Get-er-done (and save time!)

Some paintings seem to go on "forever"!  I come back to the painting over and over thinking that I will finish this time; but alas, I'm washing out my brushes saying to myself, "the next time I'm finishing!"

In the big picture of making a painting, there are phases.  Some phases go extremely fast and I get very excited that I make that much progress in such a short time...one of these would be in the overall paint coverage of the big areas in a painting at the beginning.  When you are done with this phase, you have large general color areas that completely cover the whole painting...and you don't see the beginning white of the canvas anymore.
But other phases of the painting go on and on.  Generally, this happens for me the smaller objects get and the more detail I have to paint.  I have put away my huge paint brushes and I'm now moving to brushes that are much smaller and have fewer hairs.  When I'm pulling out my "three haired brush", I know I'm in the last phase.

Today, I want to show you a way that I get the "detail" phase to end much faster. When details are overwhelming, I feel like the person who is lost in the woods and is only going in circles instead of actually making progress.  Yep, basically, I'm lost!

A LIST.
Make a list!
Then work your list playing the "cross it off" game.

That's it.

I'm actually doing three paintings at once right now.  All three spreads have the same background room in them...the kitchen.  But how Tiny and Elliot are placed in each of these is different.  So, to save time and preserve accuracy, I decided to make the background of the room as one painting... and paint Tiny and Elliot in their different poses on the other two boards.  Then using technology, I'll sandwich parts of the paintings together to make three complete digital files of the completed painting spreads.

I got the Tiny and Elliot poses almost done, yet there were alot of details I still needed to do.
So, I got a piece of paper, taped it to my board and made a list of things I needed to do to each of them.
(click to enlarge)

I went down my list and completed them...crossing them off one by one.  It became like a game.  I was encouraged because I saw progress happen fast this way and I was moving forward in a plan that had a finish line.  First I did Tiny's details...

...then I did Elliot's.  His details were smaller and more tedious.

I was absolutely amazed at how much my speed picked up (as well as my spirits!).
And....I finished in record time!  Sweet!

A list is a wonderful thing when I feel overwhelmed with details!  It gives me visual progress and it keeps me focused on the pathway to the finish line.

Fixing the blunder

On these paintings, I started off with a bright orange underpainting.  Here it is under way...you can still see I haven't painted over the orange in some places on both paintings.  Both of the paintings below need to show the red kitchen door from the back yard view.  Therefore, I painted the two of them at the same time so that the colors would be the same....and it's faster that way too!  Time and speed efficiency...I love it!

But, sometimes I don't see that a painting isn't working like I thought it would...until....after I've painted it!  When I got through painting these, I asked my wife what she thought of them.  She didn't say anything for what seemed like a looooong time.  Living with another artist for 25 years, I knew something wasn't working for her and I wasn't seeing it.  I pushed her to tell me her honest opinion and when she did,  I saw that the house was not working like I thought.   I was not through with this painting after all!  Here it is...

Since the painting is done with acrylic and acrylic dries very fast, I knew I could paint over the parts that needed to be changed.  The part that I needed to change is to the left of the door.  So I take the tracing drawing first and laid it over the top of the painting and started redrawing the new design on that side.  Then I transferred it onto the top of the painting and started painting over the top...the first strokes are always the hardest because I had already spent a good amount of time and energy on what I now was covering up....

After the initial strokes were made, I just let myself fly into it deeper and deeper, faster and faster...my confidence growing.  I knew I could make it come out right...I just needed to continue.  I've had to do this with other paintings.  Acrylic paint is great for redoing a painting by covering over the top with new colors.

Once I got my big shapes blocked in with the house, then I needed to put something on the ground in front of it...I get to be a "landscaper" with a paintbrush.  How cool is that to see things grow right in front of your eyes?!

You can see the tops of the flowers and the lower parts of the plants are still just white outlines needing to be painted....those flower heads look pretty weird, huh?  They are just floating up in the air!
I listened to an audio book while I finished the painting and it made the time go by faster.  Here is the finished redo....it's my version of "Extreme Home Makeover" (with a paint brush)!

I'm happy with it now.  You can go back up and compare it with the picture that I started with.  I think my wife's comments helped me take this painting to the place where it needed to best communicate this spread.  (Tiny said he likes it a lot better too....he always sits beside me when I work on a book about him!)
Good boy, Tiny!

Beginning to paint

It's time to PAINT!
I've decided to go ahead and paint two paintings before I finish all my tracing drawings.  This strategy is to try and gain some confidence that I am making good progress on my time deadline.  If at all possible, I am shooting to complete all the paintings a couple of months before the deadline (July).
I've already made the tracing for this painting...and I've already cut the painting board for it and labeled what pages these are.
It's time to trace (or transfere) the drawing onto the painting board.
I line up the crop marks (where the page is going to be cut by the printer when it is bound) on the painting board with the crop marks on the drawing and tape it down.

To transfere the drawing onto the painting board, I put a piece of graphic paper under the drawing and begin tracing over the top of the drawing.

The way that I paint is to use an "underpainting" color.  Usually it is a darker color than what you will see on top (the finished look).  So at this point I only need to trace "around" each of the big shapes...no detail inside them yet.  Looks like this...

Here is my work area...the painting table is an adjustable table that adjusts to any angle and goes up and down.  I paint in an almost straight up and down position because I've had neck surgery and looking down to paint or draw becomes painful quickly.  Notice too that my chair is not something you would find in an art supply store.  It is a 1920's dental chair!  This gives me the rigid back support I need (neck surgery remember?).  Handy little chair...on the right side you will see that the arm has a painter's palette mounted to it to place my paints on....and under it is the ole "spit basin" that now is my water holder.  The colorful patch on the table is a "wipe place" for my palette knife that I use to mix my colors.
My liquitex paintes are to the side in an old coke bottle holder and other things I need periodically are close by.  An efficient creative area is vital to quality production...each person should make their own area the way they find works best for them.  This is mine after 26 years of doing art...

I've now painted inside the traced down shapes...the boy has dark brown and the thought bubble has cool blue underpainting.

Now I can paint the different details within my big color shapes.  To know what to paint, I bring my drawing back over and put it on top of the shapes...lined up exactly the same as the first time.  This time I slip a piece of "white" transfere paper under the drawing and trace down the details.

And here is what it looks like for me to begin painting on top of the darker shapes.  I call it, "painting out of the darkness" ...or "painting into the light".  From this point, I will just get lighter and lighter by degrees.  Little places here and there of these underpainting colors will show through.  I get to control where that happens.  The underpaintings help to unify the whole picture and tend to give my cartoony pictures a little more realness...3D like.

So, I begin painting in the different colors of each area.  I think I'll start with the boy's hat and the flesh tone inside his glasses which will be slightly darker than the flesh tone on the rest of his face and arms.

Now I'll continue on painting the boys flesh tone on his face and do his shirt and paints.  Notice that it is pretty splotchy looking.  I don't panic about that because I am painting each part by degrees...a build up of layers....dark to medium to lightest values in each area.  You'll see...

I mix my colors on styrofoam plates that I get at wal mart.  It affords me with a disposible clean surface that is white and shows up the colors I am mixing accurately.  When I use up one whole side of the plate, I flip it over (after the paint drys...acrylic dries fast into hard plastic) and use the other side.  Sometimes I will only use one plate per painting and then throw it away.  For me this works well.  Other times I've used wax paper (for the kitchen needs) taped down to mix my colors.  I don't use that much water when I mix my colors, so I don't have to worry about colors sliding off the plate.

Time to work on the other shape..the boy's thought bubble.  I've decided to first find the value of color that will go around the objects that will be in this shape and paint it in.

Finding that color first will help me more accurately know what colors to paint the objects that are in it.  Then I leave the bubble again and head back over to the boy to build up the layer I've begun and get rid of more of the blochiness (sp?!).

Here is how the boy looks when I've gotten the shapes and values solid in order to put the fine details on top...

I go back to the thought bubble and detail in the objects there the same as I did boy.  Here's the finished...

CELEBRATE!!!  Whenever I finish a painting, because I know there are 18 to be done, getting one completely done is an awesome feeling!  I picture myself in my imagination on a journey and I have just finished the first leg of it.  Time to go get an ice cream cone with my wife!  (We all celebrate!)

I went ahead and took the next drawing and took it through the same process as above...here is the beginning drawing...of the boy popping his balloon and Tiny barking in response.

and here is the finished painting!

Man....time for another ice cream cone!  Having these two done is a definite boost to my confidence and I am on schedule.  But this next week I will attempt to get 2 paintings done in the same week...this will mean I will need to put my nose to the grind stone and stay at it consistently.

Testing the Illustration Board

The illustration board I bought is a little different than I usually get.  I was careful at the store to go through their entire stock of illustration boards and look at their thickness and feel the texture of the board.  I also wanted to be conscious of my cost as it can be very pricey buying that much board for the whole project.  I thank the Lord that on that particular day that I went to get the board, it was 50% off as well!  YES!

But this board was a little thinner than I have used in the past and I wondered if it could stand the amount of paint that I would put on it over most of it's surface area.
I decided to cut a similar shape of a spread and make a test painting and see for myself if it was going to buckle or warp any.

I held my breath!

I didn't want a great painting so I didn't make a tracing...I just starting brushing down a liberal amount of paint over a lot of it's surface and waited to see what would happen.  I had the illustration board taped (on all 4 corners) to my drawing table to give it it's best chance at staying flat.
It did stay flat after the paint dried!

So, put some more paint on top of that....alot of paint...and waited again.
Wow, that board stayed flat as a pancake!  I was THRILLED!  This was going to work well!

Finally I decided to paint a little something with some detail on top of the background paint I had already put down to make sure it would still hold up well.  That is how I paint...background first, then come forward to the middle ground and finally the foreground where all the detail and darker values tend to be.
Wooooohooo!  Yes!  It passed the test!

I used Liquitex acrylic paints with a white bristle brush mainly.
I'm now ready to take my completed tracing (pages 6 and 7) and begin my first painting!
It's November and I'm already jumping into my first painting...the last painting is due in July.  This means I have 8 months to do 18 paintings.  I feel really good about where I am in the process...I can do this and hopefully even complete everything before my July deadline.

Preparing the illustration boards

During the time I sent the sketches to the editor, I knew it might be a couple of weeks while I was waiting to hear back from them.  What could I do during this time that would help me keep my momentum going with the project instead of just twiddling my thumbs?
I decided to prepare my illustration boards.  Here are the steps to that:
1) buy the illustration board (I got mine from Hobby Lobby...Mixed media strathmore series 400)
2) cut the boards to the right size leaving around an inch and a half of white space around the outside of the illustration area.
3) draw crop marks on the boards exactly to size (the book is 12"x 9" per speed...I also need to add a half inch all the way around the illustration so that the painting bleeds out a half inch more so that when they cut the printed pages, if they are off a little, I've got extra painting all the way around for them to comfortably work with.
4) label each cut illustration board...book name and page numbers.  When it's time to paint a particular spread, I will have all my boards ready to go....I just get the right page number board and start tracing the picture down on it.

Trick to save time and be accurate:
You'll notice the last board at the bottom of the fanned stack has corners cut out.  This is my "template" board to help me put the crop marks in exactly the same place on every board...rather quickly.  I just lay that board down on top of any other board and make my crop marks by tracing next to these cut out corners.  Then I take a ruler and draw very light lines around the illustration area so that I'll know not to paint past those lines.  Easy Peasy!

I feel good about doing something with this gap of time that will help me with my whole process later.  It will also be rewarding to watch the stack of illustration boards get smaller and smaller as time passes...and that will be a great "visual encourager"!

Beginning the tracings

The drawings I have made and sent to the editor at this point are "loose"...they need detail put in them and tightening up on my proportions and making hard and fast decisions about what exactly I will paint in each spread.
I start this process with the first spread which is the dedication, title page.  If you go back and look at what I sent the editor, you will see that it is very generic of tiny and it's small...doesn't fill the space of that side of the spread very well.
And the other side of the spread where the dedication will go, has a very finished tight drawing...it was the only page in the whole set that was a finished tight drawing...the bird in the party hat.
When I went to work on the title page, I decided to show Tiny blowing a party blower with the bird, Pete, flying up off of Tiny's nose because he was startled.  I decided to take Tiny's huge body and have it go into the gutter (center of the spread where 2 pages meet).  This would allow me to keep the dedication side open for it's own picture.  I felt Tiny needed a party hat and by the time I got the tracing like I wanted it with Tiny, the other side with the bird in the hat seemed like too much for the spread.  I felt like the dedication side only needed a piece of ribbon streamer and some confetti...sort of like an "after thought".  So I pulled the tight drawing of Pete and the party hat and drew a streamer.  I will make the streamer smaller before I paint it.
Because I had departed from what I sent the editor, I emailed the spread to them to make sure it was alright with them.  Better to find out now than have to redo later.
To date, I've not heard back from them yet on that spread.

So I move on to another drawing.
I'm choosing to work on a spread that seems close to making a tracing of it without very much work.  I really want to get a painting under way at this point as a confidence builder.  I'd like to say, "I"ve finished a painting on the Tiny book!".  It's important not to get bogged down or "stuck" in the creative process...I need to keep it moving.  Momentum is a big deal with a project this involved.
There is no background on the drawing I choose and the tracing does go quick....wooohoooo!

You can see I put a pencil on the drawing to give you a size comparison of how big the actual drawings are....12" wide by 9" tall.  I also put the original sketch above the tracing.  Now I can take the tracing...transfere it onto illustration board and start painting.

Beginning sketches finished and approved

I have finished the remaining sketches for the book that I will send on to the editor by email.

When I sent all the spreads to the editor by email, and after a couple of weeks, I heard back from them with positive feedback.  There were small comments made on several of the spreads to either add things that I had overlooked or be sure that a background in the picture in one spread was consistent with the same room background of a previous spread.
I took all my drawings and went through the whole stack writing the comments from the editor out to the side so that when I make my tight tracing (drawing), I will be sure I make those changes.

I was very happy and relieved that there were as few changes as they sent to me!