Wedding Present Painting Process (Part 1)

I only have one brother, and I suppose he will only be getting married once in his life (let's hope), so I decided to make a painting for my brother's wedding present.  At least one part of the present.  Here is my plan: 1) take a picture I took of them, 2) print it out in large format color photo and 3) make a painting out of it.  I have not painted an oil painting since high school, so this will be interesting to say the least.

So, here is the original photograph, taken in front of a fireplace at the family homestead.  As you can see, I did not do much in terms of composition as I was taking the photo.  I don't mind cropping on the computer.  This was one of maybe 10 photos I took, some blurry, some funny.  Why choose this one?  I think it is nice, and my dirty little secret is that since there are no faces to draw/paint, if things start going haywire in the painting process, this faceless photo can be turned into more of an abstract painting.  It is a cheat of sorts, but like I said, I have not painted since high school.

So, here is then what I cropped it to.  I cropped the photo and printed it to match the same 16" x 20" ratio.  Printed on the Epson Stylus Photo 1400 Large Format Photo Printer (C11C655001).

I was pleasantly surprised how the Staedtler HB pencil went on to the canvas (Windsor & Newton Artists' Quality pre-stretched canvas at 16" x 20".).  Wasn't sure if it would be better to use charcoal, a lighter pencil or a darker pencil.  I was even more pleasantly surprised to find that the pencil came off the canvas nicely simply using a kneaded rubber eraser.

And after starting to sketch right-side-up, I pretty quickly decided that wasn't going to work.  So, I employed an ancient artist's secret: flip what your drawing or flip your perspective.  When you are drawing something, especially people and people anatomy, unless you have laser vision and a photographic memory, when you look from the subject to the paper/canvas, your brain does funny things.  Your immediate sensory input is layered over and under with 1) what you see 2) what your pre-conceived notion/image of "hand" and "arm" and "shoulder" are, and 3) the fact that your arms are only so long, and if you can only reach a couple of feet to the paper/canvas, what you are drawing will look different than what you see from 5' away and 10' and 20'.  So, when you flip the subject, your eyes and more importantly you mind see less "arm" and "hand" and "brother and sister-in-law" and you see more "line" and "proportion" and "shape."  Proven scientifically, easy, no-brainer art technique.  Try it at home, kids.

So, below I have flipped the subject, grayscaled it, and show some point of interest in terms of the photo/painting's composition.

In terms of the composition's "weight", you can see that despite the human subjects being to one side in this photo, when you think of it in terms of shapes, white space, and textures, the brick fireplace background is not getting in the way at all.  And there are some interesting lines here.  The photo/painting will almost be divided in three sections (shown by the two longer arrows).  The two smaller arrows show some sub-divisions and some direction in terms of where the viewer's eye will be drawn.  I like also how the fireplace bricks have angular lines, and my brother's shirt has lines and there are some natural lines in the composition of the photo.

And below is sketch part 1.

Basic shapes, loose, rough, room to work in terms of refinement.  And my plan to flip the canvas and photo while sketching worked I think.  I don't think it would have turned out as well if I held the photo right side up. Although I am already seeing things I want to change, which is good, I suppose.

Here is sketch part 2, with a little more detail in terms of light and dark.

Next Post Preview: what paints and other materials I will be using, the first layers of paint, how does the sketch hold up.  I am sincerely hoping to remain honest through this process.  I kind of hope I run into some obstacles and problems so I can work through them and learn something.  Since this is for my brother's wedding present (and the wedding is in June), I will need to work pretty steadily over the next couple of months. And I am pretty sure oil painting can take a while to officially dry, too, so that will come into play.