My Process, a Photo-Essay

[Carson Collins]

This is where I live (digital photograph).


This is what I paint (cropped and enlarged from the photograph above).


This is a typical result (not based directly on any photograph; I don’t even own a camera).


My paintings, while they may appear realistic to some people and in certain contexts , are actually highly abstracted. This can be sen very clearly when they are viewed side-by side with a photograph of the same subject matter.

I use the patterns and colors in the sky near the horizon and on the surface of the water to derive a plastic vocabulary with which to express myself as a painter.

It would be interesting to see examples of process from some of the other artists here.

[Tracie Skarbo]

I enjoyed seeing your process...thanks for sharing!

I usually start out with a drawing of some sort...although I am no longer using graphite under acrylic. I found out the hard way that it tends to bleed through the paint! Silly me. A good fix is to varnish over the painting and then paint over the graphite and then varnish again.

I am still very new to the whole painting process so I am still developing what works for me and what doesn't.

[mjgartistpoet]

Carson - This is an interesting thread - I admire your your Oceon series - I know you are a Rothko fan and this is now apparent to me in your works - Though I find your work more interesting - Truly. Each oceon painting to me is like an emotion or feeling - I know sometimes feelings are hard to pin down and are many times beyond words

Tracie - I use pencil to sketch elements of my work - I know what you mean about it bleeding through - I use acylic paints of which all the colours are opaque/semi transparent so do show through - I find white (which is a more solid) as a solution to this problem ie I paint over my drawing with thinnish layers of white and gradually add the underpainting tones. If the pencil lines still show I repeat the process building the work up in many layers

[Tracie Skarbo]

Tracie - I use pencil to sketch elements of my work - I know what you mean about it bleeding through - I use acylic paints of which all the colours are opaque/semi transparent so do show through - I find white (which is a more solid) as a solution to this problem ie I paint over my drawing with thinnish layers of white and gradually add the underpainting tones. If the pencil lines still show I repeat the process building the work up in many layers

Thanks for this tip! I will use it in the new ocean scene I am working on.

[Gary Dee]

Hey, thanks, my Friend. This gives me a bit more insight into your 'technical' process. Good stuff.

[Randy Hage]

Thanks for sharing your process. I think that sometimes the best art comes from an approach that has less of a plan. A more organic approach. I really like your work!
Great job!

[Carson Collins]

Thanks, everyone, for your interest and for the kind words. They are much appreciated.

Having an artist that I admire as much as "mj" say he likes my stuff better than Rothko just knocks me out. I'm not sure that I'm all that, but I do my humble best to carry the torch for my tragic hero Marcus Rothkovitch and that's about the highest praise I can hope for. I can feel my head starting to swell even as I type.

Does anyone else want to talk about their process for doing artwork here?

(translation: BUMP!)

[alanminshull]

Hey guys this is a fantastic thread.

Thats probably the best way ever to combat pencil or graphite bleeding through and the process that I have used myself too, is to paint a thin layer of white on top of the initial drawing. Other way is to use a hard grade pencil.
If you are painting on a very dark canvas, which I have had to do in the past on some of my oceans, I swap the lead pencil for a white one which works fantastically.

Here is an example of what I did while working on my Sacred Land painting which featured my friend Wendell Deer with Horns.. It is all about Imagery and messing around with old photos and making changes..

1. First job was to take Wendells photo and then add a background, in this case the Black Mountains, a sacred place. I then added elements that I thought would further the message that the land was sacred, a buffalo, an Eagle from stock photos (paid for and free imagery).


2. Next job was to age the photo, I chose sepia and also applied a 'glow' to the overall image. I also took bits out here and there to make the imagery seem more balanced, composition wise..


3. Next job was to add a message to the top, as he wanted it to include this.. I chose my wording and put what I thought he might like to read each time he looked at it, and also to sharpen and add a little more shadow to the overly bright image.


4 . Finally I got to work on the actual painting itself in watercolours. Added the campsite and faded out the buffalo, which in the final photo manipulation had become unrecognisable. I also made Wendell look younger too, to which he responded, ALAN!! You star, I look handsome in this!! hahaha Wendell:)
Wakan Tanka guys:)

[Carson Collins]

Wow, Alan, that is one clever mix of the digital with the traditional. Do you pay someone to transfer the digital "under-painting" to canvas before going to the paint and brushes?

I used to do similar things with an "opaque projector", a huge old pre-WWII German machine made by Bausch & Lomb. That was an electro-mechanical device that would project any printed image at any size on canvas. You needed a totally dark studio the size of a barn to use it, which meant that one had to work at night, tracing the image onto the canvas with graphite (standing to the side so your shadow didn't get in the way) and it put out as much heat as your average space-heater or a big toaster oven... O GOD I'VE BECOME A GEEZER.

[alanminshull]

Wow, Alan, that is one clever mix of the digital with the traditional. Do you pay someone to transfer the digital "under-painting" to canvas before going to the paint and brushes?

HAHA Carson, your not a geezer lol

No I just paint straight onto canvas from the digital image on my computer. I look at the computer while painting it my friend as I would a photo or being at the place I want to paint.

When Summer come along, I want to take my little sketch pad and camera and flask of tea and go for long cycle journeys and bus runs to the countryside and shore again..
Sit there and paint what I see in Watercolors first, then take this home and do an acrylic on canvas piece.
Weather is awful here at the moment, dark and cold, windy and rainy..