The main reason we took pictures as Christy was working on her portrait of me was so I could try and give setting up time lapse a shot. We had some difficulties since the aisle floating around a lot during painting, and the camera was also in use between paintings. We rigged up some masking tape to mark where the aisle should go, and how things were positioned, and this helped a lot. Unfortunately, things still shifted from shot to shot, especially when one of us would forget to set everything up right before snapping that set of photos. Even worse than these was the lighting. With our sliding glass door in back of the aisle, the painting would look totally different during the day or night. We could usually get away without a flash, but we never had enough light sources to really show the depth of color without it. Unfortunately, the flash almost always added glare (using a tiny hand-held camera with fixed flash), so I tried to use mostly ones without the flash.

All that being said, I hacked together what kind of time lapse I could. This shows the process from poorly assembled, stock canvas, through disassembly, rebuilding and painting. We hope you enjoy it.

15. April 2007 · Comments Off on Weekly painting by Christy #9 · Categories: Art · Tags: , , , , ,

It’s done, and a heck of a thing it is, too. Here we are in the home stretch:
Almost Done

and then she finished it up, added a signature, and the thing is finished. In reality this took her maybe ten sessions total, which seems like working at light speed to me. I’ll have a time lapse version of all of these posted in the near future. For now, enjoy the finished product:

Final Painting

There’s more art to come (she did another piece the other weekend), but for now we hope you’ve enjoyed watching it come together!

This is the second-to-last week for this series as it’s almost done! The finished product isn’t much different than these photos, and this week I’m actually posting the same painting twice. Once without any flash and once with a soft flash on. The flash distorts the colors, but brings out a ton more detail which indicates I really need to set up a different lighting situation for the final shot. Something to do this week…

Without a flash:
Without Flash

With a soft flash:
With Flash

25. March 2007 · Comments Off on Weekly painting by Christy #7 · Categories: Art · Tags: , , , , ,

Well folks, it’s Sunday morning and I should be studying, which means it’s time for the latest installation of Christy’s painting! She started working on the skin, so zombie status is fully revoked:

It's Aliiiiive

This second picture is a bit dim, I’m afraid. Still, you can see she’s adding in shadows and lighting effects:

Lights & Shadows

The eyes are filled in which does wonders for my return from zombie-hood. There’s also some highlights (shading?) of the skin.
The Eyes Have It

Christy has been excited to work on the martini glass, especially the bright blue (Magellan) martini. The concept of painting vibrant liquids with oil paints hurts my brain a little, but even her early “sketching” is looking great.
Fine Lookin' Drink

My zombification! To get away from the red tint, Christy started working on the flesh color.

Zombification

The more she filled in, the creepier it became. The red eyes don’t help. You can start to see the effects of light she’s adding in, which I think is super cool. I tend to be somewhat astounded by the entire process.

Zombie Chris

04. March 2007 · Comments Off on Weekly Painting by Christy #4 · Categories: Art · Tags: , , , , ,

Christy has been working on smaller paintings for a while, this is the first larger one she’s done since we’ve come to San Diego. It’s amazing how fast the first layer of colors goes on. Here’s the result of the second session of painting:

First Colors

Week #3:

The canvas is gessoed, so now it’s all white:
Gessoed Canvas

Then we finally get to some color as Christy adds the first layer of paint. She uses oil paints, which have some neat colors and textures.
First Layer

And by the end of her painting session, you can see she’s already painted the basis for most of the portrait. Since we’ve come to the interesting part, I’m upping the size of the photos. As always, click on them for higher resolution:
First Day's Paint

Can we guess the subject? Christy and I ended up decided to do this project (documenting the painting step-by-step) before she’d decided what her next painting was going to be about, so this was kind of a fun coincidence. I’m always fascinated by watching her paintings and other art progress. Each stage is full of interesting details, and the process of a whole is fun to watch.