How to Grow Japanese Maple

Significant progress has been made on the red tree painting.  And by significant I mean, it’s now done.  I’ve named it ‘Japanese Maple’.  It seemed fitting as this would be the type of tree that inspired this piece.  I went to a japanese garden in Fall once, and the red of these trees is something out of this world.  So vibrant!  It’s such an impossible color to be seeing on a tree in nature that you’re almost tempted to believe they were actually painted this red.

But before the big reveal, let me show some of the steps that were left to make it into the final piece it’s become.

We left off last time with only the background completed. After waiting for the paint to dry, as previously discussed, the canvas was ready for the next step. This would be painting the trunk, roots and branches of the tree.

I quickly freehand the general shape and placement of all the branches and roots. I have the tiny doodle from my notebook to base these on. This step is only meant to be a guide. Then I start filling out everything and actually painting the true shapes. I particularly enjoy the not quite symmetry of the roots on this design. Your brain sees symmetry but there really isn’t that much. What a lovely trick.

Eventually the tree is all painted on. At this point I look at it and think ‘this could be a finished piece as it is now…mmmm’… but then that is not the plan. I will, however, file the idea away for a future painting. I think I might design the branches differently if they are to be bare…and maybe give it a winter feel… So it turns out it’s just as well I’ve decided against it for now.

Then comes the leaves. I love red! Stunning with just black and white as companion colors. Red, unfortunately, is a capricious color. It always requires multiple coats because of its transparent base. You can see that here. the background is still showing through. So this will end up taking at least 2 coasts, 3 in most areas, especially where the red leaves will overlap the black branches. The effect I want here is a flat, red, color block of leaves, completely opaque. No shadows, no highlights. Almost as if this was cut out of colored paper. Same as the black tree.

Perhaps I should’ve mentioned first that this is not a complaint. As I said, I love red, and it is well worth spending the extra time with it to get it exactly right.

And then all that is left to show now is the final product.

Tadaaaa!!

I am very pleased with the end result.

It was a simple and relatively quick painting. A good addition to the collection. I may do more in its style in the future. Working on it has given me ideas…many ideas…
-MT

Knotwork in spades

I did a series of 4 masquerade masks paintings a few months ago that each had as a theme one of the suits from playing cards. While doing them, countless more ideas came to mind for others series of paintings that would complement these original 4.

One of these ideas was to create 4 more pieces, each having one of the suits of playing cards as a theme (just like the masks) but painting them either all white or all black and having them be super cool intricate celtic knotworks! Something I absolutely love!! The idea is to paint them to look 3D, as if they’re carved in stone or whatever other substance.

This will be interesting, because the painting of the knotworks will be relatively fast and easy (for painting) and most of the work will be in the designing of the knotworks themselves. So pretty much the opposite of most paintings I do.
I’ve starting with the spade (because I felt like it).  And after several sketches I finally created something that felt right.

With knotwork you only need to create 1 section and then either rotate and copy or reverse and copy or reverse and rotate or… you get the idea…

I use to use a light table to do this but ’tis the era of technology and my preferred method is now to scan it and do all that reverse/rotate stuff with the computer.

Have you met my good friend Photoshop? He’s been a dependable, faithful, extremely useful buddy for many years.
Alright so I then print out the result.

It’s close to what I want (we’re looking at the black one on the left). I feel it should be a bit edgier. Also now I see it’s not filled out enough and doesn’t have enough of a spade shape on the foot part.

I resketched it based on the printed out version and changed it up until I got exactly what I wanted, which would be the blue version up there. Knotwork can be tricky. Usually it either works right away or takes forever to adjust. Today we’re pretty lucky. I’m pleased with it now so let’s get that back to my buddy Photoshop so he can test one last thing for me.

I quickly slapped some color on it, just to give a general feel of what it will look like. The end product will look much MUCH better of course but this will do for now. Now I’m not sure if I should go with a straight version or an angled one… Show me Photoshop, show me!

Aaah this is a tough decision. Let me ponder on that..
-MT

An epic saga… of hair!

I’ve been working on this piece for a while.

 

I sketched her out way back in April 2012. Loved it instantly!

 

I inked it up immediately. Wanted to make sure all the hair looked right. Couldn’t wait to see it come to life!!

 

…6 months later I finally started painting it. This occasionally happens. I find if I don’t start projects when I’m first excited about them, I start getting excited about new ones and want to start them MORE! The ideas never stop coming, which is why several pieces remain at the sketch stage for…well.. an eternity.

I started by sketching the entire thing on the canvases. This would be early November 2012. This one is spread across 3 of them. The entire thing will be 40″x36″ when all together. The largest panel, right above here, is 24″x36″.

 

I painted the face first, then the background across all 3 canvases so it flowed nicely. I had a color plan in my head for this entire thing. Then it was time to start on that gorgeous flowing hair.

 

“Wow.. that’s quite a bit of hair. Too bad it’s going to look awesome when done or I could give up…” Actual thought that popped in my head around this stage of the painting.

So much hair.

Sooooo much.

Anyways I found myself using watercolor techniques with acrylic paints for these luscious locks. I suppose it was bound to happen. The two seem to fit one another.

 

…and many hours/days/weeks/paint tubes of hair painting later, I finally got to pick the eye color. I always leave that choice till everything else around it is done.  Then I look at the face and just know what color the eyes are meant to be.  Call me odd, I’ve got a bit of a fascination with eyes and very specific rituals in their development.

I love how washed out this piece looks. Love the hair. LOVE it. Wanted to murder it at times, but was worth all the tedious effort in the end. All that is left now are the fishes. My plan was to make them a bright orangy-red but looking at the piece now I started thinking it would be neat to have them done in white. They were intended to be very stylised anyways and they could look like they were made of plaster. What a neat dangerous idea.

I have learned not to deviated too much from the original plan from experience so I will bank the plaster fish idea for another piece.

 

I based coated the fishes. Was not happy with the shade at all. Started hating the painting even..probably. Too orange. Too much yellow in them.

Took a break from it for a week.

 

I’ve readjusted to a bit more red and settled on this very precise look for them. I am now loving it again.  Now I just need to finish the remaining 8 fishes and I will finally be done. Maybe before this new year is over even…

-MT

Simple Start

I have a pile of sketches and rough draft always waiting to come to life as full pieces. Lately I’ve been trying to work on a few collections of paintings. I like having an assortment of the same themes or styles. Once you have an idea, more always follow so why not make them too yes? There’s a few extra reasons why this is a good idea as well.
So having been ultra busy lately on setting up the website and doing custom work for various entities, this little painting will in fact be the very first started in 2013.

 

Here is the tiny doodle from my notebook that it will be based on. This guy doesn’t even get to have a full proper sketch. Poor thing.

 

I started by applying a base color coat to the canvas. We don’t need to share that boring step in images. This piece will be a 12″x24″ so nothing outrageous. He is meant to be added to a collection started by these pieces here from a few years ago.

 

I’m using some silver paint which I’ll be mixing gradually with black and then white. I want this piece to have a tiny bit of texture so I’ll be mixing the colors right on the canvas. Fun stuff.

 

It’s a visually simple design so it’s good to create some detail in the background to give it interest. Foreground items are pretty much just opaque blocks (that’s simplifying it a bit obviously but you’ll see what I mean)
Take my word for it people, nothing is harder to create than simplicity. When done well, it seems so obvious it must’ve taken no time or thought process at all. Far from it. Some of the most challenging projects I’ve had to work on ended up being some of the plainest looking end products… and they looked stunning for it! But to get there… well that’s a story for another day.

 

Anyways now it’s gotta dry… my least favorite part is the wait… can’t…stand…it. This is when I go start another project. We’ll get back to this one soon…

-MT

…why not the world!

I’m an artist.

For as long as I can remember this has been the case…well.. there may have been a point when I was 3-4 years old when I aspired to be a ballerina but honestly! I don’t possess the dancing skills and I believe this is obvious to everyone that knows me. I must’ve realized this fairly early on as I soon decided I would make my career drawing the Smurfs. I was 5.

…and I’ve never looked back since!

So here in the MT studio, you can follow all the trials and tribulations of the creations of my art pieces. Sure it’s not remotely close to anything Smurflike… I’ve evolved a bit.. but my 5 year old self would be proud regardless and be just as in love with my works today as I am. They are always many and varied and there seems to be no end to my countless projects.

So see the behind the scenes aspect of it all, which I always find fascinating. And since clients , family and friends seem to find this entertaining as well… well why not the world I say!

-MT