Ah, the break. I have been busy. But that does not stop one's dreams! Or something romantically flawed like that... anyhow, I have been thinking. Yes, thinking. My thoughts read more or less thusly:
Phil Hale is sweet. That one painting he did was sweet. I wish I had a sweet painting like that one, which was sweet. Maybe I should do a tribute to his sweetness, in which I borrow much from his sugary skill to ice my very own artwork cake. All will be deliciously well within the art world. I also want cake.
I decided that my tribute would be damned big. And it would star cowboys. This is a preliminary sketch, where I got down some of the expression and figure, and a little bit of the value structure. It isn't near the contrast I want for the final, it is simply a sketch on tracing paper. I want the sunlight on the cowboy's back to be intense afternoon sun. The light on his face is reflection from the desert sand. Other than (maybe) some subtle buzzard shapes in the sky behind him, this is just as busy as the painting is getting. The hole in his chest may get bigger, I dono. I put this up to see what you guys thought.
Yes, my dad is the model for this. If this happened, I would totally go Silverado on someone's ass.
3 comments:
i love your sketching style sweet.
Pretty nice prelim sketch. Love the face and the expression.
Although I have to admit I don't get much of a Phil Hale vibe from this. He just looks like a regular dude with big hands. Of which big hands are not something you tend to see Phil Hale do. It needs that certain wonkiness Phil Hale incorporates into his stuff. I mean, he does some pretty weird things with anatomy, and here, he has big hands. You need to elongate and twist and get some interesting negative space in here.
Here's Mr. Hale's work on his Art Rep's site. I think the hole piece you are refering to is on here.
http://www.allenspiegelfinearts.com/hale.html
I don't doubt you can paint it, I think your quite an awesome painter, and you know how to paint alot better than I do, but if you are going for a Phil Hale like piece, not so sure if you nailed it. If you had not mentioned Phil Hale, I wouldn't have much else to say because it's a great prelim and already looks really good.
P.S. Phil Hale works in oils, and on alot of paintings paints a mid, and paints away with turp to achieve his over exposed look.
I think you are entirely correct, Mike. I remember looking at his site and really liking the concept of the "hole" piece. Feverishly excited, I shot all my reference and drew up the piece. I reviewed the site and realized that it was nothing like Phil Hale. So I redid everything almost right after posting this. Heh. You are dead on with this comment though.
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