Step 6: Honing it in, Softening it up

"Honeybee"-blogging as the painting progresses - Amy Crehore 2007

I worked on softening the girl's skin by dabbing white, sometimes mixed with a bit of yellow or pink, over her entire body. This gave it a nicer effect and took away the harsh undertone. I did the same on the little guy. I am also adding darker paint to the shadow areas all around to make things pop out more, re-drawing when I think something is not quite right. I painted some details on the ukulele. Everything will get stronger and more intense as I keep adding paint. Highlights and shadows. Details. If I overwork something, I wipe it off and restore it to the way it was and try again. I use odorless turpenoid as a thinner mainly to clean my brushes with or to wipe things off. I rarely ever use thinner to thin the paint. After I'm done painting for the day, I clean my brushes with thinner and then soap and water. Then, I dip the sables in olive oil to make them last longer.

This is a small painting, almost a miniature. I have been working on a large canvas at the same time and, I have to say, sometimes it's way easier to work larger. Working small can get anal.

I think this will be my last post before I show you the final. Scanning the steps and showing you how it's done is limited because I have to wait for things to dry. Sometimes working on an oil painting is all about leaving certain things wet for a while. The beauty of oil paint is that I can blend things while the paint is still wet. I still have a few more days of work on "Honeybee".

The Art of Amy Crehore

Step 5: Painting the Skin

Adding color to the skin-tone for "Honeybee" by Amy Crehore

Here, I took some sap green and mixed it with cadmium red light on my palette. I brushed it into the shadow areas on the girl's skin as well as on the little guy's. Then, I let it sit for a while and dry a bit. Later, I went back in with my white paint, mixed with a bit of yellow, and dabbed that color into the highlight areas. I used a small brush (sable) and began to dab and blend the whole thing (wet on wet). She's looking a bit too tan and I will probably be going back to add a white glaze to her skin-tone. But, the main thing is, I am building up paint layers toward a rich finish. I want the main figures to be more defined and the things in the background to be less so.

About 3-4 years ago, I began to draw strictly from my imagination. Before that, I created paintings for many years by piecing together ideas and images using reference materials. My new drawings were very crude at first, but I practiced everyday. Now I just use my memory and feel things out. My most important tool is my eraser! It's my own made-up language of characters and icons interacting in a made-up world. Don't ask what it all means. It's visual. I never think about "style" or what's "in". I just try to be myself. It comes from the heart. Once in a while, I will get stumped and need to look up a picture of something or look in the mirror to see how a pose might go, but mainly it's more about the design of a picture. How the whole thing fits together. A story evolves out of the design when I draw. The pose of the main figure is all about angles, shapes and such. The girl's hands and feet are usually connected to the other figures somehow. Unity. Connections. Echoing patterns in a mysterious world. Creating entertainment for you and me.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Part 4: Adding color/layers to "Honeybee"

Adding another color to "Honeybee" by Amy Crehore

I decided that I wanted to add more color and elements to the composition, so I took my cadmium red light and made some red accents. I put some pink flowers in and added some dots on the tent, to echo the shape of the banjo ukulele. As I go along, I am also adding more layers of paint to everything. The only way to end up with a really rich effect in the final version is to keep on adding paint.

I use a dozen or so brushes at a time, all different - red sables and bristle brushes- all sizes and shapes. I can load different paint colors on them and not worry about cleaning them until the end of a session. My extra fine Holbein oil paints are really smooth like butter and Winsor & Newton Liquin is my medium of choice.

These paintings don't all go smoothly and I may have difficulty on certain areas. Often, I make up things as I go along. If I want to change a color, I will just paint over it or I may even sand it down and try again, like on a face.

Scanning the different steps is actually helping me out - I've never done this before. It's easy to "lose" what's underneath sometimes and, this way, I can go back and check my initial painted sketch.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Step 3: Blocking in Color for "Honeybee"

First color round for "Honeybee" by Amy Crehore 2007

Here is my first attempt at color for my "Honeybee" painting. I usually try to block in the background first. The green grass and tent. Then, I move on to the figures, keeping in mind that I want to set up a pattern of harmonious color moving throughout the whole painting to connect all of the components. Here, I have chosen a limited palette of sap green mixed with indian yellow, plus some olive green, raw umber, white and cobalt blue. I painted the shadow areas of the girl with a mixture of cadmium red light and sap green. I used white paint (Permalba) mixed with indian yellow for her skin highlights and then blended it to produce the color that you see here. I am painting "wet on wet".

I may decide to add more color to the composition, perhaps an accent of red. I wanted to coat the surface with an initial layer of paint first, but everything will ultimately have many more layers before the painting is fully realized. I have not worked on this surface before, I usually use an oil-primed linen, but I am trying something new. It is an acrylic-primed cradled board from Dick Blick. It seems to be working out fine. I am also adding "liquin" to my paint for speedier drying. I don't add anything else. Check back to see my progress in the days to come.

The Art of Amy Crehore

"Honeybee" Sketch by Amy Crehore- Parts 1 and 2

Step one: "Honeybee" sketch by Amy Crehore copyright 2007
Step two: "Honeybee" sketch transferred and re-drawn onto gessoed board

I thought that you might like to see the process I use to create an oil painting. This is a small 8" square piece that I am working on for Miami Basel. I began with a detailed pencil sketch. I drew this from my head and erased a lot until I became satisfied with the design and composition. I then took my cradled board and rubbed a layer of raw sienna paint onto the surface with a rag. I xeroxed my sketch and rubbed pencil onto the back of the xerox. After the paint dried, I layed the drawing onto the gessoed board and re-drew the lines to make a transfer. With raw umber paint, I re-drew it once again with a paint brush.

This image is a combination of characters from all of my series works. The girl appears different in the pencil sketch than she does in the painted sketch. And she will change yet again as I begin to add color. I never know exactly how it will turn out. With oil paint I can change colors and paint over mistakes easily. I may even add things to the composition. Stay tuned.

The Art of Amy Crehore

Ancient Comics Delight Us Still

First two panels from "The Naps of Polly Sleepyhead"

Peter Newell, author/illustrator of the "Slant Book" (1910), one of my all-time favorite children's books, apparently also created a surreal comic strip in 1906-1907 called "The Naps of Polly Sleepyhead". Like "Little Nemo in Slumberland" it draws us into the wacky dreamworld of a girl named Polly. This strange little girl drifts off to sleep in the middle of doing the most commonplace activities. Here is an excerpt from the first strip where her cat named Spider turns into a scary hybrid cat-spider, weaving her ball of yarn into a big spider web. The second strip has Polly sitting down with a big plate of ice cream, but deciding instead to use it as a hat (!) for her doggy and proceed to take him for a (sleep)walk outside where the hat melts. She then wakes up in a puddly mess. Read more about Polly and other classic and obscure ancient comics at this fascinating website:
Barnacle Press
Thanks to STWALLSKULL (fez lovers) for the GREAT link!
The Art of Amy Crehore

Antique Prints of Flower-women

Thistle
Cornflower and Poppy
Honeysuckle

Marvel of Peru

Prints by J. J. Grandville. From Les Fleurs Animées. Paris: Garnier Freres, [1867]. Octavo: images are ca. 7 x 5 1/2 inches. Steel engravings by Ch. Geoffroy. Original hand-coloring.
"A series of delightful prints illustrating flowers personified in the form of lovely maidens and their animal retinues. Each early 19th-century female figure is richly costumed in the leaves, blossoms and garlands that designate her flower." You can look at or buy these prints at the Philadelphia Print Shop. They also have lots of other inspiring antique prints including American Indian portraits.

The Philadelphia Print Shop

The Art of Amy Crehore