Swimmin' with the Sharks

About two months ago I posted a Laker's Girl pin-up I had done as a gift for a friend. As stated towards the end of that post, a coworker said he wanted one for his favorite team - which happens to be the San Jose Sharks. So I set about to do my thing.

The drawing stage gave me the most grief of the entire process. Though once I was happy with it and had it transferred to the canvas, the whole thing went by extremely quickly. All in all I spent four hours at the easel painting. This was the first time I had a 1:1 scale final drawing taped to my easel as I painted, and that helped inform a lot of my decisions more than my reference did. Pretty soon I was checking the reference mostly for color matching and letting the drawing I've already done guide my hand.

When all was said and done I was able to present the painting to my coworker and it was warmly received. So much so that another coworker remarked that he wants one for his favorite hockey team. I think he may have to wait a while, however. I compiled a list of the projects I want to undertake and it was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be. There's nothing like seeing something in black and white to get the blood moving and the creative energy flowing.

Oil on canvas. 12" x 16"

Laker's Girl

This piece requires a small amount of back story.

A good friend of mine has a painting I did back in high school, and much to my surprise he loves the bloody thing. He loves it so much he's kept it up in his house and apparently it's the topic of conversation when people come over, all of which I discovered when I showed up to visit him one New Year's Eve. He was so proud of a painting I had done what seemed to me to be a lifetime before hand. Needless to say I could not stand idly by and have people believe that to be an accurate representation of my work. I just couldn't do it. So, as a result I vowed to do a new painting for him. He could keep the older one up, just as long as people didn't think I was still as bad as I thought I was in high school.

This is not that painting, but a different friend of mine saw it and wanted something similar. As with most personal pieces I dragged my feet putting it together. First I had to find a willing model. Then I had to find the appropriate accessories. Of course the project as a whole gets pushed around as I take on other assignments. And lastly I have to find the motivation when the model has the free time; assuming she's still willing. (Thank goodness she was!) So I shoot the reference and I'm excited to work on it, but then something else entirely comes up. To cut to the chase, this painting has been seven months in the making.

Of course, this is the problem with having friends that are sports fans. No sooner had I finished this piece that a coworker of mine says he wants one for his favorite team - and the cycle begins again.

Personally, I'm really happy with this piece, (even it is partially responsible for ruining my sleep patterns) to the point where I threatened to not deliver it to it's intended owner. I think my recent experimentation and exploration has paid off as I can see a certain amount of confidence that I haven't seen in my recent work. I put down a brush stroke and I left the sodding thing where it was without much fussing over it. The only area that I slowed down on was the face, but really that was the most important passage to get right. Speaking of which, I tweaked her features a little so that it was more an approximation of my model rather than an accurate portrait - I don't know, I figured she'd appreciate it.

Oil on canvas. 20x30