Sunday 20 March 2011

Scarlet and Jonny

Hi everyone,
I have finally finished my first larger studio painting. It is on MDF and is 1m x 0.5m , considerably larger than the stuff i have been doing since I started painting again. I have had a set of panels made up at an extreme wide screen aspect ratio and will be bringing in some filmic composition into my upcoming pieces.
Th models in this piece are a very interesting real life couple. Ellie is a burlesque performer who works under the monica of Scarlet Daggers. Jonny is in a band called the Speedkings. They live a fine old life together! Here is the finished painting:


This time i tried out a very deliberate methodology, based on the Golden Age Illustrators methodology. I first did sheets of thumbnails designing tonal arrangements and compositions and exploring ideas.


Then we did a photo shoot using these thumbnails as a base. It was the first time I have done anything like that and it was a really interesting experience. Emma was very generous and let me play with her brilliant equipment as well as aiding me with lighting and some technical know how. She was very very helpful and I learned a lot through the process. If you have not been along to her blog then go check it out. She constantly does inspiring and brilliant things: MISS RAIN PHOTOGRAPHY.

Once I had my photographic reference I then sifted through it all and played around digitally with composing different figures together and tweaking shots. I am doing several paintings from the material we got from this shoot but i have so little time to paint that i think it will take a while before more images are finished.Next in the process was to paint a study of the final piece. The study is only about 12" wide but allowed me to run though the process in anticipation of the larger painting. I think I got too noodly on this tbh. Next time i will aim for a broader treatment more in keeping with the style and pace of my alla prima portrait work. I did not match the format of the intended larger painting as i really just needed to concentrate on the figures.

Here is a detail from the final painting...



It has surprised me how many hours I ended up sinking into this one. I am going to be concentrating on my drawing accuracy in the early stages of my next paintings as my more relaxed approach to blocking in is ending up costing me way to much painting time. In the Alla Prima book on drawing the wonderful Mr Schmid really emphasises the importance of putting down carefully measured, accurate work in the early stages and i think he is quite right (as usual!) If you have limited time to paint with you do not want to spend that time repainting things that were not done carefully enough in the first instance.

I have read many books on painting now and nothing comes close to the sheer quantity and quality of this text. Treat yourself!

I do not normally gabble on as much as that, sorry!

9 comments:

Robinson said...

Wow. Best one yet! Nice to see all the process pics too.

Tony Jackson said...

Proper good stuff Jake.

devin platts said...

we have MDF in USA. It isn't the same as Masonite. MDF [medium density fiberboard] is generally made of wood dust, and contains a glue, which is acidic, and generally rather toxic when you're cutting the stuff.

Masonite is pressed wood fibers..

painting looks pretty good though jake, the extra time you spent on it really shows through from some of your other works :)

jake gumbleton said...

Thanks Aaron! Its been ages mate...
Tony: cheers mate!

Devin, cheers for the headsup mate. I have no idea where i picked up that particular gem of mis-information! we call masonite hardboard over here. I used to paint on that stuff years ago, i had no idea it was resin free. Will pick some up.
I edited the main post to remove my error.
I am off work today with sinusitus. It feels like I have a foreign object in my head. Going back to bed now :(

Aidan said...

great work jake - i'm sure i'll be picking your brains about the whole thing soon

Ben Newman said...

Amazing work Jake! The process stuff was interesting; the preliminary painting looks good enough to exhibit as well! What are you going to do with this now it's finished?

Miss Rain said...

Looks awesome! Thanks for the small plug ;) Also I have been collecting the off cuts of background paper, remind me to bring them for you next sketchys!

jake gumbleton said...

Aidan: thanks my excellent friend. We are overdue for some art fun. Must have a drawing meet up soon.
Ben: You are too kind my excellent fellow! I plan to have an exhibition once I have enough of a body of work that I am pleased with. A long way to go yet. I promised the couple in this painting a piece in exchange for their contribuion so one of the pieces from this series will be theirs...
Emma: Thanks again for all your help. Sorry my plug is so small mate... hopefully one day i will be reaching a broader audience! Your recent shoots have been ace. That set of Millie Dollar on the bed was incredible.

Richard Smith said...

Wow looks amazing. I need to see this one in the flesh. The pictures on here never do your paintings justice!