More colouring in

Really, this is layer after layer.  The only danger is that I ignore the bits that look tricky and concentrate on details.

Soon I will have something on the canvas for everything except Lauren and Steve, but our two lovely heroes will just have to wait.

Right now I want to get colour layed down into which I can work depth and detail bit by bit.  All the time stepping back from the canvas to make sure I like the way it is coming together.  In this case I think it will do that coming together thing at the last minute when the final shadows and lighting and gratuitous bloody splatters are added.

There are things that I know I am putting off though, as I am not sure how to handle them.  The winter gardens and Odin...  I will probably have to stop avoiding them soon.

After this post I will only be showing sections of the painting.  So that when it is done the people who will see completed item first will be Lauren and Steve.  They might let me post the finished thing, but it will be their call.  They might jut burn it for all I know ;D

Told you there'd be colour

Okay, I can't put it off any longer.  I have to actually paint.

I want vibrant colours so chose simple bright oils - titanium white, cadmium yellow, cadmium red, french ultra marine and prussian blue (Daler-Rowney Georgian).  All mixed with Liquin Original (Windsor and Newton), which greatly speeds up the drying time. 

Firstly I lay down quite simple colours, all of this will be worked on to add detail and depth.

Honestly this bit is almost paint by numbers.  Maybe not the explosions.   A small part of the reason for doing this blog is to show that this is not as complicated as people think.  Like a lot of things it is mostly about doing it rather than talking about doing it.

That said I guess I should be... erm... doing it.

Not as exciting I'll admit, but...

Next step.  Buy a lovely canvas from Pinders (Sheffield supplier of art materials and printing), draw all over it.  In blue pen because it was the first one I found.

Yes I did draw a grid out, just to speed things up.  Once the oil paints start going on it will be more or less ignored in favour of whatever works the best.

A white canvas with a drawing on it can be daunting.  I mean, where do you start painting?

I get over this by applying rough tonal values using very thinned down oils - in this case Daler Rowney burnt umber, because I have a lot of it.

Already I feel much more at ease.  For a while.  I know the faces don't look much like Lauren and Steve yet, but this is just a guide.  They will be the last thing I paint.  This is mostly because I find painting a background up to the edge of a face really tricky.  I will save the worry about "can I paint their faces" for later.  Definitely not thinking about that now... at all...

Where on earth should I begin the actual oil painting? It is a pretty big canvas (60x90cm) with lots going on. 

NEXT!

And then there was more

After a bit of faffing, prevarication and changing my mind while no-one was looking I coloured in the image, to let Lauren and Steve see something a bit closer to what I hoped the oil painting might look like.  If you squint and blur your eyes a bit :D

Oh there is now a wolf ( Fenrir ) and the serpent ( Jörmangandr ) and the flame giant ( Surtr ).

It was agreed that this looked okay.  But I felt I had to show them the image with a bit more detail.  I was not happy with the flame giant, or the wolf or the serpent either so I gave them another go. Also they asked for a couple of the zombies to look like three of their friends  -  sorry Karl, Liz and Neil.

That is close enough for me to get on with the painting.  Not panicking at all.  No me.  No way.  Well maybe a little a bit.

And they call it Ragnarok

This is my first blog so please bear with me...

I have been a professional artist for over twenty five years and an artist for even longer.

Recently I missed a wedding.  And rashly I suggested I'd paint a picture as a wedding present.  Okay that does not seem so bad does it?  After all it is my job.  However, What I actually said was that I'd paint a picture of anything at all.  Whatever the very lovely Lauren and Steve wanted...  I may have been a bit free with the offer because of wedding misser guilt.

They said that'd be great and then requested a painting of themselves (the happily newly wedded).

Fine.

"Oh and could you include an alien invasion"

Okay.

"And Zombies.  Lots and lots of Zombies"

Yes, I can do that, I think.

"And Ragnarok"

Gulp....

I saw the photos.  Their wedding looked ace and they looked remarkable as always, but there were no zombies or Gods ending the world as we know it! :D

Here is the blog of the development of said mega painting.  This is going to take a while.

First I offered up a quick Photoshop sketch, just to see if we were thinking along the same lines - seemed unlikely really ;D

But as it happened they quite like it.

They only asked for one change.

Next I have to think about the lighting and over all colour scheme and adding in the giant wolf and the enormous serpent...  There's not as much general coverage of the end of the world as you might think.