Friday, December 28, 2012

I have almost finished the Kissing Booth girl and boy.  The boy's face is very intricate due to its size.  The girl's face is a little problematic too due to the platinum blond hair and the overall lighting.  It just seems a bit awkward.  But their outfits and poses rock!  I have also been finishing up the final sketches for the Balloon, Gondola, and the two Balloonists.  Images to come very soon.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Sunday, December 16, 2012

The new head is almost done.  Here is the design for the sharpshooter.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Not real happy with the customer's face - going to try a different one.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Saturday, November 24, 2012

I did a bit of shuffling on the painting and moved some characters up and down but nothing major.

Here is the final fortuneteller.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Saturday, November 17, 2012

This one took a while to design.  I started with the "country girl / Minni Pearl" look.  She just looked fat.  So I tried another direction and here we are.  This group will be very interesting.
H

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Here is the Floating Clown.  Remember there may be changes as I continue to work on the project.  The Juggler is next.  I have a few more adjustments on the man running away from the girl but he is just about done.  The amorous girl is a design challenge... Talk at you later.
H

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Howdy,
Here is the finished design for the juggler.  He is a little more innocent looking than the previous drawing.
The question is what is... What is with the thimble?  You will have to either look at the earlier drawings or just wail and see.
Hint:  Balloon Repair Man

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Well after much do here is some stuff.
Remember the shadows and many lights/reflections are not in yet!


Sunday, October 21, 2012

Ok! Here is the final flying Clown design.  The beatle is done and the weight lifter is almost done.
Will post final painted images soon.
h

Friday, October 12, 2012


Here is the Ring Master!  He has no shadow.  When everything is in I will put in shadows and adjust colors and highlights.
HR

Thursday, October 11, 2012

It has been a while - sorry but I have been very busy... PAINTING!
and working on the final DESIGNS of the characters.  The tree and fungi are far enough along that I can focus on the characters and then can modify them as needed.  I have completed the Ringmaster and am working on the Weightlifter and Beetle.  Photos will come soon.  Here is the Weightlifter's overall design - colors, clothing, and nifty do-dads will be part of the finished painting. - He is quite the image of male perfection.

Later all
HR

Monday, September 17, 2012

I have completed most of the Fungi.  -am working on the bark and some of the foliage.  Hope to have pictures soon!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Here are the lilies... I've played with several versions and this is where we are now.  I am working on the fungi, the scale of the characters, signs, and wonders.
see you soon!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

I am still painting lilies.  I've been doing some experimenting and such with color.  I will post a picture soon!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

No pictures yet...  I'm painting waterlilies!  I found some awesome reference they are going to be soooooooo cool!   (The painting is so much more fun than the design phase!)

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Wow!  It has been a long haul to get the ideas for the characters.  There are several that have not been posted yet.  The Bell Ringer is one new group. 

I have also started to work on designing the "background." I spent quite some time looking at the tree image as a whole, the sketches, and then at the actual painted image.  Because the painting is so thin and yet so tall- I asked myself, how would I actually look at it? I usually work with images around 18" x 24" and the distance to the viewer from the ceiling is about the same as viewing one of these images.  With this info I ended up dividing the image into thirds and this gave me a start for developing the composition.  Next I divided the image into 6ths. 



So that as you move along viewing the image you will always have a "floating third" to focus on. This means that the action must flow from element to element smoothly.  I will be using gentle diagonals to establish this flow.  Here I use some simple mushrooms to establish this flow.
I won't be using mushrooms for all of this but it is a start.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

More figures!
The sword swallower and helper.  More figures to come!

Monday, July 30, 2012

Good Day!  Several figures have come together.  A possible Lion tamer: 
a juggler who steps into a thimble,
and a balloon repair man

These figures are somewhat finished but by no means complete.
 They are too human and need some serious froggyness!!!
 
 

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Friday, July 27, 2012

A new group I'm working on "the lion tamer and the Lion."  The concept:The lion (a rat with a lion mask) has escaped the exhibit.  So the show has been delayed several times and cancelled with "Out looking for Lion" posted.  The tamer will be using a fishing rod and cheese to catch the rat who will be placed precariously - somewhere???? Maybe on top of the balloon.  But I have 3 ideas or so that deal with the Balloon.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The Balloon ride...  The characters are very rough, the real work was designing the balloon and gondola. More tomorrow.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Here are some new characters.  The fortune teller and her customer.  This is very different than the image I started with if you look back at the original sketches. There is more story... which is what I really like to put into my work.  I will be adding a sign and possibly other structures.  Notice that the fortune teller has lost her mask. This will play a bigger roll later.  I may have to juggle a bit to get the two figures to fit the composition. The final characters will flow more smoothly.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

    I know this doesn't look like much but I've been doing a lot of thinking and research.  I replaced the small weight lifter and barbells with a Hercules / Rhino beetle.  I think it will work better and be a lot cleaner than the previous suggestion.  I also worked with some scale issues on the other two characters. I think this is closer to where we should go.  I'd like to toss in some props/background items to see how much is needed.  I love "stuff" but I want the elements to look integrated.  Things like flags, tents, lamps, insects, other animals, and frogs who are visiting the carnival (should they wear masks too????).
   Another idea I have is for the characters to become more revealed as frogs as you move upward in the image.  Since the ringmaster is the Boss, it would make sense that things are "ship shape" close to him, but as you move away rules are sometimes a little more lax and conflicts can arise that make things more interesting.

Here we are as of yesterday.  
 
Not too impressive but it's a start.   These images make the image seem much smaller than it is.

Monday, July 16, 2012

      Today was very productive!  I laid in some raw umber and created some of the shadows in the bark texture.  Then used several tints of a yellow oxide / red oxide mixture to create some middle values.  This took quite some time because the image is so large.
     Finally I made some lily pads, water, and rocks at the base of the image.  The problem is establishing a perspective for the ovals that will work with the overall image.  Because it is so tall and thin the viewer will rarely look at it as a whole (seen from the images vertical center) but rather scan from one end to the other.  This gives some possible play with the perspective but can mess with your senses as I develop the composition.

Monday, July 9, 2012


Monday July 9
Well what have we accomplished so far...
    I resolved the landscape vs portrait issue...  It will definitely  be portrait.  The figures in a landscape view would be about 1/3 to 1/2 the size of that those in a portrait view.  Since it is going on a ceiling size is an issue.
    I have come up with several support solutions so the characters will have something to sit on leaves, mushrooms, and knot holes.
    I have stained the gessoed board with burnt umber, red oxide, and yellow oxide to start on the tree "background."  Some of these colors will come through the final image as tree bark.

The left is a rough of the overall painting.  The right are some figures as developing sketches. Remember they are (or will be) frogs with masks.


Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Hello

Hello out there!
I have never made a blog before but hopefully it will be a rewarding experience.  The purpose of this blog is to help keep me focused on a painting that I am currently commissioned to make.  Thus the title "The Awesome Frog Painting" - one way or another there will be an Awesome Frog Painting.  I am a teacher, martial artist, and many other things besides a painter. -- It's summer and I tend to want to be out and about rather than sitting around the studio.  So if I say that I will try to post often (at least every other day), this may help force me to get things done.
The commission is very open ended with only two things required,  size 18"x 72" and frogs with human faces.  I've done a lot of painting most of which have a children's book style.  (look at my website hrlevyillustration.com)  So this is right up my alley.  I love to paint animals and plants, integrating concepts of scale, texture, and color. The image will be mounted on a ceiling so the image could be horizontal or vertical.  I started with a vertical concept - starting at the base of tree and moving upward but after several sketches I'm having difficulty giving a "floor" to my characters so I'm going to try a horizontal composition - the edge of creek, to see what I can do.
The theme that I have chosen is "the Carnival/Circus."  With the frogs wearing human masks performing human tasks.  I have a variety of ideas already and eager to start painting - the masonite board is cut to size, mounted to supports, and primed but... The design phase is the most important early step.