Disturbance South of Helium

Comic-Con International rapidly approaches. I’ll be setting up on Tuesday, relieving myself of the stress of driving down to San Diego and trying to set up on Wednesday before the show opens for the convention’s so-called Preview Night. I say “so-called” because Preview Night used to be for a select few. Now it seems as if all 130,00 attendees are there on Wednesday, so it’s not really a special “preview” — it’s just another (half) day of the con.

I’ll be in my usual spot, booths 4803 and 4805. If you’re looking for me in the Comic-Con listings, don’t look under “S” for Stout; that would be much too logical. Look under “W” for William…

I just picked up William Stout – 50 Convention Sketches #16 from my printer yesterday (talk about cutting it close!). I picked up a slew of new art from my framer as well. I will also be selling canvas prints of the animal picture that was recently step-by-stepped on my website Journal. I know I’ve got a lot of Burroughs collectors, so I drew up and painted some new Barsoomian pieces (one of them appears above) for the show. That art will end up in the female sequel to my Hallucinations fantasy collection: Inspirations.

I look forward to seeing all of my old friends — and meeting & making several new ones as well.

See You There!

I was saddened to learn of the passing of Arnold Friberg on July 1, 2010 in my birth place of Salt Lake City, Utah at age 96. Friberg was the last living proponent of the classic Norman Rockwell/Harvey Dunn school of illustration.

He is best known for one masterpiece of a painting and three key painting projects.

Perhaps his most famous painting is his masterful portrait of George Washington, The Prayer at Valley Forge.

The Prayer at Valley Forge by Arnold Friberg

In 1953 Cecil B. DeMille hired Friberg to paint a series of pictures that established the visual tone and grandeur of DeMille’s next epic, The Ten Commandents.

The Parting of the Red Sea by Arnold Friberg

For his extensive work on that film Friberg received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design. Many of his paintings for this film were collected and reproduced in color in two different official program books for the film.

Maintaining the Right by Arnold Friberg

Friberg was also famed for his more than 300 paintings depicting the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

Tales of the Force by Arnold Friberg

His series of Mountie paintings began as a longtime ongoing series of commissions from the Northwest Paper Company. My old studiomate Richard Hescox and I used to write the Northwest Paper Company on a fairly regular basis. They were very gracious in sending us many prints and calendars featuring Friberg’s RCMP paintings.

His fourth major project was his illustration of The Book of Mormon for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Abinadi Delivers His Message to King Noah by Arnold Friberg

I don’t know if this is still true, but for a long time one could write to the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City and receive (for free) a set of Friberg’s illustrations as well as a copy of The Book of Mormon containing those pictures.

Mormon Bids Farewll to a Once Great Nation by Arnold Friberg

Friberg became very successful as an artist. He invested his money wisely and early, buying prime property in Utah and building a beautiful home there.

Success is not without its drawbacks, however. There were several attempts in later years to purchase his home property. It had become extremely valuable as Salt Lake City had grown and prospered. Because Arnold refused, thugs were sent to his home where this gentle, elderly artist was brutally beaten near to death. He reluctantly sold his house.

In later years, as his reputation expanded, Friberg’s commissions grew in importance. He painted the royal portrait of HRH The Prince of Wales:

HRH The Prince of Wales by Arnold Friberg

and the equestrian portrait of Queen Elizabeth II:

Queen Elizabeth II by Arnold Friberg

I was fortunate in being able to meet Mr. Friberg. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read an advertisement for a Canyon Country (a rural suburb near Los Angeles) gallery. They announced that they were hosting a signing with Arnold Friberg. I gathered up the books I had that were illustrated by Friberg as well as a few of his choice prints and brought them to the gallery to be signed. I also brought samples of my work to give to Arnold.

As soon as Arnold discovered I was a fellow artist, he lit up. Much to the chagrin of the gallery owners, the signing stopped as Arnold began to tell me tales about his life and art in response to the questions I had.

I asked about his Oscar nomination. A huge grin spread across his face. “All that I can remember about the moment of being nominated is that Elizabeth Taylor handed me my nomination and gave me a kiss on the cheek!”

Once I started pulling out the Friberg rarities for Arnold to sign, the gallery owners’ attitudes changed. It turned out that they were fans, too. They became very excited to see reproductions of works with which they weren’t familiar. In addition to the prints they were selling, original paintings from different aspects of Friberg’s career were on display, including some of his brilliant Ten Commandments work.

I left on a cloud that day. I’ll never forget this fine and gracious gentleman and the kindness he showed me. Here’s to the enduring work and career one of the world’s greatest artists: Arnold Friberg.

Menagerie - Finished Art

After I finished painting all of the animals, I retouched and tightened up the chimp’s canvas and easel.

As I do with all of my completed pieces, I took the finished painting to be professionally shot by the fine folks at Art Works. They are also the same people who will be making my prints of this piece for me.

After it was shot I popped the disc into my computer and cleaned up all of the white areas in PhotoShop. Note that the pure white of the blank canvas areas is now whiter than the white fur of the panda and the white feathers of the puffin’s belly.

Now this baby is really done. I can’t wait to see how the prints turn out! I’ll have two different size canvas prints for sale at Comic-Con: 8″ x 10″ and 16″ x 20″.

I hope you liked this demo. I had fun both painting it and writing about it.

Menagerie – Close to Finish

OK; we’re headin’ home.

Menagerie – Mammoth Detail

I finally had a chance to correct the mammoth head, redrawing and repainting almost everything but the body of the trunk. His eyes were what bothered me the most. I added some nice aging, grime, scratches and other textures to the mammoth’s tusks and lost that top edge on his right tusk.

Matt expressed concern regarding the difficulty in seeing the giraffe against the T. rex, so I’m going to jump ahead and add another lesson here:

Menagerie – Ready to be Photographed

I’ve finished the last of the animals.

Menagerie – T. Rex and Giraffe Detail

Instead of using values (darks and lights) to pop the giraffe from the T. rex, I decided to use color (as my old painting teacher and mentor Hal Kramer used to say, “For a change of form look for a change of value, a change of color — a change of some goddam thing!”). I made the shadows on the giraffe’s face a cool blue in contrast to the warm greens and browns of the T. rex. Conversely, I warmed up the giraffe’s mane with some reddish browns to make it stand out against the cool greens of the T. rex neck. The bold pattern of the giraffe’s spots help pop him, too. The giraffe head still doesn’t pop against the T. rex head with a read as clear as that of the rest of the critters. It stands out enough, though, that I’m not bothered enough to alter the giraffe’s relative visibility. Not everything has to read like a billboard; there should be some sense of discovery.

You can see that the T. rex’s facial scales are no longer transparently painted; they are now (for the most part) opaque. This is an important detail: I also made sure to vary the color and values of the scales to make them more realistic and to give them more interest. I worked on those teeth of his, too. I darkened them then gave them crisp highlights (something I learned from Frazetta) to make them more ivory-like. The change of temperature (from the warm greens of the T. rex’s face to the cool greens of his neck) also makes the T. rex look larger, as the change makes your eyes feel like they’ve been on a journey.

Menagerie – Signature

The last step at this point in the process is signing the painting. I decided to make my signature fairly low in contrast. I figured there was enough stuff going on in this picture that viewers didn’t need the additional distraction of a bold signature. The “CAC” I include in my signature stands for the California Art Club. The CAC honored me by making me a Signature Member (I’m also on their Advisory Board and am the Managing Editor of their newsletter). Only Signature Members can sign their works with a “CAC” added to their signature.

The California Art Club is the oldest art organization west of the Mississippi. They actively promote representational and traditional (as opposed to abstract and non-traditional) art. I currently have two paintings on display in the CAC’s annual Gold Medal Exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.

The final lesson is tomorrow: Digital Clean-up!

Menagerie - Near Completion

We’re heading for home plate here.

Menagerie – Warthog, Dodo, Echidna Detail

The warthog gets his due, as does the echidna.

Menagerie – Chameleon & Camel Detail

With my affinity for reptiles, I really enjoyed painting the little Jackson’s chameleon. The camel was fun, too, as I first explored camel textures when I painted several prehistoric camels for one of my San Diego Natural History Museum murals.

Three more lessons, I believe…

Menagerie – Close to Finish

Progressing toward the finish, I refined the skunk, the armadillo, mandrill, tortoise, hare, manatee, dolphin, dodo, puffin and ostrich.

Menagerie – Skunk, Armadillo Detail

I paid more careful attention to the skunk anatomy and detailed out the armadillo and its armor (not as difficult as you might think).

Menagerie – Mandrill, Tortoise & Hare Detail

I corrected the details of the mandrill’s facial anatomy, intensified the colors and added the highlights to the mandrill’s facial ribbing and nose to make his skin look more glossy. Obviously, I also worked on and finished his fur as well.

The tortoise received his proper skin and shell textures. The rabbit became a hare and I painted light showing through his ears.

Menagerie – Manatee Detail

Finishing the manatee didn’t take much work; mostly smoothing stuff out and making sure that the simple details on his face were clear and accurate. Then, I finished the pocked texture of his muzzle.

Menagerie – Dolphin & Dodo Detail

The dolphin detailing went pretty fast as well, mostly smoothing his skin out, checking and correcting the facial anatomy and adding the scratches.

The dodo just needed to be more carefully refined and highlighted.

Menagerie – Puffin and Ostrich Detail

The puffin finally got his full due with a smoothing out of his body and anatomical attention paid to the flight feathers of his wing.

The ostrich’s facial feathers and neck texture added a veracity to the painting.

As I’m doing all of this touch-up work, I am also adding more white to the pure white areas of the background, trying to make it as opaque and as flat as I can. At the same time, I am looking for ways to lose (soften) edges here and there. This picture’s main weakness is too many hard edges.

Just a few more lessons — we’re on the home stretch!

Menagerie - Still Refining

We’re quickly wrapping things up here as I continue to finish refining more of the animals.

Menagerie – Upper Left Detail

I tightened and refined the bee, bat, cobra, luna moth and hummingbird. I lengthened the wings of the puffin a little (and paid better attention to their anatomy), especially after hearing the same comment over and over (”Do puffins fly?”). Like the other animals in this painting, the puffin has been caricatured. And, yes — puffins do fly. I saw flocks of them flying in Alaska.

Menagerie – Mantis Detail

The mantis got a new paint job as well…

Menagerie – Moose & Wolf Detail

…as did the moose and wolf. That wolf may look tight to you at this size but, believe me, in person you’d see that I painted that fur pretty darn loosely. With the moose I made sure his nose was darker than the rest of his face to bring it out. To that effect, I also added some reflected sky color to the top of the nose to make it pop forward even more.

Menagerie – Anteater Detail

The anteater received a disapproving eye and more nose detail.

Menagerie – Star-nosed Mole & Weasel Detail

I loved finishing the star-nosed mole and weasel. The re-painting/retouching was nice and simple.

Menagerie – Panda Detail

It didn’t take much to finish the panda, either. I made sure his black continued to be less black than the chimp’s black and that his white fur for the most part wasn’t really white.

I’m starting to see the light at the end of the 39 animal tunnel…

Menagerie - Refining With Oils

At this point in the painting my task just more or less becomes the refinement of each animal. I need to make sure the detail and style is consistent with every critter pictured. In the case of this particular painting, I want it to be tighter — but not too tight. I want this painting to feel fresh and spontaneous — not overworked and detailed to death.

Cassowary Detail

I decided to render the cassowary first because I wanted to get rid of the dirty blue that resulted from my glazing transparent blue over the sepia underpainting. It would become a good reminder of the brilliance of color I wanted to have appear in spots throughout this painting.

Macaw Detail

The same thinking was applied to the macaw. I wanted those dull reds to become bright.

Menagerie – Left Side Detail

The walrus needed a lot more work to make it believable, so I plunged in, ferociously refining the crude sepia rough. I knew that the flamingo’s head was off (I painted the first one from memory), so I referred to my photo reference to create a more accurate portrayal.

The skunk head anatomy was way off, so it got repainted, too. If you look carefully at this detail, you can detect where I originally had placed his eye.

I like the porcupine and anteater; I can already tell that any repainting or touching up on them will be minimal. I don’t know why — maybe it’s the color palette or the loose application and modeling of paint — but to me the anteater looks very Frazetta-ish, even though I can pretty firmly state that Frank never painted an anteater.

Chimp, Hyena, Sabertooth Detail

I put some more work into the chimp, hyena and sabertooth.

I smoothed out the chimp’s beret, giving it a velvety quality and texture. I also focused on his face and hand. I looked at how Lawson Wood painted his chimps. I used some of what I picked up from Wood then combined it with my own particular vision of how I wanted this to appear.

I tightened up the hyena a bit, deciding to make him pleasingly plump. I added the rest of his spots. He’s my favorite creature in the painting. I can’t help but grin when I look at his self-satisfied (and very human) smile.

I chose to overlap the sabertooth’s right saber tooth (on the picture’s left) over the hyena’s shoulder. If you look carefully, you can see that I still need to add some more opaque paint to this tooth as you can still see a faint shadow of the shoulder coming through the bottom half of the tooth.

Chameleon Detail

I started refining the Jackson’s chameleon a bit, too.

Tomorrow: More of this Boring Detail Stuff! Woo hoo!

Menagerie – Local Color

There’s a big change to the picture as I add what artists refer to as “local color”. Local color is the basic general or average color of an object.

Up until now I have been painting with acrylics. Once the sepia underpainting was completed I switched to oils. I like to use alkyd oil paints. Winsor & Newton makes them under their Griffin label.

Allow me to extol the virtues of alkyds. Alkyds are fast drying oil paints. They have been around at least since the 1920s. They give me all of the advantages of both oils and acrylics — but none of their disadvantages. They dry quickly, although not quite as quickly as acrylics. If I’m plein aire painting on a hot day here, alkyds will be dry to the touch in two to three hours. They’re oil paints, so they have the same great blending abilities as regular oils. Unlike acrylics, alkyds don’t change values after they dry. Like regular oils, what you put down on canvas is what you’re going to get. Your paint won’t become darker (like acrylics) or lighter (like gouache) when it dries. With traditional oils, you’re supposed to wait 30 days to apply a transparent glaze to your picture. With alkyds the recommended wait is a day or two. Recommended varnishing time for traditional oils is a year after completion of the painting. With alkyds it’s one to three months. As far as glazing (covering areas with a transparent layer of color; this is how Maxfield Parrish got such luminous, almost stained glass-like colors in his pictures) goes, alkyds are a a bit more transparent than regular oils, so the glazing is better. You get a much more consistently even reflective surface with alkyds than you do with traditional oil paints.

End of alkyds sermon/plug.

I get my paintings to dry even faster with the medium I use to thin my paints: 50% turpentine, 50% Liquin.

OK. Sometimes I’ll paint in the local color with opaque or translucent colors. In this case, I really like my sepia underpainting, so I want to retain as much of it as possible. To do so, I painted my local color in transparent glazes over my underpainting. I am sort of tinting my underpainting with color. I can control the intensity of the color in my glazing process by adding more or less pigment to my medium. Lots of medium with very little pigment gives me a pale glaze. Minimal medium with lots of pigment gives me a very intense color glaze.

In establishing the local color I begin “spotting” my color just the way I spotted my blacks and whites in the sepia version. I don’t want a cluster of color in one part of the painting and nowhere else (that would trap or seduce your eyes so that you wouldn’t want to look anywhere else), so I look for ways to distribute chunks of color around the picture to lead the viewers’ eyes all over the canvas. Note that the green of the T. rex shows up on the other side of the canvas as part of the cobra’s coloring, as well as on the luna moth, the toucan, the hummingbird and the Jackson’s chameleon. That green on the T. rex also pops (separates) the giraffe from the dinosaur a bit.

I was initially worried there wasn’t going to be enough color in this piece (I wanted it to appeal to children) but my fears proved to be unfounded.

With the establishment and thoughtful distribution of the local color, I can now begin rendering each creature.

First, I went in and more or less finished the toucan. I also blackened the chimp’s fur. I usually don’t use black straight out of the tube; I like to mix my own black, combining burnt umber with ultramarine blue. I can control the temperature of the black that way. More blue, cooler black. More burnt umber, warmer black.

But in this case I wanted the viewer to look at the chimp first. The artistic rule I’m using here is that to direct the viewers’ eyes to the most important part of your picture (or the part that you want them to look at first), the area that this will happen will be where you place your darkest dark against your lightest light.

So, I painted to chimp’s fur pure black and the edges of the canvas he is working on pure white. I also painted his beret a kind of purple that is only hinted at in the rest of the painting. Now that I’ve got your attention with the chimp, I can begin directing your eyes elsewhere.

Next: More Rendering…

Menagerie – Final Sepia Version

Here’s the finished sepia version of the painting. This has all been executed in acrylics so far, by the way. I usually do my lay-ins with acrylic paints. Their very fast, quick drying nature makes corrections fairly easy. I hate that they dry about 10% darker, though, which is why I almost never use them for my finishes.

You can see that I added detail to the bee, the cobra, the wolf, the armadillo, the bat, the luna moth, the hummingbird, the tyrannosaur, the preying mantis, the Jackson’s chameleon, the moose, the sabertooth, the star-nosed mole and the weasel. I also performed my first clean-up of the white background areas.

Although I describe this as the “finished” sepia version, that doesn’t mean the elements within the picture are no longer subject to change. For the most part the appearances of all 39 creatures will, indeed, pretty much remain as they are. A lot of these animals, however, were painted with barely a referral to my research materials. The most glaring example is the mammoth, whom I painted completely from (my faulty) memory. You’ll see big changes in that hairy guy as I make major corrections to its facial anatomy in subsequent steps.

Tomorrow: Color! Oil!