How to paint a lumberjack, part one.
How to paint a lumberjack, part one.
In honor of John Ks blog which I absolutely love, I’m going to post an extremely wordy, overly philosophical, manly man painting tutorial.
Art, what is art? Simply it’s just the act of getting ideas out of your head and into other peoples. Why you would want to do this? I’m not completely sure, but when you watch a Film by Wes Anderson or look at a painting by Norman Rockwell you can really see the world in a unique way that is completely them, the world seen through the sum of all their experiences. And that’s a neat feeling. Andy Warhol once said “If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There's nothing behind it.”
This is really my goal with my paintings. You look at them and that’s me, my brain, pasted onto a surface that will live longer than my brain. This also makes painting very embarrassing. Because that’s you up there, your thoughts exposed for the world to see, judge, critique and analyze. This is, I think, why everyone doesn’t paint or write songs.
I decided to paint a lumberjack. Something I hope people will notice in my work is that I try and make it distinctly American; I’m drawn to this fictional utopian America that may have never existed. I find it in Mark Twain, Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell, Adventures of Pete and Pete and Earthbound. To me, America is the ultimate fantasy world. Dragons, knights and fairies always board the fuck out of me anyway. I see the appeal; I just can’t get into it.
The fist thing I do when painting is to make a playlist of songs that fit the mood of the painting. I wanted this to have a lighthearted, happy, laid back feel. So I made this playlist. I listen to these songs on repeat the whole time I’m painting.
*I later added daft punk - digital love to the playlist. Not because it fit the mood of the painting, but more because I love ridiculously cheesy songs.
First I lay out my palette, I usually arrange my colors vertically by value and then create palette ramps to the side.
Next I draw my painting out with blue pencil. As a painter, lines hate me and I hate lines. My art brain just doesn’t work that way. I can only think in value and color. So I try and move on from this step as soon as possible.
I go over the whole mess with a sharpie. I don’t really worry about line quality since this will all be covered in paint anyway.
Next I use acrylic paint and an acrylic medium to glaze a base hue. I start in acrylics rather than oil because no one will see the first coat and acrylic dries 5000 times faster than oil paint.
It's nice to have a big Bob Ross brush on hand when glazing
Next I start coloring everything in, it’s at about this point that I think to my self that this painting is bad and it would be a miracle if it turned out well. It’s also around this time I consider going back to school and pursuing a different career path. But don’t worry that usually goes away.
My big dilemma so far has been the humping bunnies. Humping bunnies are the universal symbol of cuteness and really help with the creepy forest utopia vibe I’ve got going on here. But I drew them way to big so I think I’ll have to take them out maybe I can redraw them in paint later, but that’s hard to do.
At this point almost everything is colored in with some basic rendering. I’m starting to think this painting has a chance of turning out somewhat ok.
Check back some time next week for the second half and the finished image.