Lesley Spanos Art Studio » People

Pop-Up Showers

Lesley Spanos — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:07:08 +0000

The local weather people like to forecast “pop-up showers.” Cracks me up every time I hear it. I’m reminded of the old “Pop-up Videos” on VH1. This painting shows the aftermath of one of these brief Midwestern storms at the Indiana State Fair a couple of years ago.

Up Stairs

Lesley Spanos — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 04:59:37 +0000

As I was leaving the fair via the infield tunnel, I spotted some nice clouds at the top of the stairs. I don’t even think I noticed the lady with the balloon animal at the time.

Morning Tram

Lesley Spanos — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 23:02:28 +0000

Another in my State Fair Series. It was the bit of sunlight on her shoe and leg that made me want to paint this image.

Hey! Google!

Lesley Spanos — Fri, 21 May 2010 18:27:36 +0000

This month’s Virtual Paintout is in the Czech Republic. Finding a subject was difficult for me, until I came across this guy mugging for the Google Street Views camera. I liked him. Here he is on Street Views:

View Larger Map

I’ve seen collections of images of girls baring their chests for the Google cameras, but haven’t come across that yet while roaming the virtual streets.

Here are a few images taken along the way:

Travelin’ Shoes

Lesley Spanos — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:26:18 +0000

This Different Strokes airport travelers challenge reminded me of Elvin Biship’s song, “Travelin’ Shoes,” which I put on repeat as I painted. These days the lyric should be, “gotta put on my (easy on easy off no metal shank) travelin’ shoes.” Nothing like some good foot stomping butt swinging music to make the hours fly by in the studio.

I loved the drama of Karin’s high contrast airport photo, but for my purposes it was a bit too dark. I couldn’t see the feet in the shadows, and I was having a hard time imagining what they might look like from that perspective. Also couldn’t see the colors in the darker cast shadows. So I lightened the reference photo in Photoshop.

Here’s a quick explanation of the hows and whys of lightening shadows:

It’s difficult to capture the full range of light and dark in a single photo. If you expose the light parts correctly, the shadows might get get too dark. Expose the shadows so they glow, and the highlights burn out. As an example, I took four photos of plants on my kitchen windowsill.

In the first, the meter reading came from the impatiens on the right. They look okay, but everything else is too light. The coleus leaves on the left are disappearing in a white glare.

The second photo was exposed so the coleus on the left would look good. But now everything else is too dark! We can barely see the impatiens in the shadows.

The third photo uses the camera’s automatic settings, averaging the lights and darks to arrive at something in-between. I’d love to be Goldilocks and be able to say this one is “just right,” but it’s not. The lights are too light, and the darks are too dark. These are some of the same auto-exposure issues I saw in the airport photo.

The fourth was taken with a flash. The colors are much closer to what I was seeing in real life, but the shadows are off because the main light source is from the front. I won’t paint from flash photos anymore, because it’s almost impossible to make the painting look like anything but a copy of a flash photo. Not good, when my goal is to make everything I paint look like it was painted from life.

Ideally, when taking reference photos I bracket the exposures, so I have good shots of both the light and dark areas. If I use a tripod, I can take it a step further and use HDR software to combine multiple images into one. Often that’s not possible, so what do we do when we have only one dark photo to work from? Here’s my quick Photoshop solution:

These are both photo #2, but in the second version I’ve lightened the shadows in Photoshop. This can be done using levels, or with the “lighten shadows” slider. It’s a quick, easy fix that selectively brings light back into the shadows without destroying detail in the lighter areas. This image is the closest to what I saw in real life. Gosh, I really need to scrub down that kitchen wall.

Here’s the same effect used on Karin’s photo:

Lightening the reference made the feet and shadow colors more visible, though I must admit I still had to fake the shape of the feet (and they still don’t look right).

Now, on to the painting. These are a few images I took along the way:

The acrylic underpainting loosely suggests where the light and shadow areas will be.

The sketch began with pastel pencil, so I could easily wipe off my mistakes and start over. I knew I’d be making a LOT of mistakes on this one.

Once the drawing was as good as I could get it, I started reinforcing some of my pastel lines with acrylic paint so I wouldn’t accidentally wipe off all my hard work.

More detail in acrylic. I was going to switch to oils before now because I thought it would be impossible to create a soft transition from light to shadow with acrylics. Not so – my test transition was nicely fuzzy – so I kept going with the acrylics.

I paid special attention to the lower left corner, where several floor sections intersect in the middle of a shadow. Getting the values and colors right in that area were the key to creating the illusion of a shadowed terrazzo floor.

I gave the floor depth by making the speckles in the foreground bigger and brighter, fading them out as they receded into the background. Also it gets bluer as it recedes, just like a landscape.

One of the last details was to give the woman Captain’s stripes on her sleeve. I liked the idea of black heels and power.

Here’s a little Elvin Bishop, if you care to listen to my painting soundtrack:

Waiting

Lesley Spanos — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:35:17 +0000

This is the latest from Karin Jurick’s Different Strokes From Different Folks challenge. Though I know this was a figure challenge, what really attracted my eye was the chair on the left. I loved the contrast of textures, the shiny metal and smooth leather. So I copped out and beheaded the poor man so he wouldn’t detract from that beautiful chair.

Here are a few images taken along the way:

Chicago Lifeguard

Lesley Spanos — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:58:25 +0000

Here’s the latest challenge from Karin Jurick’s Different Strokes From Different Folks. This time we’re painting a floating lifeguard on Lake Michigan. I wonder what it’s like out there, isolated on that little boat for hours at a time? Is it a fun way to spend the summer, or the world’s more boring job?

Here are some images taken along the way. I spent too much time watching the Michael Jackson memorial on TV, so no time left for commentary today:

Concertgoers

Lesley Spanos — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:43:52 +0000

When I saw this beautiful couple at the opening concert of the Symphony On The Prairie season, I knew I had to paint them. In honor of the Grateful Dead theme that night, he wore tie-dye, while she had a ’60s vibe going. Her loose, flowing pants were a colorful floral print (which I didn’t dare attempt in paint). There was color everywhere, yet it all coordinated somehow.

Here are some shots taken along the way:

The drawing done in light grey pen.

Starting to add some transparent color. At this stage I had no idea where I’m going with this one. My light grey lines were already starting to disappear under the paint, so I reinforced them with strokes of red. Cool.

I wondered if I could leave it just like this… but decided to forge on.

I tried to keep as much of the green undertones exposed as possible. For example, the green on his cheek is entirely the green of the underpainting.

The blanket had tons of pattern and color, but I needed to simplify it so it wouldn’t attract all the attention.

Finished!

Here are some detail shots:

My flesh tones usually suck, so I challenged myself to keep the flesh tones fresh and reflective while using a minimum of detail. I reminded myself to use lots of green:

Loved the colors in the chair:

She Brings Lemonade

Lesley Spanos — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:50:56 +0000

She brings lemonade for her man, and water for the horses. Is it any different than when I bring my husband a beer while he’s working on his Jeep on a hot day?

This is another painting for Karin Jurick’s Different Strokes From Different Folks painting challenge. This time we’re in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I’ve never been to Lancaster County, but my ancestral roots run deep there. I’m only a couple of generations removed from making quilts instead of paintings.

A few images captured along the way:

My photo of a farmer and horses laid over Karin's photo.

I’ve got to admit that empty landscapes don’t hold my interest. Maybe because I’m a city girl, they seem sad and lonely, like empty stage sets waiting for the actors to bring them to life. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate other artist’s landscapes – some painters do fabulous things with dirt and sky! I just feel that if I want to enjoy this painting, I need to add some people. Amish people.

I use Photoshop to layer images together so I have only a single reference to work from. I was envisioning a farmer working the fields, and luckily I had photos I’d taken of a man with some horses at the state fair last summer. With a little makeover he might pass for Amish, so I traveled to Google Land to look for tips on clothes, hats, and beards. A lot of their fabrics are blue or purple – I wonder what kind of dye they’re using? Must be a natural plant dye. My guy’s going to get a nice purple shirt, because I love purple.

This time I’m painting on a bright yellow/orange/red background. The yellows will help the transparent greens to glow, and the complementary red and orange will help tone down the greens.

Blocking in the colors. I’m trying hard NOT to cover all that orange. I need some peeking through for interest.

Here I’ve added the Amish women.

The horizontal lines in the field have been changed to sweeping curves to show the woman’s path. Also, I’m hoping it helps show that we’re on a hill.

I don’t know why, but this exhausted me! Nothing seemed to go right, and I really struggled with the horses and the man. By the time I got to painting the landscape details, I realized I was out of time. Karin’s deadline for the DSFDF challenge is in a couple of hours, so I’m calling it done and submitting it. Maybe later I’ll go back and fix a couple of things, like the man’s shirt and hat.

Boogie Fever, Part One

Lesley Spanos — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:38:53 +0000

I’ve long admired artist Karin Jurick’s paintings of people relaxing on the beach, so how cool is it to get to paint from one of her beach photos, with her blessing? That was our assignment for weeks 27-28 on Karin’s Different Strokes From Different Folks online painting challenge.

It’s mega cool, yes, but also intimidating. If there was one contemporary I wish I could paint like, it’s Karin. Her colors are rich and pleasing, like comfort food for the eyes. Her brushstrokes have that confident, casual look I long for in my own work. Her narrative demonstrates a keen sense of observation and a quirky sense of humor which takes a pretty picture to the next level and makes it Art. She’s building a solid body of work, and I fully expect her work will hang on museum walls some day. Man oh man, why didn’t I buy something when her paintings first showed up on eBay, when they were more affordable?

Because I like Karin’s work so much, I have to dig deep each time I participate in her challenge to find myself. The last thing I want to do on her blog is a cheap imitation of her work, from her photo! I think it’s a dilemma most of the participating artists share. It’s like being a contestant on American Idol, trying to put your own spin on an iconic song. It’s damn hard, but if you can pull it off, you’re a better artist for it. Even if you can’t pull it off, you’re still a better artist for it, because you were true to yourself. That’s a big reason why I keep doing these challenges – it forces me to listen to my own voice.

That, and it makes me stretch my abilities by painting stuff I normally wouldn’t paint. Like those people on the beach – I love to paint surf, but I have never included a person in a seascape. Never! So it’s Challenge Time!

Here are a few shots I took along the way:

The painting begins with a waterproof pen drawing on paper.

This time I toned the paper after doing the drawing, using transparent washes of acrylic paint. Why? I dunno. Just felt like it.

The rest of the painting was done using M. Graham gouache. My palette consisted of:

burnt umber
phthalo blue
ultramarine blue
dioxazine purple
cadmium red
quinacridone rose
cadmium yellow light
zinc white
titanium white

Oils might have been easier and more effective, but I needed a good workout in gouache. Gouache is tricky, because you need to work quickly, and you can’t put on too many layers before it turns to mud.

Waves are well within my comfort zone. People aren’t! So the beach background fell off the paintbrushes effortlessly, and within twenty minutes, it was done. Then I spent the next two hours struggling with the figures.

Having painted a few waves in my lifetime, I think the main thing I need to keep reminding myself is to let them flow. Because when you let the paint do its thing, all sorts of happy accidents happen that make it look more convincing. Labor over a wave for hours, and it looks contrived, like those frozen in time paintings of waves where every little droplet is defined. (You know the ones I mean… usually there’s light shining through the wave right where it’s starting to break.) I like to paint waves as I see them, churning and violent and random. Today’s waves started as dark humps with lots of brown mixed in, because they’re dirty with sand. Then I made a pass with a lighter color, using a circular, rolling motion to imitate the motion of the breaking wave. The cool thing about gouache is that it remains water soluble even after it dries, so as I painted the undercolor was picked up by the lighter paint, mixing with it and creating multiple tones in between. I finished the wave with a pass of thicker white mixed with a tiny bit of red. The red makes the white pop against the complementary blue-greens of the water.

That’s me smiling at my favorite happy accident in the painting.

Starting to mess with the figures (and yes, they are a mess)…

…and the (butt) end result. I’m not really happy with the figures, or with my gouache technique here. I didn’t know what colors to use or how to define the planes on a human body with paint so I fussed with them too much. Gouache strokes should look confident. Lay them down once, and move on! Mine are unsure. You can see me searching for the right answer. That’s why I need to practice in gouache a LOT more.

But there are some things happening here that make me happy. I like the bits of underpainting showing through, and I wish there were more of them. I like the looseness of the sky and the rough indication of clouds. I like the lack of hard edges around the figures, though I could have used a few hard edges here and there. I like the girl’s hair, another happy accident.

The foreground is a big part of the painting and it needed something to define it and bring it forward… so I added sand texture and pebbles. I flicked some light color on with a brush, then added burnt umber shadows to each speck. Fun.

What color is wet sand? Well, it’s darker than dry sand, and reflects a LOT of sky color. The wetter it is, the more sky it reflects. So I guess sand is a dirty brown mixture of sea color and sky color.

Here’s the finished piece. I was getting ready to send it in to Karin, but I have a few free hours to paint today (after I subtract Earth Hour), and there are more figures in the reference photo calling to me. I could just stop here, but in my head I hear Thelma’s last words to Louise – “Let’s keep goin’!” I’m thinking it’s diptych, or even triptych time!

The Girls

Lesley Spanos — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:32:35 +0000

I can’t say that “Sex and the City” has ever been one of my favorite television shows. I’ve laughed at times – sometimes really hard – when I’ve stumbled across it, but it’s not anything I’ve ever gone out of my way to see. It’s hard for me to relate to characters who obsess over shoes and clothes. Though I can understand a good, healthy obsession with sex.

So I’m surprised at myself for painting a tribute to Sex and the City. The source of inspiration was a photo of a wig shop window taken by artist Karin Jurick, posted on her Different Strokes From Different Folks challenge. It’s a very cool image, with many stylized wig heads to choose from. My first thought was a take on the Rolling Stones “Some Girls” album cover, but then I noticed these four “girls” grouped together, and from that point on all I could see was Samantha, Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda. (I had to look those names up on Wikipedia.) I searched the web for photos of the actresses, because the only face ingrained in my memory is Sarah Jessica Parker’s.

Here are some photos taken along the way. Please excuse the poor image quality and uneven lighting, as I was shooting in the studio at night.

This surface is a little unusual for me. It’s a piece of birch plywood I stained with a wash of orange acrylic, then sealed with several coats of Atelier Binder medium. I like this stuff, because it provides good adhesion for the paint, and dries crystal clear. Think of it as a clear primer. The way the paint feels when it glides onto this surface is wonderful – sort of buttery and silky at the same time.

The drawing was inked in roughly using a waterproof pen. I’m reminded once again that I should take more time to get the drawing right, because there were a few problems I could have avoided if I had.

The hair seemed like a good place to start establishing the characters. Kim Cattrall’s ‘do came from a red carpet photo rather than the TV series. For a wig, the height and Marilyn Monroe sweep seemed more appropriate than her straighter TV hair. It doesn’t look like her character, but it’s my favorite head in the painting.

Carrie’s hair wasn’t supposed to be green (I got some black paint in my yellow), but I liked it, so I left it that way. It fit with the look I was going for, a mix of reality and caricature.

How’d Courtney Love get in there?

Okay, I’ll just paint out Courtney’s face and hope to simply suggest Miranda with a blank wig head. Not a bad solution, because my heads were looking too human, and I want some of them to look wiggy.

If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Now Charlotte has morphed into Lisa Ling…

…but it’s nothing a big pair of sunglasses won’t (mostly) hide.

I left the background as is, just the stained/sealed wood surface. I love the look of the paint next to the wood grain.

And so we end another painting adventure. Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. It’s just occured to me that I have painted characters who idolize fashion with no bodies for their clothes, and no feet for their shoes. No, my girls are all brains and witty dialogue!

Mystery Artist

Lesley Spanos — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:27:08 +0000

“?”
Acrylic on Raymar canvas panel, 9 x 12″

Who is this lovely mystery woman with the bright smile? As I write this, I don’t yet know. I was paired with her through the luck of the draw. Artist Karin Jurik came up with a fun year-end challenge on her Different Strokes From Different Folks blog. One-hundred and thirty artists sent her photos of themselves, and she paired each of us with a partner to paint. So while I’m painting this artist from her photo, she’s painting me from mine. In the end we’ll find out each others identity and perhaps trade the portraits.

My apologies to the Mystery Artist! I captured a little of your sparkle, but I didn’t manage to capture your look.

UPDATE, December 31: Now the mystery artist has a name: Sally Tharp! I’ve admired her art on her blog before. So nice to put a personality and name with the face. Check out her gorgeous portrait of me on her blog. She had a tough photo of me to work from, with lots of shadows, but she did amazing things with it. Her use of light and color really blew me away! It’s like me, only better.

Here are a few in-progress images:

Sketched directly on the canvas with ink.

Next an underpainting in acrylic is added. I went heavy on the green so it would contrast with the skin tones:

The underpainting is done. If I knew this person wouldn’t mind it as is, I might be tempted to leave it like this. But not everyone likes having a green face! So I forge on, now switching to oils:

Hmm, that green t-shirt and yellow background aren’t working for me. Let’s change them:

Much better! (BTW, I didn’t realize until later that I was wearing a purple t-shirt when I painted this.)

The reference photo was taken with a flash, so there were no shadows. You can always tell when someone has painted from a flash photo, so I struggled to make it more portrait-like by shadowing the face.

I had all my colors turned up to 11 on this one, and I’m thinking now that maybe the red was too much.

Done!

But is any painting ever really done? There are things I would change if I lived on a deserted island and had only that one painting and all the time in the world to refine it. But I don’t. I have to take what I can learn from each project, and move on to the next challenge.

Tennessee Walker

Lesley Spanos — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:59:20 +0000

I don’t think she’s really from Tennessee. I just like the name. This is another one from Karin Jurick‘s “Different Strokes From Different Folks” weekly challenge. We were given a really cool reference photo to work from – very Hopper-ish - but it was upside down! Karin asked us to do at least 95% of the work with the photo and painting inverted.

Working upside down isn’t unusual for me. I work flat and rest my hand on the canvas while I paint, so spinning it in any direction to find a dry spot is second nature. The real challenge here was painting heels. I struggled with those shoes upside down and right-side up. In fact my entire 5% of right-side up time was wasted on those darn shoes. I really seem to have a mental block against them. Maybe it’s my hatred of wearing heels manifesting itself through my art.

Just for kicks, the second photo shows this painting in the early stages. Often I paint on a red ground, but a dark black/blue/red color seemed the way to go with this one. I was able to leave much of it exposed in the window and coat. This in-progress shot also shows my lack of pre-painting preparation. I don’t like to draw much in advance. I think of painting more like sculpture – I’m coaxing the form out of nothing.

After I finished the painting, I looked at the reference image on the computer and noticed there were some interesting reflections in the window that didn’t show in my printout. A man and a car. Darn! I hope someone else does something with them.

Here’s how it looked as I worked on it upside down.

Do you like Edward Hopper as much as I do? Writer Kevin Grandfield has created a really cool blog about his work: Hunting Nighthawks: On the Road with Edward Hopper.

Waiting Shadows

Lesley Spanos — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:03:00 +0000

“Waiting Shadows”
Oil on canvas panel, 5 x 7″

In last week’s painting of the US Capital building, I struggled with the cars, and never could get them right. So I decided I needed to do some visual research on cars. I look at cars every day, but I don’t see them. I only glance long enough to avoid a collision. So I took the dog for a long walk on a busy street and studied cars in motion. I noticed how the lower half of most cars reflected the street or nearby vehicles, the horizontal surfaces reflected the sky, and highlights were usually small, intense dots rather than streaks. I didn’t have time to fix the cars in last week’s painting, but I put my new-found knowledge to work in today’s painting. I actually LIKE that little silver car. I accomplished something new here, and that makes me happy.

This painting is from Week #10 of Karin Jurick‘s “Different Strokes…” challenge. Go see the other other interpretations!

Quick portrait of Barack Obama

Lesley Spanos — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:32:00 +0000

Barack Obama Portrait #1
Gouache on Raymar panel, 9 x 12″

Here in the US, we’re finally down to the last eight days of an election that seems to have gone on for years. Oh, wait, it HAS gone on for years! After two years of non-stop election coverage, I wonder what they’ll find to talk about on CNN once it’s over? I guess there’s always the economy.

I had the privilege of seeing Mr. Obama speak a few weeks ago, and he’s quite a striking figure, with a tall, graceful body and the kind of face that begs to be painted. I used every color but brown in my palette here, going strong on the blues, purples, oranges, and pinks. And of course there are the blazing reds in the underpaintig. I didn’t realize until this moment that I’ve accidentally created a patriotic red, white, and blue color scheme.

I’ll probably be doing some more Obamas in the coming week.

New York Stock Exchange

Lesley Spanos — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:21:00 +0000

“New York Stock Exchange”
Acrylic painting on paper, 7.5 x 16″

Here’s another one painted for Karin Jurick’s “Different Strokes” weekly challenge. You can see her original photo on the Week 6-7 thread on her blog. It was quite complex, and a small image, so not much detail was available. I guess that’s a good thing – it keeps me from going too crazy with the detail. (Yeah, like I didn’t anyway!)

The floor was one of the first things I laid down. I was going to start bright with the underpainting, then overpaint it with a duller color. But the yellow reminded me of a Van Gogh floor (albeit brighter than his), so I left it that way. Yellow is almost universally used to suggest cheerfulness, but as I painted, I realized that Van Gogh had a knack for making yellow look somber and somewhat mad. If a headache had a color, it would be the throbbing yellow of a Van Gogh floor. It’s a color that says, “I’ve gone insane because the floor keeps me awake at night.” Maybe not a bad color for the trading floor after two weeks of financial chaos.

I might add more people later. For now, I need a break from painting little men in ugly smocks!