meets museum standards.  This is important me.  Proper framing insures that the painting will not discolor in future years due to natural acids found in some framing materials.  Proper framing is expensive, especially for a painting this size.  I offer commission work both framed and unframed.

THE COST.

The total costs for any commission depends on numerous variables.   If interested you may always call me at 316 733-9654 and we can discuss a special project.   Any commission begins at $2000.00 no matter how small.  That is my minimum fee for taking on a special project.  The painting explained in this editorial would normally retail framed anywhere from $5000.00 -$6500.00.

CHOICE OF SUBJECT MATTER.

You may elect to provide your own choice of subjects, including toys from your own childhood, or toys from your private collection.  I, also, have a good collection of materials to choose from in my studio.   In some cases collectors may ask me to search for special items to use in paintings.   Anything is possible.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?

I like a month or better to conceive and finish a final piece of artwork.  Please keep in mind that mine is a small everyday business with lots of other things going on during my daily routine.  I often juggle more than one ball in the air at one time.

WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO COMMISSION A PAINTING.

I prefer to do the actual work during the winter months when I am not traveling.  The more advance notice that I have, all the better.

FEES AND ADVANCE PAYMENTS.

I like a 20% down payment before scheduling a special project.   If you wish for me to search for a special antique toy, we can discuss any costs involved.  The down payment is non refundable.

GUARANTEES.

Everything within reason will be done to deliver you a painting to your liking.  During the entire process there will be plenty of opportunity for you to give your personal okay as the project proceeds to completion.  My framing is somewhat standard for everything that I do, including any work that I supply galleries or take to shows.   You are always welcome to use your own choice of framing or framer.

February 6, 2010.

A short closing note to this story. I talked by telephone to my client this afternoon.  The painting arrived safely in Laguna Beach, California.  It has been up on the wall for a couple of days now.  He simply loves the painting and will recommend my work to others in the future.  For the record, shipping artwork is never inexpensive.  The total fees including packaging by a professional package store was $360.00 from my studio in Kansas to his home in California.  The entire project took about two months from the time that my client paid his deposit.

This is a work in progress.    The idea first took roots when I visited Netflix and checked out the first two seasons of Mad Men www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/.  The plot of the TV series is about men working inside an advertising agency in downtown New York City in 1960.  The dress and their chauvinistic attitudes are much different than today.

I had previously created a painting of lead businessmen lined up in rows last year.  People remarked to me that it reminded them of the series Mad Men because of the 1960’s dress.  After watching the show, I created a general theme using these lead businessmen canned up like sardines in downtown Manhattan.  These toy businessmen, dressed in hats, and holding an overcoat draped over one arm, were made of cast lead and hand painted the same way that dime store soldiers used to be manufactured.  The toys were made by Barclay in the 1950’s.  I have heard them called “train people,” and the Barclay Toy Company actually also made these same figures in a smaller scale for toy train sets.  I recreated the old fashion sardine can that opened with a key and filled it with toy businessmen instead of real sardines.   Check it out.  For those of you who have not opened a can of sardines in a while, these key opened cans are a thing of the past.

This gave me a model to work with for this and future paintings.

I decided to use newspaper comics of the same era as a backdrop for my theme.  One of the captions reads, “pass the crackers please.”  A scattering of crackers will appear at the top of the painting.

One of the reasons that I chose comics is because I am also working on a large commission piece at the same time that requires me to use comics in the background.   I have done comics before, and my client saw some of my artwork using comics several years ago at a show in Sausalito, California.  I can work on both paintings at the same time and use this painting somewhat as a prototype, even though the subjects are quite different.

As this painting develops, I will photograph it in stages and post it here on the blog site.  This is the first of the series of step by step photos.  The image area is 30 inches tall and 50 inches wide.  I have blacked in the comics and am currently placing a series of transparent watercolor washes over the newspaper to yellow and age the surface of the newspaper.  While doing so, I can also create depth and individual overlapping pages.

The beginning stages of the painting. PASS THE CRACKERS PLEASE.

December 6, 2009

Today, I am posting a second photograph of the painting as it continues to progress.  Additional layers of neutral shading were added to age the newspaper and show folds and edges.  I then laid down washes of color inside the comics.  I am careful to dull or gray down the bright colors so that they will regress into the background.   I do not them to pop forward and distract the eye from the three dimensional pieces on top of the newspaper which will be painted later on.

I have begun to place color into the comics.

Only the flesh tones remain to be painted  before I move on to other objects.

The sardine tin with the toy men will be painted next.  I will paint the three dimensional objects and create shadows to make them appear to stand up off of the flat surface.  What you see remaining to be painted is the actual white of the paper and the penciled outline of the toy men, crackers, and sardine can.  Reflected light and any highlights will be the whites of the paper.  That is why I have saved these for last.  I want the tin can to appear to be reflective metal.  Watercolor is a transparent painting medium that allows the lighter white of the paper to show through.  The enamel on the painted surfaces of the lead men will also show reflected lighted highlights.  The saltine crackers are a non reflective surface that will appear lighter than the aged paper of the comics.

This is the pencil drawing that was transferred to the watercolor paper.  The actual drawing was done on another sheet of paper in order to allow eraser marks and corrections to be made.  The final drawing is then leaded on the reverse side prior to being transferred to the actual painting surface.

Several rules of thumb apply to any painting that I do, no matter how shallow the depth of field.  The most distant objects are always cooler and less intense in color.  The darkest darks and lightest lights always come forward in the painting.  For these reasons the purest whites and blackest blacks will always appear closest to the viewer, and generally nearest the center of interest.  It is interesting to note that the blacks of the outlined comics are actually grays and the whites of the newspaper have been tinted.  In this case the paper is actually aged.   I will post the next stages in future photographs later today or tomorrow.

December 8

I use a light to create the proper shadow for the dimestore businessman.

I sketch in the shadows on the two standing lead figures and paint the shadows using a mixture of ultramarine blue, burnt siena, and ultramarine violet.  This gives my shadows a slight purple tone that is complimentary to the yellows in the painting.

I will later deepen and gray the shadows with additional transparent washes.  Because of the size of the paper (40 x 60 inches), I rotate the paper and paint from all sides.  In this photo I have defined the darkest reflections in the tin sardine can.  The can will have a brassy hue.

December 9

By yesterday evening I had painted the sardine can and begun applying color to the toy figures.  I hold the actual toy in my hand as I build up subtle washes on the figures.  The sardine can was painted using broad strokes that were applied in a very direct manner.  I am careful to put the paint down quickly and leave it alone.  The whitest reflection on the key-rolled tin is the white of the virgin paper.

The sardine can is complete.  I have begun to block in flesh tones and the lighter washes for the overcoats.  One of the overcoats is completed in this photo.  The overcoats will vary in shade and color.  The men’s suits will be either gray or brown.  The crackers in the background were painted this morning using light transparent washes to give subtle shading.  Notice the lightly toasted coloration of the saltines.

December 14

I have had to wait a couple of days on better weather before going outside to photograph the painting.  The painting is nearing completion.

I have now painted the dime store businessmen inside the sardine can.  This has taken several days as I modeled each figure and used multiple transparent washes to create highlights on the reflective enamel paint.  These figures were made of cast lead.  Play wear caused the paint to chip and crack away allowing the cast lead to show through in places.

I have also added washes to parts of the newspaper further aging and darkening the paper in places. I cooled and grayed the paper comics on the right side of the painting.  I want the newsprint to fade into the background.   The comics to the left side of the sardine can were darkened and a crease in the paper was modeled further.  I also modeled the crackers adding definition and depth to the flat saltines.  All of these washes on the crackers and newsprint was done with big broad brushes and lots of water.  The shading is subtle.  I continue to build until I see the value that I am looking for in the painting.  Seeing value may be the hard part when it comes to differentiating the subtle differences inside the lights.  The same is true for the darks where edges become lost.

This photo allows me to back away from the painting and study the values a bit more.  I can see that I want to slightly deepen the flesh tones in the faces of the comic characters.  I may also deepen the toasted tones in the saltine crackers.   I like to study these things for a day or two.  Each day I may see something, no matter how small, that I did not notice the day before.

Of personal interest is the caption that I added to the Li’l Abner comic in the lower right corner.  The words are from the lyrics of the Patsy Cline song, Crazy, circa the early sixties.

I’m crazy for being so lonely.  Crazy for being so blue.

December 17

I have made what I consider the finishing touches.  I deepened the values in the flesh tones of the comics.  I felt that the aged white of the newspaper needed to pop a bit more.  By darkening the flesh tones I got the added differnece in value that I was looking for.  I also added subtle reflective lighting to the rolled can lid.  I went ahead and added a few darker spots where the crackers are toasted.  In watercolor it is all about knowing when to quit without quitting too early.  There is nothing that displeases me any more than looking back on a painting at a later date and discovering that it is “washed out.”  This happens when the value differences between the darkest darks and the lightest lights are not fully explored.  ”Mud” is the result of overworking a painting.  Finding the proper middle ground is the true magic in painting a watercolor.  This comes only with practice and a good eye for painting what you see and not simply what you think that you see.  Look for the values! Once you get the idea they are not all that hard to see.  Don’t be afraid of making a mistake by painting too boldly.  That is how we learn.  Learn to put it down and then leave it alone.  That is the freshness of painting in watercolor.  It is a bit spontaneous like playing a musical instrument by ear and without the aid of written music.   That is the heart and soul of the medium.  There is always plenty of time to study and revisit the painting if subtle changes need to be made without destroying the freshness of the process.  This painting is finished.  All I need to do now is set it up to properly photograph the painting for reproduction purposes.

January 9, 2010

A GREAT ENDING FOR THE STORY

I often refer to my paintings as my orphans, and I am always looking for a good home for all of my art.   This painting has found its special place.  It sold several days ago to collectors who already own a pair of my paintings.  ”Thank you.  May it bring you much happiness.”

P.S. Prints are now available of this image by visiting WWW.LSTEPHENSON.COM

“Don’t feed the animals.”  I remember those words from when I was a kid traveling through Yellowstone National Park as throngs of bears lined the road begging for treats from passersby.  This is my newest painting entitled, “Watch Out For Wildlife.”   Although the bears have all but disappeared from the roadsides of Yellowstone plenty of wildlife can still be viewed when traveling through Teton and Yellowstone parks.  Keep a sharp eye and no telling what you might see.