Finished Painting and a Special Holiday Deal!

Once I started blocking in Piggy, I couldn't stop.  There's something about the white on white costume that I really like.  Instead of being easy with one color, it's a complex exercise of warms and cools.  The iPhone camera doesn't show it very well, but it looks interesting to me.  Still lots of work to do.

Eyes.  Kermit and Beaker needed eyes.  The cockpit also needed quite a bit more detail to make it look active.  I knew there would be no way, and no reason, for me to recreate every panel from the film set, but it still needed the little details.

In the final image, I made sure the Swine Trek was in space, all the random space was filled, and that the Empire would fall to this plucky crew.

So, that's it.  Finished in two days, oil on canvas, 16" x 20".  BUT, if you love the picture and want it for your very own, I have excellent news!  I am getting giclee prints made!  8" x 10" will be $25, 9" x 12" for $30, and $80 will get you the full sized 16" x 20".  As a special holiday deal, I'm offering both a 16" x 20" and a 8" x 10" for $100, plus FREE SHIPPING!  All interested parties please contact me at Eric.Sweetman@gmail.com.  Holiday deal good through January 6, 2013.

a little color here and there...

Welcome back.  In today's couple of photos, you can see the usual burnt sienna acrylic wash over the characters.  The black colored pencil did what I needed it to do and allowed me to see where I wanted to paint and where I didn't.  There isn't a photo of it, but I put a Prussian Blue acrylic over the entire background thinking the cool tone would keep it in the visual distance where the warm sienna would pop the characters forward.  It made sense in theory, but then I started painting over it anyway.

The background became somewhat warm in tone, but also very muddy.  Actually, this was desirable, because I could paint Beaker in bright oranges and yellows and he'd stand in contrast to the muddy blues, greens, and browns behind him.  Kermit would pop out as well, despite being a cool color.  I saved Miss Piggy for last because I was worried that I'd screw up her flesh tones.  More on that later.

Pigs (and frogs and dogs and test subjects) in Space!

As promised, here are a couple of stages of sketching on the 16" X 20" canvas.  I start out with a regular pencil before going over the important lines with a black colored pencil.  The graphite tends to wash off the canvas when I apply the acrylic tone and what remains is so faint, I can't see what I drew, so the colored pencil keeps it visible.  It all gets covered up with oils anyway.

In the image above, I was free handing everything and the only reference picture other than the movie still was a photo my brother took of his Kermit photo puppet (yeah, he's got one).  It gave me a guide on which to base my lighting and color for the frog.  However, since I just started drawing, I didn't center my image very well.  I assumed that if I made it off center and at an angle, it would look cool and dramatic.  Not so much.

Further research (read: Google) helped tighten up Miss Piggy's head but I still had the composition issue.  Since I did not want to redraw everything,  I had to think of something that would help balance the picture.  Something outside the window?  Sure!  The Death Star?  No, this image is from The Empire Strikes Back.  Ooh!  How about a Star Destroyer?  Yeah, that'll work!  Except I ran into a friend at work (Hi, Christina!) who joked about Pigs in Space, triggering the idea of the USS Swine Trek.  Genius!

Later:  Painting

I'm back.

Once again, I've returned from a lengthy unscheduled hiatus from blogging.  While I have been kept busy, very little of said business has been art related, therefore, no posts.  Sorry.

Back in October, I participated in an art show with a Muppet theme.  I know, it seems tailor-made for me.  I entered my Fozzie, Electric Mayhem, and Cantus Fraggle portraits.  Although they didn't sell at the show, I got a lot of nice comments and it felt good getting my work in front of eyes.  The Electric Mayhem piece is in another show right now, "Art That Makes Me Smile, II," at the Barefoot Spa just off of Mills near downtown Orlando.  Again, I've heard nice feedback.

To satisfy my interests in documenting the process I use to create art, I have a new project to share.  It is a commissioned piece for Christmas and the only requirements were to mix Muppets and Star Wars.  Considering they are both under the gigantic Disney umbrella nowadays, it isn't much of a stretch.  In fact, Disney has mashup toys at the theme parks and WAAAAAY back during the Muppet Show run, Mark Hamill visited the stage with his "cousin", Luke Skywalker, and R2-D2, C3-P0, and Chewbacca.  I wanted to recreate a classic scene, but one that hasn't been over played.  I see lots of things with Kermit as Luke, Piggy with the cinnamon bun hairstyle, Fozzie as Chewbacca, that kind of thing.  This painting would be different.  Kermit as Han Solo, Rowlf as Chewbacca, Beaker as C3-P0, and, okay, Piggy as Leia, but in a different costume, the one from Hoth.

Let's take a look at the concept sketch:

Nothing too spectacular, just a penciled idea.  I knew I wanted Beaker in the group; I just didn't leave enough room for him.  Here's the scene from the movie:

Coming up next:  The canvas sketch!