You ask what we’ve been doing at the Art Center Information blog sight all day.  Drawing and attempting to paint a color sketch for my future art, “Old Woodie”.

The man pumping the gas in the picture is supposed to be my father back in 1950, which is where I got the idea for the painting.  It was a small black and white photograph that I’d not paid attention to until I was going through an old family album.  I’ve blogged about it before, but I’ve been procrastinating instead of painting it because this one is for me. I have no intention of selling it.  I doubt if it would have that much commercial value to anyone other than myself.

I’ve never painted people in acrylics before, so it is a new experience.  Although I got through the sketch, it’s not exactly what I want, but the good thing is that I now know how to tackle the job.  In other words, I now know what not to do.  First, the painting was complete before I put the last shadow wash on it.  It made it muddy.  The skin tone is too dark (I forgot acrylics usually dry darker that when wet).  The underside of the hat is the wrong color…etc. etc.

I’ll experiment on shadow washes on egg shapes in the morning, but I believe I’ve got a handle on it now.  Again, just like I always say here at the Art Center Information blog, if you can imagine it in your mind you can paint it on a substrate…no matter which medium you’re working in.