Latest Progress

Here is the most recent progress shots of the classic car hood ornament still life currently on my easel:

The trees and sky reflection will be worked up next.

After that, further refinements to the car body, cast shadows, and highlights.

Here is a close-up of the birds face:

And finally, just because it was so easy to shoot, here is what my pallette looks like while working on this thing:

Very Avant-garde no?

New Yorker Hood Ornament

The latest couple progress shots of my new hood ornament still life:

I liked the contrast of the cool bird on a warm, earth-tone background. Wanting to do something similar going forward, I figured painting mountains back there would do the trick.

Only problem was, after painting several versions of large, earth-tone mountains back there, the scene looked unreal because the hood ornament, as well as the mountains, were fighting for attention in the foreground. The mountains needed to go back into the distance, which would change their hue – but so be it.

What you see here is my final background I painted from a reference photo I shot one time of some distant hills in a dreadful place called Laughlin, Nevada.

You can't tell from this image of the painting, but I extremely blurred the edges on those mountains, which really helps to push them way back.

Now, once I develop the lights and darks on the subject, and push the contrast, the sharp-edged bird is really going to pop off a background which is there, but is nice and subdued.

Progress on New Painting

Here are the next progress shots on my latest still life endeavor:

As you can see, I am taking liberties with color because the photo reference I shot (and shared in a previous post) is a bit deadly, as far as color goes.

What I like about the latest step above is a reflected blue sky against the complementary, warm orange/earth tone background. I think maybe that background may turn into distant mountains or something very like.

A New Beginning

Recently I started on the next painting in my hood ornament still-life series.
Here is my photo reference which I shot about five years ago.

As you can see in the first two steps below, I had to majorly crop and flip it to get a composition I was happy with.

The final pencil drawing on the board.

After spraying it, the board is toned with a neutral brown.

I have decided to do this one, and most other future paintings on hardboard because I want to get more texture from my paint and less texture from the surface. Working with a more heavy application of paint, attempting to be a bit bolder with my brush strokes, and using this smooth surface should give me the look I want in the end. Now it’s just a matter of practicing what I preach - easier said than done!

Many of my favorite artists, both past and present, paint on hard surfaces rather than canvas. The one that immediately comes to mind from the past of course, is Rembrandt. Many of his paintings were done on metal substrates.

Art For A Hire Purpose

I recently submitted my three hood ornament still life paintings to be juried into the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators upcoming exhibit “Art for a Hire Purpose”.

One was accepted - the most recent one painted which is titled “Roadster” and is the featured piece in the image below.

I was disappointed that all three paintings did not get in, but considering the immensely talented artists in that group, I’m not surprised.

Come see the exhibit at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh gallery. It opens on July 7th!

Heavy Metal

Here are two down and dirty progress shots of a painting on my easel right now. It’s the latest in my “classic car hood ornament” series of paintings.

Can you guess which automobile this beautiful bird is perched on?

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You Are SO Invited!

Well, as usual, I had so much fun creating my newest still life that I neglected to take many step-by-step shots while the fun was being had. In fact, as it sits on my easel today, the piece is just about finished, and here all I have to share with you are these images:

I’m extremely happy with the final piece, but I refuse to release it for public viewing until my next solo exhibit. That exhibit will take place the Friday and Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend (May 11th and 12th) at the Shaw Galleries in downtown Pittsburgh. Yes that’s right, I’ll have a few walls (or sections of a few walls) all to myself in a nice gallery right here in the Burg.

Here is an invite to the reception I created just for you!

 Stay tuned for more details on that exhibit. Meantime, the second in a series of classic hood ornaments I am painting, makes it’s public debut this weekend, in a group exhibit of fine art, at the Galleria of Mt. Lebanon, (a fine southern hills suburb of the city!).

                                     "Flying" 18x24, oil on canvas

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Cougar Art - Part 2

As promised in the last post, here are the three additional, digital art designs I created, and submitted, to the Houlihan’s restaurant chain. Possibly this wall art will be seen at some of their new locations. And possibly NOT.

                    Cougar Number 4

                     Cougar Number 5

                             Cougar Number 6

To see a bonus Cougar design that was not included in these last two posts, visit my newly updated Flickr galleries!

JoeWinklerArt.com

New Oil Painting, Nearly Finished

Here’s what the new oil painting looks like right now:

 

A few of the middle values in parts of the hood ornament reflect the warmth of the sunset, while other planes reflect the coolness of the higher part of the sky, away from the horizon, (the apex you might even say).

Either way, the complementary combination of blues and oranges seem to be popping fairly well.

JoeWinklerArt.com

New Oil Painting, Next Steps - Values and Other Decisions

After working up the background a bit more, I have now begun to further develop the hood ornament itself.

I shot several source photos of this hood ornament at a car show two years ago, all of which I am able to use, despite the fact that each of them are under different lighting conditions. When I shot the reference photos for this, I kept wondering around to different cars, but kept returning to this same car as the sun was going deeper and deeper into the horizon. So my reference shots are a range of cool, overcast light, to sun breaking through the clouds, to full scale silhouetted subject at dusk.

I could have made this simply a silhouette composition with all the emphasis on a dramatic sky, but I didn’t go that way because I wanted to play up the interesting interior shapes of the hood ornament itself.

So the most important things to decide on for next time are the value to use for the darkest shadows, and, the color that will be reflected in the middle tones. There are little to no highlights, but the one or two that are there, will be placed last.

Basically I could, at the next stage, go with a variation of cool colors in the middle tones and make this thing look really metallic (which it is), but that would be totally unrealistic for such a back-lit subject with such a warm sky. I noticed that in one of my last reference shots for this, there’s an awful lot of warmth in the middle tones, so I think I’ll go that direction and see if it works.

Let you know next time!

JoeWinklerArt.com

Step-by-Step Oil Painting Continued

Here are the next steps in the creation of my new oil painting.

My apologies for the crummy digital shots. Totally my fault. When I’m in the painting groove, it’s tough to stop and set up a proper digital shot.  The light was changing fast and I was rushing and hand holding the camera, which is why the colors are a bit different.

This hood ornament is back lit, so you can bet that the subject will be much darker in the following steps. At this point the biggest challenge will be to get that light to flood around the edges of the subject making those edges softer than the rest.

By the way, the answer to the question of, ‘what car does this hood ornament sit atop’, is a Rolls-Royce. The hood ornament from the previous post (below) comes from an old Ford Roadster.

I like to paint hood ornaments.

JoeWinklerArt.com

Another Start of Another Oil Painting

Perhaps you’ve figured out what vehicle's hood ornament was the subject of my new oil painting in my previous post. Perhaps not.

Either way, along those same lines, here is step one of another new oil painting I’ve got going on:

Come now, you must know what vehicle this beauty sits atop!

Answers to both will come next post.

JoeWinklerArt.com

New Oil Painting Started

Last spring my oil painting “Packard” won the top honors in a juried group exhibit of about thirty paintings. Pretty sweet.

                                       “Packard” 16x20 inches, oil on canvas

Since I greatly enjoyed doing that painting, not to mention enjoying shooting so much reference for it at various local classic car shows, (see post below) I’ve decided to add similar paintings to my body of work.

Here is the first stage of an oil painting which I began over the holidays:

                                        step one!

Yes, it is another hood ornament. Can you guess what vehicle this one comes from?

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