THE PERFECT PASSAGE

Sometimes when you read, there is a passage that sticks with you, just resonates and sort of speak to you......you get it, and in my case I sort of see it, it is there visually for me. 

For me, when I read, I take visual notes of things to possibly draw,  as I a rereading The HOBBIT again, I came to this part of the book:

" he saw all round him a sea of dark green, ruffled here and there by the breeze; and there were everywhere hundreds of butterflies. "

When I read this again, I immediately sketched out this image:

That very brief passage was for me the perfect amount of description to let my mind go to work. It had all the information needed to move from rough sketch to a more detailed image.

So from the initial rough, I went on to a colour image. The following pictures show the progress to the final piece.........

From here, I will in all honesty move on to doing a full on oil of this image.

This piece is done in Gouache on a piece 9 X 12 Strathmore 400 Series toned paper.

SOCIETY 6..........PRINTS AND MORE

Fine prints, coffee cups and more..........

PRINTS AND SUCH

Just to let everyone know, I now have a site for prints, coffee cups ( and essential part of life ) and phone and tablet cases!!!!It is on Society 6, here is a link to the place.........

Tracy's Society 6 site!!!

now here is the actual address:

http://society6.com/TracyEFlynn


....and here is just one of the things you can get!!! 

A BEAR ASKS A RABBIT A PERSONAL HYGIENE QUESTION

I am in the process of adding more things, as well as getting some paintings photographed and ready to go up too!!!

So please stop buy ( I know I wrote buy instead of by.......sort of a hint )

Thanks ya'll

SANTA 2013, the COOKIE SANTA

here is this years Santa, 2013

prints available 8 X 10, $10.00 a piece, just email me at

tracyflynnart@gmail.com

THE CAVERN OF DOOM

Well after a long haul, painting left handed, painting right handed, surgery, recovery a few set backs and such, it is finally finished, THE CAVERN OF DOOM.

A few little details, the paintings is 14 X 18, oils on Tracy-nite and available for purchase if you like, there will also be prints available from my Etsy site as well:

http://www.etsy.com/people/tracyeflynn?ref=si_pr

FEMALE CENTAUR WITH BOW ON PARCHMENT

This is just in off the drawing table.Just thought I would share a bit, she is ink wash on parchment paper 11 X 14 and can be yours fro $75.00

Just E-mail me at tracyflynnart@gmail.com

WATERCOLOURS .......part three

In part two I sort of left off at inking in the hair. As I said in that post, I really do not care to use ink straight out of the bottle/well. There are some cases where I do use it, but for the most part I really prefer to water it down, and build my blacks up in layers.

Layering.............. that is THE key to the way I work. Whether it is pencil, ink or paint, layering is the way to go.

In this photo you will see that I have laid down a basic colour for the tree, it is a bit of the yellow ochre and the sienna as well as the umber.....just sort of woody colours. From here I will continue to build up the colours with layers using the same earthy tones, adding some reds or blues to add warmth and depth to the piece as I continue to work and round it off.

I will also start to add in the greens for the mossy areas of the tree. In these areas I will also be starting to layer in the glow from the fire ball thing in her hand to the tree as well as her hair. In this phase of the painting I will tend to jump around from one area to the another,  allowing  some drying time in between layers of paint. I am using a sort of wet on wet thing and letting colours blend as I paint into an area, but also a more dry technique leaving more of a pure colour as well. Still only having a general over all  mid grad tone to the piece, no real lights or darks.

 

From here on out I pick mix and choose my colours, layering them onto the page until I get to the final image.

Finally on her I added a bit of white acrylics to the fireball thing in her hand to help"brighten" up the area, and a little bit on her waist and shoulder as highlights.

Going back in with the white acrylics, is something that doesn't happen often for me, but actually liked the way the application worked, and will try it again in another piece

Original NEAL ADAMS Captain America Cover! Auction for Gary Friedrich Zoom Enlarge Sell one like this Original NEAL ADAMS Captain America Cover! Auction for Gary Friedrich

Here's a chance to own an original cover by comic legend NEAL ADAMS and help out a creator in need. This is the alternate cover for the most recent Captain America #1. Penciled and inked by Neal the cover measures 11x17 on board.

 auction listed here

 

About Gary Friedrich : As many of you may have heard, the creator of Ghost Rider has been counter-sued by Marvel. Click HERE to read more about that. They are now saying Gary can no longer claim to be the creator, cutting off his livelihood, but have also slapped him with $17,000 bill for damages to the corporate giant.

 

Gary's says he is going to appeal but in the meantime, he and his lovely wife are broke and in need of our help. I've seen the comics community come together and it's a beautiful thing when it happens. Let's do it again.

Thank you to Neal Adams and his son Josh Adams for reaching out and onating this incredible art for Gary!

 

You can also make donations to help Gary at this link as well:

DONATIONS TO HELP GARY

Thank you,

Steve

HIPPIE CHICK PIN-UPS

It all started with the song "Downtown", a young lady dressed in the current nuvo-hippy attire, and what is in my opinion not a very nice smelling substance called patchouli. Whether you like the aroma or not................it set my mind running because of the coincidence of time. I have Petula Clark singing a wonderful song. Downtown, and this rather attractive yet foul smelling young woman next to me.

Next thing I knew I did a quick watercolour of ...............

PATCHOULI CLARK

 .... and yes the image is somewhat based on the young nameless woman......

After the incident the names and images started to come to me and I couldn't stop, I started to write them down and do the paintings when I wanted........they were there and it really seemed like the thing to be doing at the time. 

So let me introduce to you a few more of the women that have come to me since the incident:

AMBER WAVES

SUMMER RAYNE

LORA BUSCHE

There are even little histories behind some of the names, like Amber Waves is a mid-Western girl  who loves to walk barefoot in the fields of grass, Ms. Busche is a natural girl who enjoys dancing at parties and enjoys life as it comes...............this is all pretty scary when you think about it, but I have honestly come to terms with these things and accept them as they pop into my head.

I have a file somewhere labeled " NAUGHTY BITS", that has more images that are not as tame as these, and one day I will get around to posting a few of them.

Any how, this is just a wee bit of what goes on in my mind as I relax and let the ideas flow. Most of these come out at night as I sit and watch t.v. before going to bed. I think this is why I don't really dream all that much, or have nightmares.......... I take care of it before hand, and allow myself the opportunity to just sleep.

SNAIL GIRLS

For those of you who are on my Facebook you are or maybe aware of my on going SNAIL GIRLS  drawings, but for those of you not on FB with me or are unaware of the series I am going to recap a little bit. ONe day I sat down with my sketchbook and doodled out a little thing of a faerie riding on the back of a snail sort of like  bull riding at a rodeo, I like it so much that I found a small piece ( scrap ) of paper that I had lying about and quickly did an ink thing of it:

....and here she is, the "first" Snail Girl. I believe I drew her in 2010.

At some point in the past year I was sitting in my living room ( aka Studio B ) and had messed up a drawing that I was working on, and as I sat there tore it up as usual, but then as I was sitting there looking at the torn paper, I drew a girl talking with a snail:

It was a fun thing to do, and I liked the image, for me it was sort of innocent a girl talking with a snail. After I a while I did another and another. All were done on torn sheets of paper of messed up drawings, and as my collection of Snail Girls grew I decided to keep the torn sheets of paper and have them on hand for the purpose of doing Snail Girls, this envelope sits by my chair in Studio B and is there ready and waiting for the next one to appear:

Here is an example of the approximate size of the drawings:

...and a few more closer images of the girls as well as an early family portrait:

As I continue to do these and looking back at them, I realized there is some sort of conversation going on between these two friends, and in realizing this, it became all the more important to me to continue with this until the conversation was over. At first it was for me about getting the body posture right, balancing the blacks and whites to where one did not over power the other, but now it is more about keeping the friends together...........sort of silly I know, but I like it.

I have to mention that all the drawings are done to the shape of the paper and not tearing the paper to fit the drawing, that would be cheating. The shape of the paper helps to determine what is being said in the drawing. The more of these I do, the more intense the conversation becomes in trying to find a posture or pose that I haven't done before..........who likes to repeat themselves in a conversation.

At the top of this I posted the "first" snail girl, well in cleaning out some things and trying to tidy up the place I found this:

This is the actual First of the SNAIL GIRL images, she was done in 2004, six years before the other First. As you see in the first to images the gals have wings and are in a sort of ironic action pose...........bull riding a snail and surfing on a snail, just something that leans towards my sense of humor, but as I went on they changed, no wings and more of an equality between them.

Anyway, this is some of what comes out in the evenings as I kick back and chillax to end my day. In the next few posts, I will be going to put up a few of the pieces that come out as I wind down and relax in the evenings before going to bed............or on the nights that I can't sleep and get up and try to get sleepy.

PRINTS AVAILABLE

This just in............prints are now available thru this site here :

TRACY'S PRINTS HERE

THIS JUST IN......A Nights Horror by Timothy Ray Jones

Awhile back I posted a painting in the post called Candle Cover and it was basically the picture of the painting and saying that I would post about it later......................


.................well its later.............


Author and friend Timothy Ray Jones has put his newest works up on Lulu for all the world to see, buy and thoroughly enjoy.

Monsters, monsters everywhere! Is it ever safe to come outside at night? You will ask that very question when you delve into the Horror stories within -- and more. Will Marge ever free herself from childhood fears by facing down an old...friend? How will Jonathan react when the truth he seeks is revealed? Can Irvin find solace in the arms of the new woman of his dreams? The answer to these questions and more await you. Do step inside to find them... 

I do hope ya'll will stop buy and pick up a copy or two today

IT GOES WITH THE COFFEE

I am not sure what anyone else does with their mornings coffee, but for me, I like to sit down and do a little doodling and sometimes you just come up with something fun.

Well I had been playing around with a few ideas for a Vampirella image, and had a couple of sketches laying about:

...........and the next thing you know, I am sort of hanging out on the couch, watching Reservoir Dogs and by the end of the movie, I have this sitting in my lap:

It was a really fun morning, good movie, COFFEE, and a nice little pencil piece!!

ZOMBIFICATION, or the progression of a zombie Part 1

In this and the next few posts, I will be showing my process of painting. Now it is very basic, and quite honestly similar to most everyone elses, but it is a learning experience for me as well as some of you out there.

It all starts somewhere, and that is with the concept and basic sketch for the image. Sometimes it just comes from the A.D., and you are given a passage or discription from the story, or if time maybe even the book to read. In this case, I just basically wanted to do a zombie image, and did an extremely rough rough.

Now that you have your idea and a rough, you can either go to a colour comp, and lay out your colours and get all the lights and darks down. This is definitely the way to go because it gives you a reference of what you and or your client will be getting in the end. I actually did not do this on this one.........I had a very clear idea of what I wanted, and went straight for it, since it was going to be a personal piece.

After getting the sketch ( sketches in most cases ) and all done and approved it is time to get your idea on the board, or whatever it is you choose to paint on ( stretches canvas, canvas panel, illustration board...you get the picture ).  I personally paint on gessoed Tracy-nite ( it is actually masonite, but I still like the term of Tracy-nite ). There is no one right way to get your image down on the board!!!

Repeat this phrase........

THERE IS NO ONE RIGHT WAY TO GET YOUR IMAGE DOWN ON THE BOARD!!!

Do whatever you can to get it on there. I use several methods of doing so on the same image.  For this painting it was pretty simple, I just drew directly onto the surface of the board. In other cases, I will draw directly onto it, draw on tracing paper to get the image down, use a carbon paper to trace one of my drawings onto it. I have even scanned a drawing enlarged or reduced the image to fit the size I was working on, even flipped the image because I felt it would look better going the other way.

Some folks will do there complete drawing on a sheet of paper, and project it to the surface, and retrace it. Some will have there drawing done on paper  and then apply it to a stiffer surface ( checkout Donato Giancola  ).

Once I have the image down on the surface and all settled in the way I want it, I will first spray fix the image to the surface, sand it lightly to take any bit of slickness off,  and then I will apply an acrylic matte medium to the surface. For this step, I just squirt it out of the bottle onto the board.

Once I have the medium on the board I will spread it about with a 2 inch foam brush and cover the whole surface with the stuff. Let it dry completely.

 After it completely dries, I will lightly sand the surface.......not really sure why I do this, but I do. ........it may have something to do with some past wood working where I would sand in between layers of varnish........

anyway, after I sand the surface I will take my foam and run it under the faucet and wet it down completely, and then squeeze out all the excess moisture so that the brush is damp.

I will then re-apply the medium with the damp brush. Doing this tends to give me a smoother surface to work on.



After this step is done I will let it dry comepletely again. This is actually pretty important, if the medium is not COMPLETELY DRY, it can come up off the board and you are back to square one and starting over.

Now that the surface is completely dry ( if you have time overnight is  good ) I will lightly tone the surface of the board with a wash of yellow ochre. This step is pretty important for me and my process  especially when I get to the next step, which is the underpainting.

In doing the underpainting I am establishing the lights and darks and overall tone of the piece. Here in this one I am establishing the background with colour and tone in very thin oil washes, laying in the basic foundation of the gate with a black........I did this for two reasons, the black will show thru the paint once I start laying in the thicker paint for the background and once I get further into the piece, I will already have it basicaly painted and just have to re-establish certain areas and highlight the areas I want to show thru.

Except for the background, I will usually do the rest of my underpaints with asphaltum or burnt umber. O.k., here is where I find toning the surface to come in handy........ aside form taking the white out.......it gives me a basic mid tone all over the surface....so with either the umber or the asphaltum......I can establish the darks. For the lights I will take a rag and a wee bit of turps and wipe out the ochre to give me back my lights.

In the next post I will go into the actual painting of the piece.

HAPPY NEW YEARS

A few years back I was in the habit of doing a watercolour of a Gnome for Christmas, as well as New Years, traditionally I would do them the day of the holiday or maybe a day or 2 in advance.........yes sometimes a day or 2 after as well.

This year I started back again at it, but this time in oils

...this little guy is going to be unique, since he is in oils, and although I do like him, I am going to go back to the watercolours for these, for me there is something about them that I like more, they are I guess for me more charming and I just like the look of them better.

BIG BONE

Here is a little pencil thing I did a month or so ago, it is I think 14 X 17. Still in need of a scanner so unfortunately the photo is really all I have right now...........

KRAMPUS CHALLENGE

According to Wikipedia entry, Krampus is a mythical creature who accompanies Saint Nicholas in various regions of the world during the Christmas season. The word Krampus originates from the Old High German word for claw (Krampen). In the Alpine regions, Krampus is represented by a demon-like creature. While Saint Nicholas gives gifts to good children, the Krampus warns and punishes bad children. Traditionally, young men dress up as the Krampus in the first two weeks of December, particularly in the evening of December 5, and roam the streets frightening children and women with rusty chains and bells. In some rural areas the tradition also includes birching by Krampus, especially of young girls.

I had started out to do this challeng over on Art Order, and even got the drawing done, but sadly enough I got busy with a few things and did not get home in time to send in the drawing, such is life, but I do not regret it since the time was well spent with my family, and they do come first.

Anyways here is the little ( 11 X 14 ) ink I did for the challenge. It is on a heavy Bristol and available for  $45.00 .

This will most likely be the last post for the year, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years, and that all will be safe.

Tracy

LEAP

Here we have the completed painting detailed in the previous post.

a Dino doodle

This little guy was done  while I sat at my table at Rush Fest, and is a one sharpener. Once I had set up and was waiting for folks to come by, I pulled out the ol' 11 X 14 pad of paper and it only had one sheet left in it so I figured I 'd better make the most of it, so this is what came out.

He's only $45.00.

RUSH FEST 2009

Well it is that time of year again, and I will be down at the 201 Building this Saturday, September the 26th for this years Rush Fest. We had a great time last year and thanks to all those who came by and said hey and participated in the event. I know that it will be even bigger and better this year, and can't wait to see every one who comes by.

This year we are doing something a little different with what works I'll be showing, we will be displaying some of the CHILDHOOD MEMORIES watercolours and have some prints available for purchase. Along with the "MEMORIES" series we have decided to include some of my HALLOWEEN images as well, these will include 2 of the Headless Horseman paintings as well as some of my pencils.

These are the prints that will be available that day*, and will be $20 each:

A)   TUBIN' **     ( this image hangs in the Rush County Library in the Children's Book Section )

B)   DROW  VS. FLAYER

C)   BUBBLE CONTEST

D)   HEADLESS III

E)   ICEWORM

F)   EMPEROR WORM

G)  THAK ATTAK

H)   TAR SWANG

* prints are available year round, just contact me at anytime and I will get them to you

** Five dollars from each sale of this print will go to the Rush County Library.

Hope everyone who can make will come out, and if you can't send someone down who can.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tracy