Mike McHale Concert

On Sunday in East Durham, New York, I attended a tribute concert for Irish whistle and flute player Mike McHale.


At the end of the concert, Mike played his whistle and told how he got started in the music. The son of a schoolmaster in Tulsk, County Roscommon, he was given a toy whistle at age six. He rode his bicycle many miles to hear the great musicians of his day playing in sessions. But he wasn't allowed to join in, even though he had learned many of the tunes. The whistle wasn't considered a worthy instrument at the time.

After listening to a session, Mike would ride home along dark streets on rainy nights, trying to keep the tunes in his head. Sometimes an elusive melody would pop into his head in the middle of the night, and he'd go downstairs into the kitchen in the dark, take out the whistle and play the tune when the rest of the house was asleep. That's when his mother knew he would be a musician. "Now I know all musicians are mad," she said.

His big breakthrough came when he was sitting in the shadows behind the older players. One day they couldn't remember how a certain tune sounded. He reached in his pocket, pulled out the whistle, and played it out from memory. That was his ticket into the royal circle. Someone gave him a flute and he was on his way at age 11. He went on to win the All-Ireland competition on the whistle, which is now an honored instrument in the Irish tradition, and Mike one of its greatest masters.

The little portrait (about 6x8 inches) was painted in gouache (opaque watercolors), with a few touches of watercolor pencils, in a watercolor journal, using large flat watercolor brushes.

Part 5 / Pteranodon Hatchling Finish

(Continuing the Pteranodon series) Here's the final painting of the young Pteranodon, incorporating Dr. Bennett's corrections. 

The pterosaur has just hatched from a soft-shelled egg, and is resting on a bed of crushed ferns. The painting is in oil, using the paint thinly and mostly transparently. The oil stayed wet enough to allow a shallow-focus treatment of the distance, something that often appears in wildlife photos. 

Since Ranger Rick is mainly a photo magazine, I deliberately used photographic effects (even though I had no photo to look at for reference) because I wanted the art to blend with the rest of the magazine.

When we passed through the Washington, DC area a few weeks ago, we stopped by the National Wildlife Federation headquarters to pick up the painting and to show the editors "Pterry" the Pteranodon maquette that I used for reference.

We shared the painting and the maquette at some of the art schools we visited on our recent southeast tour, including SCAD Atlanta, (photo by Rick Lovell). 

I'll be doing reports from the various art schools in future blog posts.

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Please come to my lecture and booksigning at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, Connecticut, on Saturday October 13 at 2:00. 

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Ranger Rick October issue

Part 1: Pteranodons / Thumbnails

Part 2: Pteranodons / Maquette

Part 3: Pteranodons / Step by Step

Part 4: Pteranodons / Hatchling Sketches

Part 4: Pteranodons / Hatchling Sketches

(Continuing the Pteranodon series) I've often preached at art schools about how you should do plenty of research, and then do lots of preliminary sketches and not get too attached to any of them, because the idea is going to change.

Today's post is about me taking my own medicine.

With the first painting completed, the goal of the second illustration for the Pteranodon article was to show a hatchling Pteranodon. If some dinosaurs nested in protected colonies, wouldn't Pteranodons, too? I reasoned that they would be so vulnerable after hatching that they would need to be looked after by their parents.


I did five little sketches of Pteranodons in a nesting colony. Here are my notes to the art director:
A. Tender scene with warm colors showing female with downy chick in nest built of dried ferns and sticks. The rest of the nesting colony visible out of focus behind.
B. Looking a bit upward at the female sternbergi on a mud nest. Edge lighting from sunrise.
C. Variation of B with front lighting and the single chick protected by drooping wings.
D. Closeup of heads and faces of both mother and chick.
E. Female guards hatchling. Communal nesting colony could be visible behind. Golden lighting from behind.

Unfortunately all these sketches were based on wishful thinking and a lack of evidence, something one has to guard against in science. I did more reading about pterosaur hatchlings in David Unwin's 2006 book "The Pterosaurs From Deep Time." The book described three major discoveries of fossilized pterosaur embryos in recent years, which is remarkable, since there hadn't been any comparable finds for 200 years.

The new finds showed that the eggshells were probably soft and leathery, and they gave no support to the idea that the young were altricial (requiring nourishment), as opposed to precocial (active and mobile at birth).



I did a new set of sketches. Here are my notes to the art director:
"The hatchling picture is vignetted so it will fit in the lower corner of the page. I gave the egg the appearance of a soft reptilian-type eggshell, and made the hatchling comparatively precocial. I followed David Unwin's summary of the recent pterosaur hatchling fossil discoveries, which suggests they probably didn't need much if any altricial parenting. Also, apparently they could fly quite soon after hatching. This affects the way I paint the little guy. I'll make sure to make him look more flight-ready than he appeared in the sketch."

Now that I had taken it as far as I could with book and internet research, it was time to show the sketches to a scientist in the field. I received the assistance of Christopher Bennett, one of the most knowledgeable experts on Pteranodons, especially their ontogeny.

Dr. Bennett replied with many helpful suggestions:
"I have marked up the babies drawing. Yes, they look very birdy, and they shouldn't other than the rounded skull and the goggle eyes. First off, there would be no trace of a cranial crest. I erased the crests on the left two babies and X-ed out the crest on the right one. The crests did not begin to develop until large and size and the beginnings of sexual maturity were attained. Jaws should not have tip hooks so, I have just drawn straighter lines. I think that the body posture of the right baby is spot on. I have added lines to indicate a bigger hand with three walking fingers in addition to the flight finger. The last problem is the biggest and birdiest of them all. The lower left baby has a pelican head-neck-trunk posture, and there is no way a pterosaur could do that. Yes, there could be a bit of an angle between the front end of the neck and the head, but the neck could not be bent back on itself at all. What I would suggest is replace the pelican neck and trunk with a lizard neck and trunk."

Tomorrow I'll show the final picture incorporating these corrections.

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Ranger Rick October issue

Part 1: Pteranodons / Thumbnails
Part 2: Pteranodons / Maquette
Part 3: Pteranodons / Step by Step

Part 3: Pteranodons / Step by Step

(Continuing the Pteranodons series) Now that I have finished the maquette, I'm excited to move ahead to the final oil painting. Here are four stages:

1. Pencil on heavyweight illustration board, sealed with workable fixative and acrylic matte medium.

2. Thin oil color scrubbed over sky with a big bristle brush. To thin the paint I use Liquin alkyd medium  and Gamsol mineral spirits.

3. Transparent lay-in continues. It's like a watercolor, but painted in oil.

4. Replace or redefine transparent areas with opaque mixtures.

I use a palette knife to build up the impasto texture in the foam and rocks. By mixing a drop of cobalt drier into the white, even thick passages will dry overnight.

Here's the final painting. Tomorrow I'll show you how I hatched the hatchling.

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Ranger Rick October issue

The Pteranodon series:
Part 1: Pteranodons / Thumbnails
Part 2: Pteranodons / Maquette
Part 3: Pteranodons / Step by Step

Part 2: Pteranodons / Maquette

Ranger Rick's design director, Donna Miller, chose sketch #3 from the thumbnails I showed yesterday, and she had the inspired idea to flop the design so that the Pteranodon faced right.

Meanwhile I had been doing lots of research. I looked at photos of fossils and reconstructions of skeletons (both drawings and sculptures). I also studied lots of photos and videos of modern aquatic birds to learn how they take off, land, and hunt. 

Next I needed to build a quick maquette to see how the forms looked in 3D.

I started with a skeleton out of aluminum armature wire,  matching the size of all the parts to scale drawings. Then I bulked out the body parts with Fimo Effect polymer clay. I've found this kind of oven-hardening clay has a bit more flexibility after it cures in the oven compared to other brands.

For the wing membrane I used the Tyvek material from a FedEx envelope. Tyvek is much stronger than paper, and less prone to wrinkling. I ran a very thin wire along the back edge of the wing to hold it in position. Everything was glued with a hot melt glue gun. Then I sprayed the whole assembly outdoors with gray spray-on primer, and painted it with acrylic paint

Where I needed a little more specularity on the beak and head, I painted some gloss medium. Now I had a reference tool with posable wings that I could take outdoors into real sunlight to study the effects of light and shade.

Every photo was full of little surprises. For example, who would have thought of the cast shadow of that cranial process on the far wing?

Tomorrow I'll show how the final painting went together.

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Ranger Rick October issue

The Pteranodon series:
Part 1: Pteranodons / Thumbnails
Part 2: Pteranodons / Maquette
Part 3: Pteranodons / Step by Step

Part 1: Pteranodons / Thumbnails

Earlier this year, the National Wildlife Federation asked me to do a couple of paintings of Pteranodons for their magazine, Ranger Rick. The final artwork appears in the current October issue.

Here are some preliminary sketches. The first painting they wanted was a double-page-spread title opener, with the giant pterosaurs skimming low over the edge of the surf, looking for fish. I started by studying photos and videos of albatrosses and pelicans, watching how they fly, land, and fish.

I did all these small thumbnail sketches in watercolor, water soluble colored pencils, and white gouache, about 1.5 x 2 inches each.

Here's another batch of sketches. I find it helps to consider the whole effect of the page from the very start, because eventually the art director and I will need to come to terms with headlines and type, and there's no point falling in love with a composition that won't serve its design purpose.

They're numbered from one to ten. Can you guess which one the art director picked?

Tomorrow I'll show you how I made the maquette.
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Ranger Rick October issue
Previous posts about Ranger Rick paintings
Tylosaurus
Mega Rodent


The Pteranodon series:
Part 1: Pteranodons / Thumbnails
Part 2: Pteranodons / Maquette
Part 3: Pteranodons / Step by Step

Flags and Cutters

A "flag" —also known as a "cutter" — is a piece of opaque black cloth or board held in position to block a source of light.

Here are some modern flags, held in position by a C-stand. These allow a director of photography in a photo lab or a movie shoot to control exactly which surfaces the light touches or to keep a light from shining into the lens. 

Here's a photo of John Singer Sargent painting Mrs. Fiske Warren (Gretchen Osgood) and her daughter Rachel at the Fenway Court in Boston (now the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), where Sargent had set up a temporary studio.

Sargent placed a chair behind the sitters, with poles strapped to the back of the chair. Across those poles he draped a piece of cloth as a cutter to reduce the backlighting and the glare into his eyes. The soft key light comes from a window unseen to the right.
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New book on Sargent (released yesterday):John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1900-1907: The Complete Paintings, Volume VII
More about that Sargent painting.
Sargent photo from "Representational Painting" Facebook page
Photo of modern cutter from Enchanting Kerala.org
Previously on GJ: C Stand

Chinese Interview about Sketching

"Fantasy Art" magazine from Beijing China has just released a new issue with feature stories about Thomas Kuebler, Tony Hough, A.J. Manzanedo, David Renn, and Young-june Choi.

The magazine also includes an interview with me about my sketching habit. The article was inspired by a trip to Shanghai last fall. I met the magazine's founder, Wang Wei, and went watercolor painting with him on the canals of Zhujiajiao.

  

Here's the full interview in English:

Introduction

When I travel, I enjoy sketching from observation. My sketchbooks are an important record of my contact with the world. They are also a source for ideas for me as I generate ideas for fantasy and science fiction pictures.

How many travel you will have at one year in the usually? 
I usually travel on five or six trips per year, usually to lecture at art schools or to teach the artists at movie studios. I always bring a sketchbook so that I can draw pictures of what is around me in the spare moments when I am waiting.

Is every travel you have some unambiguous target? Or you like the randomness? 
I like both kinds of travel. Most of my trips are for lectures or book signings, but I usually take one trip per year just for relaxation and sketching.

(Beara Peninsula--lower left image in the spread above)
11 x 14 inches, watercolor. A few years ago, I traveled to the southwest of Ireland to paint the landscapes and ancient monuments. I used watercolor because it is convenient for traveling. When I paint fantasy landscapes, I look at my observational paintings like this to get ideas for light and color.

Could you tell me when you come to Ireland? No need exactitude. 
I came to Ireland in 2010 in order to paint on location and to enjoy the traditional music..

Why you will painting this landscape? Did you felt some especial? Or just like this landscape. Or something else? 
This is a very ancient landscape, with stone structures dating to thousands of years ago. I was interested in the history and archaeology of Ireland, and also the mythology. I love the mystery of such old landscapes because they are inhabited by the memory of many lives that have passed before.

It seems you stood on a hill that sew those landscape, do you want to tell us how do you got there? 
I drove up a long dirt road to visit an ancient Celtic monument. While searching for the rocky ruins, I was on a hilltop and saw this view. I brought my watercolors with me so that I could paint this scene.

(The Morrocan city of Aït Benhaddou) photograph 2008. In 2008 I traveled to the High Atlas mountains of Morocco for a sketching trip. This mud brick city was where I painted several portraits. This place seemed more fantastic than anything I could have imagined.

Why you made this trip? 
I traveled here with a science fiction writer friend named Alan Dean Foster. We were both interested in learning more about Morocco. It was my first time in Africa.

When you photoed this picture, did you saw something behind this mud brick city? For example, the same style city will appear at the Dinotopia universe? Or some kind of life behind this mud brick? Why you photo it? Just surprised you? 
This is a famous city because it is one of the best preserved of the mud brick cities of the Atlas Mountains. It is also the location where many films were shot, including “Gladiator” by Ridley Scott.

What happened after your photoed this picture? Did you bought something at the booth that in the picture? 
It was at the end of my day in the city. I had done a portrait of one of the souvenir sellers. Afterward I drove back to the town where I was staying.

(Arab Guard) 5 x 8 inches. In the narrow streets of the city of Fes, Morocco, I met a man named Hassan whose job was to stand watch over the doorway of an antique store. He patiently posed for me while I drew his face in brown and black water-soluble colored pencils.

Is that a same trip with when you photoed the picture of The Morrocan city of Aït Benhaddou. 
Yes, this was on the same trip.

Why you want drew Mr. Hassan? Or it just happened when you walked to him? 
I was interested in drawing someone from Morocco. He was a guard, so he wasn’t doing anything. I asked him in French if I could have permission to draw his portrait. He agreed, and he seemed to enjoy posing.

(Morgan) 5 x 8 in, watercolor. This is a watercolor study of a 1931 three-wheeled car from England called a Morgan. Three-wheeled vehicles were classified as a motorcycles in Britain, so owners could avoid road taxes. The Morgan was low to the ground and weighed only about 850 pounds. It could go up to 80 miles per hour. When I need to design a spaceship or a robot, I look through my sketchbooks for vehicles, and that way I can get ideas from the real world.

Where you found this Morgan? 
At the Rhinebeck aerodrome, a museum near where I live where they keep old airplanes, cars, and motorcycles.

When you got this travel? Why? This museum is close to my home, less than 5 miles away. I am interested in all kinds of old cars and trucks.

Did you talk with the owner? How did he get this Morgan? 
I talked with someone who worked at the museum. This car was more than 50 years old. It was given to the museum by a collector.

What kind of vehicle you will painting it? I mean you may not painting a Rolls-Royce when you see one on the street, isn't it? 
I more often paint older, unusual things, not new and fancy things, because older things have more character.

As I know some concept artist had designed some very amazed vehicles, why you want to painting some one in the really world not just see what the other people made? For the first-hand experience? 
All the fantasy and concept art pictures that I do come from my imagination, but my imagination must begin with what I have seen with my eyes. I believe a concept artist will be stronger and more successful if he or she studies the real world very closely, because Nature is full of wonderful surprises.

(Cow Portrait) 5 x 8 inches. This is just one cow, but I drew her head in two different angles, because she kept turning her head. She was restless when I painted her portrait because she was hungry and it was her feeding time. She swung her big head back and forth. I tried to pick two angles that she kept returning to.

When and where you made this images? 
This was painted at a farm which is close to my home.

Why you want to drawing a cow? 
Because I was interested in understanding better its form and movement. Also, I like cows.

What happened when you talk with the farmer you want draw his cow? I don’t always see the farmer when I sketch at his farm. But I have his permission to sketch there anytime. When I see him, he tells me stories about his adventures on the farm.

(Cow Sketching , photograph.) When the cow heard the farmer’s voice, she let out a powerful moo that echoed through the whole barn. I could feel the hot, moist blast of breath. It was feeding time. She was hungry. Bits of hay and drool dropped onto my watercolor sketchbook.

Did you talk with cow? It looks like on the picture. 
The cow was trying to talk to the farmer. She was making a lot of noise hoping that he would come with some food.

Why there have many childrens with you? What happened? Who they are? 
The children help to feed the animals and clean the stalls. They are not my children, but they often see me sketching there.

(Jill the Farm Dog) , 5 x 8 inches. Watercolor and water-soluble colored pencils. Jill was an old dog that lived on a farm near my home in New York. She only had three legs. She held still because she was watching some piglets nearby.

Is that dog was painted at the same farm that you painted the cow? Yes, this was at the same farm. Jill belonged to the farmer.

What kind of particularity that make this old dog attract you? Did the owner told you why she just have three legs? 
Yes, she has three legs because she was kicked by a horse that she was bothering. I admired the way the dog lived cheerfully despite her suffering.

(Chop Suey) , oil paint, 16 x 8 inches. This is a sign for a restaurant near where I live. The picture is painted in oil on location.

Why you painted this facia? Did the light attract you? 
Yes, I was interested in the way the light touched the top of the sign.

Were you will used it, if you think? 
I painted this for myself, but sold it in a gallery, and published it in my newest book, Color and Light, which will soon be published in China.

(Irish Stove) , oil paint, 8 x 10 inches. This 8x10-inch oil study of an Irish hearth was painted on two consecutive mornings in a cottage in County Kerry, Ireland. The cool light from the open doorway and an adjacent window casts soft warm shadows to the right of the black stovepipe, the china dogs, and the plastic bucket of turf.

Is that made the same travel of Beara Peninsula be made? 
No, this trip occurred more than 10 years ago.

Why you made this by oil? 
Oil allows me to control color and value more precisely.

Did you slept at this house? How about this owner? Did they like you painting? Yes, I slept in the house. We rented the house. The owner was not there. I showed them a scan later, and they liked it.

Did this stove have some story? 
It is a typical Irish stove that burns peat or turf, which is fuel cut from the ground.

(Gurney’s sketch of Gorilla) 5 x 8 inches, pencil. If you want to draw portraits of apes, you have to approach them in the proper way. You can’t approach a great ape enclosure and start staring at them, or they will become unhappy and turn their back on you, because staring is a threat to them. When I went to a zoo, I approached the gorilla enclosure with a submissive posture, looking down at the ground and backing up with my hand out. (Link for original blog post)

When you made this portrait? 
I made this in 2009 at the North Carolina (USA) zoo.

How do you know this knowledge of ape? 
I studied anthropology and primate behavior in college, but I really don't know that much about gorillas.

(Gorilla , photograph.) The gorilla loved being approached this way. She had never seen a human act like a polite ape before. She came right up to the glass and posed for me while I did this half-hour portrait from just two feet away.

In the some kind of way, the ape is the animal that most like human, when you draw it. what you felt? 
I was impressed with how much the gorilla seemed to behave like a human, with curiosity and interest in my drawing.

Why is she not he? 
The zookeeper told me she was female.

As we know the New York City zoo had thousands all kinds of animal, when you see them, do you feel sadness? I mean those animals live in the zoo just because they can be saw by human at the safe place. What you thoughts? 
I would be happier to see them in the wild, but perhaps zoos can do some good. Those of us who can’t travel all the way to Africa can see and appreciate these beautiful animals up close. In this way, we learn to understand them so that their habitat can be protected. Also, many zoos have breeding programs that help preserve endangered animals and sometimes release them into the wild. 

Illustrators Magazine

The first issue of a new quarterly magazine called "Illustrators" has appeared. Its mission is to spotlight the talents through history of the British and European illustration scene.


The issue takes a look at the hardboiled art of Denis McLoughlin...

...the science fiction comics and illustration of Ian Kennedy...


...the 60s chic of Angel Badia Camps....

....and the sensuous fantasies of Cheri Herouard.

The magazine is similar to the American equivalent "Illustration Magazine," with high quality reproductions, a mix of art and graphics, and often rare interviews. But this magazine is published by Geoff West and the Book Palace, Ltd. in London. It presents a rare opportunity for illustration fans to get to know who was working in England and Europe in the last century.

Issue 2, due in the winter, will feature David Wright, Cecil Doughty, Raymond Sheppard, and Renato Fratini, and beyond that, future issues will spotlight other greats like Fortunino Matania.

Take a peek inside with cool page-turning feature
Illustrators magazine

New African Monkey

Science Daily reports on a monkey previously unknown to science. It's the second African monkey to be "discovered" in 28 years.

Conservation biologist John Hart heard that a schoolmaster's daughter at the edge of a forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had an unusual pet monkey known locally as a "lesula." Hart tracked its growth for 19 months, and then observed individuals in the wild. The lesula spends most of its time on the ground foraging in small groups.

The Guardian describes the face as sensitive and intelligent, "like it is sitting for its portrait by Rembrandt. It reveals a staggeringly insightful, wise, and melancholy face. Like Rembrandt's son Titus in the portrait of him by his father that hangs in London's Wallace Collection, the lesula looks right back at its beholder, calm and pensive, examining you as you examine it. Its eyes have the depth and frankness of those seen in moving portraits on Roman-era mummies from the Fayoum, or in Antonello da Messina's haunting portrait of a man gazing back out of a glassy oil panel."