Tag Archives: art

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Almost There, Alice!

Look, Alice, you’re almost out of “I-wonder-when-I’ll-get-home” land. More directly, the Alice Moran painting is almost finished. I added the final missing details (rails, name, and a few other little things) yesterday. I’ll post a photo here of her current appearance and won’t look at it or the real thing–which has been flipped over so I don’t peek. Once I’ve had sufficient time away from it, I’ll flip the painting back over and see how finished it really is. There are already things I want to tweak, but it’s better to do it with fresh eyes.

amoran_p6b-sm

The next time you see a new photo of this painting, it may very well be in a frame at its home port!

Alice aside, things are coming along slowly but surely with my illustration commission (the goats & pebbles book). The last images I posted from that project were sketches, so next I’ll show part of the next stage: washes. Soon enough, you’ll see a sample of a completed full-color spread.

GP_washes-8med GP_washes-7med

Other projects are moving along, too, such as Cartage. Bit by bit, the idea blooms and grows. I also have some “getting started ideas” and have begun a new little art series of caricatured/cartoon pandas. Or pundas, since wordplay is involved in these pandagrams. More on that another time.

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Alice’s Advancements in Painterland

Hello, everyone, especially the recent subscribers–thanks for your interest and support!

The Alice Moran painting is starting to come together. There is still quite a bit to do, of course–adding details, repainting parts of the sky & water, unifying some of the colors and values–but at least it feels like it is moving towards completion (rather than an amorphous “What do I do next?” state). Here are a couple photos showing some of the changes since the last major Alice update. The first two are close-ups of the stack; the third is a more developed version of the whole painting (as of a few days ago). Since then I have crisped up some edging, smoothed out some surfaces, and added more details.

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amoran_p2b
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I liked the texture and coloration of the wash (think of that as a wet, loosely applied base layer of color that you paint over to achieve different effects) of the stack enough that for a little while I did not want to paint over it at all. But on its own, it did not match the rest of the painting, so I rolled up my sleeves and slathered more paint on top, leaving a little showing through.

A few other notes before I draw this entry to a close:

Just as I used peach colors in the sky of the M. Moran painting to match the walls in the room where it hangs, I am trying to use similar blues to the big armchair that this painting will hang near.

And if you ever want to compare the M. Moran painting (or read a bit about it), it’s still viewable here: https://www.drawstheeventide.com/tug-home-port/.

Alternatively you can go to the Captain’s Log (accessible from the sidebar) and scroll down.

Also, I’ve been updating things around Draws the Eventide. As you explore, you may notice a few differences, for instance, that the “Pet Portraits” portfolio is now “Animal Art.” It’s still quite small but now includes a couple more pieces that are also in other sections of the website. But there will be more in it one day!

If you would ever like a drawing or painting done of one of your pets (or people friends and family), do let me know! I would be glad to create something for you!

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Paints, Pebbles, and Progress

Here’s a smattering of updates for your perusing pleasure:

Alice Moran painting: Slowly but surely, she’s coming along. Finished underpainting & non-churned water (more or less), started background details (city & sky). Remember all those remarks about dormitory lighting when I was working on the M. Moran? My latest location isn’t any better. Here’s a snapshot of the mildly methodical madness from a few days ago:

amoran_p1
The mildly methodical madness goes like so:

  1. Lay down a colored wash
  2. Get those big blocks of color painted (water & sky)
  3. Apply detailed layers from background to foreground
  4. The intervene-whenever-you’d-like step: when done for the day, say “Gosh, look at all those leftover bits of mixed paint on the palette,” and use them somewhere before they dry out.

Do You Have a Pebble in Your Pocket?: Finished revisions & started transferring images to canvas paper. That means I’ll be able to start painting tomorrow or Saturday.

Seagull & Spoon: I revised the story a few days ago and have since relegated it to the backburner whilst I figure out a title and just what to do with this quirky turkey.

Cartage: Continuing to develop designs. Last night I spent the better part of an hour researching and sketching shopping cart designs for a high-speed chase scene down the deli meat aisle. (There’s not actually a chase scene, but there is a rollicking ride on a shopping cart.)

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Goats, Boats, and Other Notes

Goats:

Spent several hours this week sketching rough drafts for another illustration commission, Do You Have a Pebble in Your Pocket?, a book to teach small children counting through representation. The premise: A farm boy keeps a pebble for every goat he has in his pocket; then, when each goat returns to the barn, he places a pebble in a pouch. At the end of the day, he still has one pebble in his pocket and sets out to find the missing goat.

Here are clickable splendid scribbles of the present cover and title page designs:

GP-rd_cover  GP-rd_titlepg

Boats:

Started work on the next tugboat commission. The Alice Moran is taking shape on the sketchpad. After working out a few more details and drafting a background of New York Harbor, I’ll do at least one more clean draft, then transfer to sturdier paper and bring out the paints.

If you haven’t seen the final, framed M. Moran painting (or images of the earlier stages), you are welcome skim through prior posts in the Captain’s Log (click and scroll down).

Other Notes:

At this point, Terry Treble Music Adventures I & II are still just for sale through me or MusicLearningCommunity.com staff directly. (No online order form just yet.)

I plunged into yet another revision (the fifth major one) of my opera libretto, an adaptation of The Antiquary by Sir Walter Scott. Good things are happening: crisping up some dialogue, incorporating more rhymes and wordplay, and reworking some arias. It’s nearly finished!

Among other projects started and standing, fleshing out and finalizing, I began reviewing two stories I’ll intertwine for a film script. But mum’s the word for now and awhile since it’s just getting underway–that gives you incentive to come back!

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Tugboat Painting to Home Port

Two Fridays ago, my painting of the M. Moran docked at its home port — the walls of my great-uncle’s house — in its new-old frame (new for the painting, old in that the frame was built several years ago). It really brightens the room and ties in to the other colors and woodwork.

MMoran-frame

What’s more, my great-uncle was so pleased that he asked me to do another painting of one of his boats! This time around, it’ll be the Alice L. Moran, another “most powerful” tug.

While visiting, I found the “Marine News” pamphlet containing the picture I worked from. I opened the first page, and, surprise, surprise, — there was a small black and white image of the original painting, complete with the stern of the ship. Although it would have been nice to know what the back of the boat looked like, it was still fun to figure out how everything that was missing might look and to reinterpret the image to fit my great-uncle’s home & frame.

The original is 23.5″ x 16″ by marine artist Charles G. Evers, whereas mine is 22″ x 30″. The background is Diamond Head, HI.

To learn a little more about the specs of this tug and the history of the M. Moran line, click here to read an excerpt from the “Marine News” article. And here to see a photo of its initial tow to Korea.

On the way there (to my great-uncle’s house, not Korea), I passed through Savannah, Georgia, and went down to the river, where, lo and behold, were two Moran tugs! One was docked, the other pushing a steamer. A lovely coincidence.

Now that school is out and I’m back in town, I’ll update this here captain’s log more frequently with bits about the myriad projects I have queued this summer.

So long!