Friday, June 10, 2011

Cleaning The Fish

'Cleaning The Fish'
Inspiration for this painting came from a favorite adventure magazine of mine.  This lone fisherman cleaning his catch in a tidal pool really spoke to me and I believed that it would make a good large painting.  It took me quite a while to finish this work but I am fairly pleased with the outcome.  It is considerably more loose a style of painting than I am use to but if I do not test new waters then I feel my art becomes stagnant and I quickly become disinterested in it.  When I complete a work like this I feel that I have not only expanded my knowledge but also my ability.  This work measures @ 19" x 22" and is available for purchase.  Email me for information.
Since I did take a few shots of the work in progress, I have included a progressive picture record of this work.  Firs,t as always, I do a detail sketch to get the proportion and overall look I want.
Next is a build up of paint and color around the main subject.  First laying down the light under color and progressively adding color into a deeper and darker hues.
I then began to focus on the native fisherman and his tropical clothes.  
I finally add the color of the deep flesh tones using a mix of burnt sienna, light oxidized red, and a light blue.  Moving the paint gently around to get the subtle skin tones and shadows on the skin.

You also might notice a fish on the back of my shirt.  For those of you that have been following my site for a while, you might just recognize this fish.  It is my Brown In Hand painting from last year.  The site on the bottom of the shirt is a company I am now involved with. I will be doing more detailed posts in the coming weeks about this new venture, but for now, enjoy this painting and visit HexFishing.com if you get a chance. - Shirts like the one you see here are available for purchase.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great job, Joel. Keep stretching. "I guess if I practise then better I'll be". Remember? :)

cofisher said...

I have a hard time putting two words together that make sense and you take an idea and put it to paper and make something beautiful. Paint me green with envy.

Unknown said...

Cofisher - many thanks for the kind words but Id bet you could out fish me any day of the week.