The Game of Life

24x24 on stretched canvas
SOLD

I've been working on this painting for the last few days which is why I haven't posted as many other pieces this last week. This subject was definitely outside of the box for me, but that's why I chose it. It posed a lot of challenges that I was curious enough to try, like the faux shadows of the board game itself against the actual cast shadows of the objects on it. And all that lettering! I've never really attempted a painting with so much text on it before. Also, many of my paintings are more subtle color mixes so this one, with all its loud colors, gave me something to think about.

I'd love to hunt down an antique version of the game and paint it next time.

WIP - Life Underpainting II

OK, I finished the underpainting for my large Game of Life painting and will let it dry before moving on to some actual color!

WIP - Life Underpainting

WIP - 24x24

For the longest time I've wanted to do a larger, more complex painting that would be completely out of the norm of my usual subjects. My favorite game as a kid was The Game of Life, and I thought it would be fun to do a larger piece based on a closeup of the board. This was a quick indoor photo with flash (so excuse the glare and grain) I just took of the underpainting in progress; I want to make sure I've got the values all lined up before I move on to adding color. I don't know how long this painting is going to take but it'll be fun to try something different.

A Work in Progress of Bogue Sound

24x24 on stretched canvas - $235
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I've been wanting to show a painting in progress, and I kept that goal in mind while I painted this painting of Bogue Sound. Unfortunately even using a tripod these pictures didn't come out amazing and are slightly blurred, but I hope they still illustrate my steps. This painting is 24x24. Above is the final version, and here's how I got to it:



I start by covering my canvas in a red gesso. Most of my paintings are heavy on blues and greens and I love a little bit of the warm red peeking through in the end:

Then I do a very quick sketch in pencil and fill in some of the dark areas with a reddish-purple of where the land meets water, and add in a little bit of the greens where the grass will be:


More filling in of the grassy areas:


Up to this point I've just been brushing in chunks of green color, but now I actually start trying to make it appear more grass-like in the front:


I finally decide I should add in some of the water behind the foreground so I can get to blending the grasses further back with the water:


And even more refinement of the foreground:

I'm happy with the front for now so I add in the basic sky value. I bring it in close to where distant trees will be:


I add in the darker values of the trees:


This one really caught a lot of glare, but I basically merged the trees with the sky with some careful blending:

The final part was to refine the trees and add in some details, like building some clouds and brightening the water and grasses. This picture was taken outside so it shows up better than the previous ones: