So I was just speaking with Zach, a friend who I have known on and off for several years now. ...and this is for him and for anyone else that is looking to hire me for various projects.
First, a link to my general pricing. (...well it's not a link really, because the link function does not function on my blog for some reason, so you will have to cut and paste.) This is on a VW related site, but lists some commonly requested sizes and prices for my masonite paintings. The more traditional stretched canvas option costs extra, contact me to discuss.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=864451
Also, my flickr site has many progress pics from past projects and should be a place to look at if you are interested. You might have to do some sifting as this is where I put just about all my internet destined pictures.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenneth-mitchell/
Finally, I am on facebook. search "PAINTEDBUS"
...oh, and right now (late august) I am scheduling jobs to start in October. So, if you are interested in my work, expect at least a 1-2 month wait.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Some work on LynnandJ's project
I spent most of my time this weekend at various beaches and re-stuffing the drivers seat on my 64 bug instead of painting. Hey, I deserve weekends too right :D
Anywho, here is some progress from today. I have spent most of my time working on the face. We are creatures that depend largely on very subtle facial features. If something is just a little bit off, it is wrong. Most folks don't know why it is wrong, it just is.
My experience is that even if 95% is correct, others will routinely fail to recognize people they have known for their entire lives. This is one of the reasons I consciously avoid painting my wife, my dad, my mother etc. Because I go crazy trying to fill in all the information that I know is there, even if its not something that should be highlighted in a drawing or painting.
I have often relied on crutches to get over my obsession on these little details. (Not that its really a bad thing but I do need to make money so spending 90+ hours on a $100 drawing is just not cost effective.)
One example of such a crutch is Photoshop. I often work from photographs, but often purposely alter them so that there is NO WAY I can make them exact.
Another way to avoid detail OCD is what I am doing here. On this and on several other recent projects, I have started painting much looser. What this does for me is prevents me from using my little brushes (time wasters, the whole lot of them) and it encourages me to focus more on tonal gradients (the abstract shapes of value that assemble together to create form) and gesture (the implied movement of a given object.)
What this does for the viewers is it permits them to project their interpretation on the work and fill in the details. Win win :D
More to come tonight!
Anywho, here is some progress from today. I have spent most of my time working on the face. We are creatures that depend largely on very subtle facial features. If something is just a little bit off, it is wrong. Most folks don't know why it is wrong, it just is.
My experience is that even if 95% is correct, others will routinely fail to recognize people they have known for their entire lives. This is one of the reasons I consciously avoid painting my wife, my dad, my mother etc. Because I go crazy trying to fill in all the information that I know is there, even if its not something that should be highlighted in a drawing or painting.
I have often relied on crutches to get over my obsession on these little details. (Not that its really a bad thing but I do need to make money so spending 90+ hours on a $100 drawing is just not cost effective.)
One example of such a crutch is Photoshop. I often work from photographs, but often purposely alter them so that there is NO WAY I can make them exact.
Another way to avoid detail OCD is what I am doing here. On this and on several other recent projects, I have started painting much looser. What this does for me is prevents me from using my little brushes (time wasters, the whole lot of them) and it encourages me to focus more on tonal gradients (the abstract shapes of value that assemble together to create form) and gesture (the implied movement of a given object.)
What this does for the viewers is it permits them to project their interpretation on the work and fill in the details. Win win :D
More to come tonight!
Friday, August 27, 2010
Lynn and J's project
It just occurred to me that I have this awesome oval canvas that would work perfectly for a drawing that I am going to do. I am supposed to draw this out in graphite, but when I saw this old starter canvas hanging out it seemed to fit really really well. What do you think J?
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Steelersbus's painting is done
So here it is... 2am and I *think* I can move on to the next project. I will still have to wait until early tomorrow morning or sunset to get some good photos of this one though. This painting has been persistently difficult to photograph from the very beginning...
On a more art oriented note...
This new style seems to be pretty acceptable. I can paint quickly, while still getting plenty of life into my work (ie. not stencil style.) I will also stop worrying about having things perfect, because they will never be perfect. I can save my art OCD for my graphite drawings. Which, incidentally is whats up next. Attention Lynn and J, this is you! :D
I will finish tonight
...but I will have to take the pictures tomorrow. I am getting some pretty awful pictures of this painting while its in my studio. :D
I just noticed that this image got a little stretched out when I cropped it.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Final work for the night.
Well, here it where it sits now. I will finish up tomorrow.
Fresh eyes are the key to painting well. I am still not happy with the photo btw. Sometimes my camera just doesn't like certain paintings.
Or I am a terrible photographer. Either way its supposed to be sunny and gorgeous tomorrow, so good picture taking weather is almost guaranteed.
some afternoon progress
Some colors are laid out. I should build a photo studio so that I can take nice clear photos. This one isn't so great.
your lights are on.
Yep, I just turned them on now. It's my goal to turn that trippy green background into a night sky.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
More Updates
Just some blocking in here. Using white allows me to use nice bright colors later. This is still technically a blocking in "rough" stage. Only once I get the actual color in there and outline everything w/ black are things set in their position.
Here you go!
Here you go!
Quick update
Ok, So i can't type much now because I have to go pick up jessica from the train station BUT... I have Steelersbus's painting all laid out in pencil on the panel. So I felt compelled to share. Also, so that SB can see it! Hi!
I ended up using stand in buses taken from random places on the internet to get the angles approximate. I know there are a bunch of funky things going on, but that will be fixed with paint. Right now I will be happy that its essentially a paint by number :D ... without the numbers, and liberally interpreting the lines. I will be starting with paint tonight! Hooray!
I ended up using stand in buses taken from random places on the internet to get the angles approximate. I know there are a bunch of funky things going on, but that will be fixed with paint. Right now I will be happy that its essentially a paint by number :D ... without the numbers, and liberally interpreting the lines. I will be starting with paint tonight! Hooray!
Monday, August 23, 2010
Work to do!
So lots of progress on several fronts today and over the weekend! The moderator mystery has been solved, the bike project has gone in a slightly different direction, some of Jessica's old beaded jewelery saw the light again, and I finished up a painting.
First, the moderator mystery! So the Full moon bus club website (www.fullmoonbusclub.com)crashed a couple months back. Maybe it was attacked or somebody in charge decided to lash out or something. But either way, the result was that the site was down for months. Well I am happy to say that recently it was re-born! A new clean slate for everyone involved... and apparently a lot of it was due to three members working extra hard to get everything sorted out.
Most of the time all the thanks they get is a pat on the back or a cold beer at the next camp out. Well this time the moderators got together and decided to hire me to paint portraits of their buses! Good news indeed! What they want are three (1' x 3') paintings of the outstanding members respective buses.
And snoopy wants one too :D
Second on my list of updates is that I got to talking with Rockhopper (the guy with the bike in my last post) and we have decided that instead of going for pin stripes and gloss black/ antique white... we would go for the steampunk look. This has been a point of great excitement for me because I have been secretly been toying with the idea of applying this style to my 64 bug.
The easiest way to describe the "steampunk" art style is to liken it to the purely mechanical, steam-driven inventions around the turn of the century... a good pop culture example would be the giant robot spider vehicle from the Wild Wild West movie w/ Will Smith. It's as if Victorian-era style and sensibilities combined with a slightly more technologically advanced mechanical ingenuity all with a science fiction overlay.
Since the style is designed to emulate an earlier stage in our development, a prevalence of brass and copper is necessary. Also mechanical cast iron, straps, pipes, rivets etc. should be incorporated. I expect to become real good at painting rivets w/ my airbrush and have a solid understanding of Rub 'n Buff :D
This weekend while I was busy painting, Jessica did a lot of organizing and came out of it with a box of beaded necklaces, bracelets, and earrings that she made a couple of years ago. She had placed them up for sale back when we lived in CT at a consignment shop in town. When we moved to MA we asked for them back and then promptly lost them in the move. Well as they never really were designed for us to hold on to them, I just put them all up on my flickr page. Then I linked my fb accounts, fmbc site and now this blog to the flickr set in hopes of making a few bucks. You will have to cut and paste b/c I haven't figured out how to make a working link yet:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenneth-mitchell/sets/72157624666777983/
In my list of updates I also said I finished a painting. Now I can't say who it is for or who bought it as this piece is supposed to be under wraps... but as I just started this blog and I haven't advertised it much yet, there is little chance posting it up here will hurt. So here you go, I have to share a finished product with someone!
My next project will be for steelersbus... A painting of his two buses as mentioned earlier... also LynnandJ need a VERY LONG OVERDUE drawing and Richard from Ontario wants a painting of his new red under white ASI Riviera camper.
Ok, back to work!
First, the moderator mystery! So the Full moon bus club website (www.fullmoonbusclub.com)crashed a couple months back. Maybe it was attacked or somebody in charge decided to lash out or something. But either way, the result was that the site was down for months. Well I am happy to say that recently it was re-born! A new clean slate for everyone involved... and apparently a lot of it was due to three members working extra hard to get everything sorted out.
Most of the time all the thanks they get is a pat on the back or a cold beer at the next camp out. Well this time the moderators got together and decided to hire me to paint portraits of their buses! Good news indeed! What they want are three (1' x 3') paintings of the outstanding members respective buses.
And snoopy wants one too :D
Second on my list of updates is that I got to talking with Rockhopper (the guy with the bike in my last post) and we have decided that instead of going for pin stripes and gloss black/ antique white... we would go for the steampunk look. This has been a point of great excitement for me because I have been secretly been toying with the idea of applying this style to my 64 bug.
The easiest way to describe the "steampunk" art style is to liken it to the purely mechanical, steam-driven inventions around the turn of the century... a good pop culture example would be the giant robot spider vehicle from the Wild Wild West movie w/ Will Smith. It's as if Victorian-era style and sensibilities combined with a slightly more technologically advanced mechanical ingenuity all with a science fiction overlay.
Since the style is designed to emulate an earlier stage in our development, a prevalence of brass and copper is necessary. Also mechanical cast iron, straps, pipes, rivets etc. should be incorporated. I expect to become real good at painting rivets w/ my airbrush and have a solid understanding of Rub 'n Buff :D
This weekend while I was busy painting, Jessica did a lot of organizing and came out of it with a box of beaded necklaces, bracelets, and earrings that she made a couple of years ago. She had placed them up for sale back when we lived in CT at a consignment shop in town. When we moved to MA we asked for them back and then promptly lost them in the move. Well as they never really were designed for us to hold on to them, I just put them all up on my flickr page. Then I linked my fb accounts, fmbc site and now this blog to the flickr set in hopes of making a few bucks. You will have to cut and paste b/c I haven't figured out how to make a working link yet:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenneth-mitchell/sets/72157624666777983/
In my list of updates I also said I finished a painting. Now I can't say who it is for or who bought it as this piece is supposed to be under wraps... but as I just started this blog and I haven't advertised it much yet, there is little chance posting it up here will hurt. So here you go, I have to share a finished product with someone!
My next project will be for steelersbus... A painting of his two buses as mentioned earlier... also LynnandJ need a VERY LONG OVERDUE drawing and Richard from Ontario wants a painting of his new red under white ASI Riviera camper.
Ok, back to work!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Bicycles, moderators scheming and uncertianty about CA
Aside from the painting in the previous post, several other things happened or progressed in terms of my little art world today.
First thing in the morning I was approached via e-mail by an FMBC member to ask if I'd be willing to paint a vintage 1950's bicycle. As I really love just about anything antique and mechanical I figured this would be an excellent opportunity to branch out from painting vw buses. I think he wants me to paint it in solid colors though, gloss black and gloss white. If that's what he wants then I would be happy to do that i suppose. ...but I am going to practice my pin striping first!
Later on in the day I got an e-mail from Steelersbus saying (among other things)that the FMBC moderators want me to do work for them. Then tonight I was contacted by Snoopy (another FMBC moderator) saying "2-3 paintings." ...and yesterday VWgirl (also from FMBC) asked me a similar thing. The funny thing is that no one will tell me what sort of paintings they want or for what. I guess i will find out soon enough. So mysterious!
...and regarding SB's painting I received some new pictures to work off of so I can continue on that. It seems he was not entirely set in stone regarding what image he wanted, so I will take some liberties. Look for work on this one tomorrow!
Finally, there seems to be a little turbulence in terms of my much anticipated California trip. Without going too much into it, I am slated to paint two westy vanagons out in California. One in Southern California, the other in Northern California. It is going to be a pretty fun adventure if I can work everything out, so lets hope that we can find a happy middle ground and I can order my plane tickets! 3 weeks wandering a 600 mile stretch of California all while visiting with some long time friends and leaving my art mark just sounds like a good time to me!
First thing in the morning I was approached via e-mail by an FMBC member to ask if I'd be willing to paint a vintage 1950's bicycle. As I really love just about anything antique and mechanical I figured this would be an excellent opportunity to branch out from painting vw buses. I think he wants me to paint it in solid colors though, gloss black and gloss white. If that's what he wants then I would be happy to do that i suppose. ...but I am going to practice my pin striping first!
Later on in the day I got an e-mail from Steelersbus saying (among other things)that the FMBC moderators want me to do work for them. Then tonight I was contacted by Snoopy (another FMBC moderator) saying "2-3 paintings." ...and yesterday VWgirl (also from FMBC) asked me a similar thing. The funny thing is that no one will tell me what sort of paintings they want or for what. I guess i will find out soon enough. So mysterious!
...and regarding SB's painting I received some new pictures to work off of so I can continue on that. It seems he was not entirely set in stone regarding what image he wanted, so I will take some liberties. Look for work on this one tomorrow!
Finally, there seems to be a little turbulence in terms of my much anticipated California trip. Without going too much into it, I am slated to paint two westy vanagons out in California. One in Southern California, the other in Northern California. It is going to be a pretty fun adventure if I can work everything out, so lets hope that we can find a happy middle ground and I can order my plane tickets! 3 weeks wandering a 600 mile stretch of California all while visiting with some long time friends and leaving my art mark just sounds like a good time to me!
a slightly different painting
This painting is going to ultimately have a bus under the tree. If you look close, you can see where I have penciled in the outline already.
My style with this one is looser than I usually like to work, but I think I enjoy working in this way. Its more traditional to be sure... I have gotten so much into the funk of painting in a multi-layered stencil looking style recently that I haven't really had to actually blend any colors in a while.
I think my next few paintings I will focus more on gesture and less on sharp edges. Yes, that sounds good. :D
My style with this one is looser than I usually like to work, but I think I enjoy working in this way. Its more traditional to be sure... I have gotten so much into the funk of painting in a multi-layered stencil looking style recently that I haven't really had to actually blend any colors in a while.
I think my next few paintings I will focus more on gesture and less on sharp edges. Yes, that sounds good. :D
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Ok good, and steelersbus!
Well, that seemed to work ok so onto some of my current projects. I have a lot of work up on my white board. First on the easel is a painting for a friend in PA. Whereas I go by the moniker "Paintedbus" he goes by "Steelersbus" because well... he likes the Pittsburg Steelers and he drives a vw bus. From what I gather his bus is totally decked out in Steelers apparel and he has a big team logo on the nose. It helps that he started with a vw already wearing the correct colors!
So what Steelersbus (SB) wanted is a painting much in the same style as many other paintings I have done. I tend to work out a background that is very colorful, bright and textural... (which I will cover more in depth the next time I make one)and then top it with a stylized tonal painting based off of an altered photograph. Sometimes I will add color, but most of the time the final image is made up of three tones... black, white and the background. This painting will likely have color in it.
SB actually has two buses in his family and his wife's bus will be included in the painting as well. Once I get the picture back from him, I will start the stylized painting portion as I have already completed his background.
The picture is of SB's background as it currently sits.
A trial post... and a first post.
Well hello all! I have tried this blog thing a number of times in the past, but never really kept up with it. Now I am in an unfortunate situation and I have come crawling back to the free side of the internet. I managed to let my old website that's on ALL of my business cards expire and now have no real public place to showcase my work.
So here I am... I guess paintedbus.blogspot.com is going on my next set of cards providing I do good and post a lot.
So lets see if this works...
oh, and a picture to try out my image posting capabilities.
So here I am... I guess paintedbus.blogspot.com is going on my next set of cards providing I do good and post a lot.
So lets see if this works...
oh, and a picture to try out my image posting capabilities.
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