Lesley Spanos Art Studio

Scrambled

Lesley Spanos — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:19:19 +0000

Still working on my State Fair series, and loving it! My latest painting in the series is taken from a photo I took last summer of people riding the Scrambler after dark. I love how the guy on the left looks like he’s going to hurl at any moment. I used to feel the same way when I rode those things. That’s why I don’t do it anymore.

Here are some images taken along the way:

I started with a loose marker sketch over a toned background. At this point I thought the guy on the left looked like a caveman in a Geico commercial.

Adding paint as sparingly as possible. My goal was to use the toned ground for the lighter shadows and just hit the middle tones and highlights with paint.

I can’t believe how little paint I put on the left side of the ride car, yet it looks really good. That’s my favorite part of the painting.

Painting the girl’s face made me a little nervous, because I have never done well with teeth and open mouths. Or faces, for that matter. So I pulled from my mind a vision of a work I spent some time memorizing in the Met a few years ago – Degas’ Singer In Green. I just kept telling myself to channel Degas as I layered with dry-brushed acrylic. It actually sort of worked, in the sense that it’s easier to imitate someone when you’re feeling unsure.

Next came the guy on the right. His head was at a tough angle to draw, plus I had to do more teeth. Looks a bit like chef Mario Batali, doesn’t he?

The final stage was about texture and lighting. I wanted to suggest hair on the arms and legs of the guys, so I used a few directional strokes and was pleased with the results.

The darkest darks and lightest lights were added last. And voila, we’re done!

State Fair, USA: New Series & Blog

Lesley Spanos — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:06:00 +0000

Lately I’ve been feeling that my painting efforts aren’t focused enough. I bounce around from one painting challenge to another, learning from each, but I’m not accomplishing much beyond that. I feel the need to do more. I need to focus my efforts on something that’s 100% me, and when it’s over, have something more to speak for the experience than just a bunch of unrelated paintings gleaned from other people’s photos and experiences.

So I’ve started a series of paintings I call State Fair, USA based on three years worth of reference photos taken at my local state fair. Literally thousands of photos. Through September, I’ll be posting new paintings almost daily to the State Fair USA blog , so please check it out if you want to follow along.

The State Fair blog is more geared toward the non-artist. I’ve come to think of this blog – Lesley Spanos Art Studio – as the artist blog, since most of my subscribers are my fellow artists. This blog won’t close – I’ll still be posting occasional step-by-step and challenge paintings here.

The Sate Fair series is my first attempt at almost-daily painting, and I’m amazed by how difficult it is. Kudos to those of you who are daily painters. You have earned a new level of respect from me!

You can subscribe to the new blog here:
Subscribe to State Fair USA via email or reader

When Ducks Gossip

Lesley Spanos — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:46:58 +0000

These little rubber duckies in the Duck Pond game seemed to be sharing secrets.

Carnies look at you a little weird when you photograph their ducks for too long. I’m thinking next time I need to placate them by spending some money on their games.

Here are a few images captured along the way:

Usually I’d tint the entire board a darker color then paint over it, but some of the yellows I use don’t cover dark colors well. To keep my yellows pure and bright, I needed to define the yellow spots early, and paint the dark water around them.

I’m working in layers, building up the transparent yellows gradually. I wish I hadn’t used that dark grey marker for the drawing… it’s really had to cover with paint.

I’m still learning how to paint water. I tried to keep my strokes loose and calligraphic.

The final layers were glazes thinned with medium, used to push the yellows in either a warmer (duck sides) or cooler (duck tops) direction.

The Merry Jester

Lesley Spanos — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 23:25:14 +0000

This is the image that got me interested in doing a State Fair series. I love how the carving sparkles. My favorite time to photograph an outdoor carousel is around sunset. That’s when it comes to life, when it’s just dark enough for the glow of the bulbs to be visible, yet there’s still enough daylight to give it form. This time of day sets me up for a pleasing mix of complementary colors, from the the cool reflected colors of the sky to the warmth of the electric lights.

Here’s a shot taken in the morning:

See how flat and uninteresting the molded carvings look when the light is less than ideal?

Here are some images taken along the way:

After tinting the board with reds, I blocked in the masses with paint instead of drawing lines. Sometimes you just need to dive right in to the paint.

I refined as much of the drawing as I could with the brush before picking up a pen.

The face is the hardest part, so I decided to knock it out first. I would love to know who the artist used as a model. He looks a lot like entertainer/’80s talk show host John Davidson to me.

Acrylics are ideal for paintings like this because they dry quickly, allowing me to draw the intricate carvings directly over the paint minutes after it’s applied. I wouldn’t be able to do that with oils. Because my markers are water soluble, I can wipe off mistakes quickly with a wet paper towel.

The sky looked more like paint than sky, so I redid it. The key to getting a sky you can look through is using a variety of colors. In this case, it was violets, greens, and yellows. Anything but blue.

The bulbs on the carousel have a swirly pattern in the glass, so when I applied the paint I swirled it like the frosting on top of a cupcake. It doesn’t show in the scan, but I like the way it looks in real life.

Adding the final carvings. I’m so glad I chose acrylics for this piece so I could quickly build up these layers. I’m intentionally leaving some areas loose. I usually want my paint to look like paint, suggesting a surface rather than tightly mimicking it.

I thought the carvings at the bottom would be hard, but they were actually kind of fun. It was just a matter of laying in a mid-tone, followed by darks, then highlights.

This one was so much fun, I might need to do it again, larger.

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.

Dogs

Lesley Spanos — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 23:26:51 +0000

It was early morning at the State Fair, and the food vendors were setting up for the day. This brightly colored hot dog booth glowed in the sunlight. My favorite part was the giant graphic hot dog with mustard displayed on the skirt of the booth.

Here are a few shots taken along the way:

Sign backgrounds go on first…

Then the scary part – the lettering. I tried to go slowly, then fixed my mistakes with the background color.

Whew! Adding those final details was a bit nerve-wracking. In an effort to keep from overworking today’s painting, I told myself I couldn’t stop for dinner until this one was done. That provided the incentive I needed to finish quickly. Now I am off to enjoy my reward, grilled chicken and summer squash fresh from the garden.

Midway Through

Lesley Spanos — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 23:16:28 +0000

My first attempt at painting the lights of the midway.

Candy Apple Reds

Lesley Spanos — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:21:37 +0000

One of the things I’ll be painting this summer is Fair Food. My diet is very controlled so I’m painting things I’d never dream of putting in my mouth. Like these candied apples, which to me are pretty but deadly. Does anyone really eat these things? When I was a kid, we thought the caramel ones were good, but the red candied apples usually got tossed after a bite or two.

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.

Three Sheep

Lesley Spanos — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:44:36 +0000

The biggest challenge here? Trying to get three naked sheep butts to not look too disgusting.

Meander

Lesley Spanos — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:55:40 +0000

This week Bill Guffey’s Virtual Paintout explores the islands of Hawaii. It was hard to narrow it down to one image out of the fourteen I chose, but eventually I settled on this beach scene in Hau’ula, Hawaii, on the northeast shore of Oahu:

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If I could go for a walk on a beach like that every morning, I could give up caffeine…

No. 1059

Lesley Spanos — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:39:29 +0000

Trolley No. 1059 was built in 1948 and acquired by San Francisco in 1992 to become part of their historic streetcar collection. Though it served in Philadelphia, the car is painted to represent the Boston Elevated Railway Co..

Our location is on the Embarcadero at a stop near the Ferry Building, with the Bay Bridge in the background:

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Pretty, eh?

This week my goal was to not murder the paint by working it to death, so I limited myself to only one hour. Got finished in only 50 minutes. Yay! I’d love to have a bigger version of this one for my wall, so I might try it again when I have a big birch panel on hand.

Many thanks to Lee Brown for providing yet another spectacular HDR photo for his A Day Not Wasted June challenge. His process removes most of the “bad” stuff artists encounter when painting from photographic references, like dead shadows and blown out highlights. His photos are so lifelike it’s almost like painting on location.

90 on the last 10

Lesley Spanos — Thu, 27 May 2010 23:49:51 +0000

Is it just me, or do other artists spend 90% of their studio time working on the last 10% of the painting? If I painted for ten hours, the piece would look almost finished after one hour. I could slap it into a frame and most people wouldn’t notice it wasn’t “finished.” They might even admire my bold approach and my loose and casual brushstrokes.

Ten minutes in and having fun. Love that lemon!

At thirty minutes. "Hey, this is EASY! Even the metal parts."

One hour into the painting. "Cool. Another thirty minutes on this, then I can get some yard work done and still have time to relax."

The yard work didn’t happen, nor did the open beer in the back yard while listening to Indy 500 cars buzz by at the distant Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (When the wind is right they sound like a swarm of dive-bombing wasps from my house. Locally they black out the race on TV to boost attendance, so we can’t watch it live on TV like the rest of the country.)

Nope, I spent another nine hours on my feet working on the painting, my artist’s insecurity constantly pushing me into fixing “problems” and finessing little details that may or may not enhance the finished work.

In other words, wasted time. Most of that time was spent on the two roses in the upper left. Yes, the roses were a tiny bit better in the end, but not four-hours-on-a-holiday-weekend better:

Finished painting at ten hours.

I don’t know why roses are so hard for me. When I look at the structure of a rose blossom my brain scrambles the signal and I paint the visual equivalent of gibberish. It’s like I’m looking at it but not seeing it. I was using acrylics but finally had to break out the oils so I’d have more blending time. I’ll still probably go back when the paint is dry and add a glaze over the rose on the right to knock it back into the shadows more.

Ironically, this was painted for the A Day Not Wasted May challenge. Lee provided artists with a well-planned and executed reference photo. (See how he shot it here.) Lee invited us to use just parts of his extensive still life setup, and it seems most of us zeroed on in the same composition using the apple, lemon, and jug. My original square composition cut out the dreaded roses, but then I noticed that several people had already done that one, so I went rectangular and added the roses to the top.

In spite of all my whining, a day is not wasted if a lesson is learned. So once again I’m reminded to STOP FUSSING WITH THE PAINT. Overworking the paint is my biggest sin. I need to learn to lay the paint, leave it, and go have a beer.

Canna Secrets

Lesley Spanos — Sat, 22 May 2010 06:45:25 +0000

The most recent addition to my series of Canna paintings.

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:

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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: