Friday, February 28, 2014

1st Santa Cruz Boardwalk panel just about completed

Just about to start on the 2nd panel.  I'll make tweaks to this first panel over the next couple of days, but basically this is it...

Monday, February 24, 2014

Santa Cruz Boardwalk

For maybe a year now I've been wanting to paint the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.   In my head there is this masterpiece of colors and shapes and memories that go back almost 50 years.  Last month I went over to Santa Cruz to take my reference photos.  This was my 3rd trip to do so.  It was a beautiful day and I walked out to the end of the Santa Cruz pier, and Bingo!  I shoot 8 great photos in a panarama that is the boardwalk. 

Now the fun part - how do I render all those great buildings and roller coasters and colors - holy cow!  I need to do a painting 6 feet wide, there's so much there!  Well 6 feet is out of the question, but how about two 3 footers?  OK, I'm in the early stages of my first two pane painting.  And this is tough.  Today I almost pulled the plug - I wasn't sure it was working or that I could make it work.  I am painting in a smaller scale than my reference photos.  My reference photos stretch out to about 7 feet - I'm painting with my smallest brushes - the tip of the brush is the same size as this letter "l".

I'm posting both panels.  I had to paint the sky and the base layer of ocean on both panels at the same time so as to have the same colors.  It would have been impossible to mix the colors for the second panel and have the sky match.

So here you go, the top photo is getting rendered.  I'm working left to right as you face the boardwalk.  I will complete this panel including all the water and beach.  Then I'll move on to the lower panel and hopefully work some magic on that one.  I hope this works - hopefully I'll have the top panel completed by a week from now - please check back to see.  Thanks - Mark

Friday, February 7, 2014

Ted and Fiona

This was a very fun painting.  As mentioned previously this was my first horse painting as well as a rare human portrait.  The setting brings back fond memories of a wonderful hike Elke and I took with our friends Suzanne and Ted.  This work accomplishes one of my main purposes in creating paintings...memorialize a memorable time with friends.