Entry 4

After this post, I probably will have two more posts and this painting will be finished. I am almost done with the middle section of the painting and next will only have the foreground to work on. It is a slow process. Just painting the chair in the center of the painting took me over an hour. Compared to a landscape painting of the same size, I would have easily completed 2-3 paintings by now. It is easy to understand why an artist would expect a higher price for a painting such as this compared to something that takes much less time. One of the things I have noticed is that my photos never look as good as the real painting. Now, this actually is a benefit, because when I have sold paintings on Ebay, the customers are always happier when they receive the original paintings then what they saw on Ebay. It can work to your advantage, but it is still a good idea to try to achieve the best photo possible. One trick is to never use the flash when taking the photo as this puts a glare right on the center of the painting.

Entry 3

An update on the painting. It has been challenging and has already taken many hours. I still have work to do on the two faces at the table, but I think one more layer adding tone will do. Here might be a useful tip: oils are very forgiving and if you are not happy with a spot, change it. I have reworked the old man's face several times and I think on my next post you will see the difference between this one and the current one. Another important point is when you are dealing with structures, the angles have to be true. Your eye will tell you if something is not right or level and you should use that to correct your painting. Finally, I am not one to make a painting too realistic but add some impressionistic elements. I mean that's what cameras are for right, if you want a photograph--this is a painting.
The next phase will be to complete the young girl's hair and then start filling in the rest. Other than that, it is progressing along somewhat slowly.

How to do a detailed oil painting: Entry 2

Here in the second entry, I have completed most of the background painting. I always work a painting from the top down, no exceptions. Related to this, I also paint from the top right corner working towards the left, as I am left-handed and this ensures that I will not smear freshly painted regions with my left palm. You can also see that the painting has been covered with a THIN layer of transparent iron oxide. Many artists will use brunt umber instead, and this is an excellent alternative. You can see that I'm about ready to begin painting the grandpa and child. This is a critical part of the painting as they represent the focal point. I will begin by doing what is called the imprimatura layer. This consists of titanium white, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue and ivory black. The color should be a olive hue.

How to do a detailed oil painting: Entry 1

I decided to do something different and post a series of blogs on how I do a detailed oil painting entitled "Lunch with Grandpa". This approach will be different from my approach of doing a typical landscape. I will try to post updates of this painting as often as possible. But, this type of painting takes many, many hours and probably will take me a couple of months to complete. So...be patient! STEP 1: composition. This is a critical step as your oil painting will only be as good as your initial composition. Try to be as detailed as possible. It is OK to use technology such as a projector, as many artists use this approach to make sure perspective is correct. Now, another important consideration for a detailed painting with people is the type of canvas to use. I prefer in this case to use a cardboard panel, because they are very smooth and therefore easier to do your composition and to paint detail. For a landscape, this is usually not the case and one can use a stretched cotton canvas. For most of my landscapes I may only spend about 30 minutes more or less on the composition. This particular composition took me numerous hours as every square inch has to be accounted for. The next step once you have the drawing complete is I like to spray it with fixative so that the pencil rendering does not smear. Once dried, I then will apply a very thin layer of transparent iron oxide. In fact, I do this step for every painting I do, as it ensures a nice coverage of paint on the entire canvas. Anyways, I would recommend covering your canvas in this way always. OK, my next post probably will include some of the background painting once it is done.

Sleigh Ride

The second painting in my Christmas series, entitled "Sleigh Ride". This painting measures 16" x 20" oil painting and depicts a scene that could take place in any neighborhood. This painting will probably mark the end of my landscapes for awhile. Because selling on Ebay has been very slow, I am going to do a different type of painting next, which will probably take a long time to complete. So, this may be my last post in some time. A lot of the paintings that are currently posted are still available to be purchased.

To Santa's Workshop

My first of two Christmas paintings that I will be doing this year. This is an oil 16x20 oil painting on a stretched canvas. My inspiration was a scene in movie I recently saw with my children, "The Chronicles of Narnia". When the children first come out of the wardrobe closet into the forest, they stumble upon a lit lamp in the forest. I saw that and thought it was a surreal scene that was very effective. I decided to incorporate that idea in this painting and include a Christmas tree. My first title for this painting was "To Santa's Hideaway" to try to illustrate that even Santa has to get away :). But, my wife came up with the current title and I liked that better. Anyways, I will be putting this painting on Ebay on Sunday, the 6th of December.

Tetons in the Fall

The Tetons, are another favorite location of mine. Only about a 6-7 hour drive from where I live, it is the one place that really reminds me of Glacier National Park in Montana. In fact, many of the same wild flowers and wildlife are present in the Tetons as in Glacier. This painting represents my last subject devoted to fall. You can see many of the fall colors along the river in this depiction. This painting will be put on Ebay starting tomorrow evening for $25.00. It is an oil painting on a 16 x 20 inch stretched canvas.

Generation Gap

This weeks painting is a strong departure from my usual work. I love Norman Rockwell, and believe he was one of the best of America's painters. I pay tribute to him here in this re-working of one of his originals. The title of this painting is "Generation Gap". The painting was done in oils on a 28" by 22" canvas board. It is a re-working of a painting by Norman Rockwell (November 21st 1936 entitled "overhead lovers" (Park Bench)). In this case, I have put in a typical teen (actually my nephew, Caleb) one can find anywhere in todays society, sitting next to an old school gentleman. Being a college professor, I am continually amazed by the younger generation and their need for gadgets, especially cell phones and computers. I can only imagine what Rockwell would have thought, and maybe he might have come up with the same idea for a painting as this one. I know this painting will not sale, but I am going to post it up on Ebay anyways. It took me countless hours and many months to finish. If I knew I could get paid for doing these kinds of paintings, I would do more, as they are very challenging and rewarding.

Yosemite Valley

My newest painting is entitled "Yosemite Valley" and is an oil painting on a 16 x 20 inch canvas. The inspiration for this painting came from the cover photo of the latest DVD documentary by Ken Burns "The National Parks". It is a beautiful photo showing El Capitan and Half Dome in half sunlight and I have included the photo together with the painting I composed. Yosemite is one of my favorite subjects to paint, and it really is a gem of a National Park. If you ever get a chance to visit, it is worth it, even if you have to fight the crowds. This was the first time I have used ultramarine blue for my sky color. Usually, I use phthalo blue with titanium white, which does make a nice blue color for the sky. But, ultramarine blue with titanium white really has a richer, more authentic look to it. One thing I will say, is my digital camera never captures oranges and yellows very well. It always dulls those colors out. The painting as I see it now in my living room is much more vibrant in yellows and oranges. Well, I will be very surprised if this painting does not sale. It will be on Ebay this coming week and will list at $25.00.

This painting sold on Ebay for $25.oo. It had 1 watcher, 16 page views and 1 bid. This was a very typical outcome for one of my paintings.

Autumn Day

Here is my latest offering, which is an oil painting, 16 x 20 inch on a stretched canvas. This painting has tonalism features. My inspiration was a commercial I saw on T.V. in which everything was black and white except one object. I thought that was a great way to emphasize a focal point and so decided to use the same approach in this painting. Except for the one tree which has leaves in yellows, orange and reds, the entire rest of the painting was done in different values of grays using payne's gray, Davy's gray and a mixture of black ivory with titanium white. I think it worked well and it will be on Ebay next week. We will see how the customers like it!

Pacific Bay

Wow! Solitude actually sold, so I am very happy. It had 1 bid for $25 and 13 page views. 1 watcher also. I was surprised as I was not getting any kind of traffic at the beginning of the week. It just goes to show, there is no rhyme or reason to selling on Ebay. I have had bids at the beginning of the week, on the last day and every day in between. I have had bids when I only had a few page views, or have not sold a painting with tons of page views and watchers. What I am finding is there is no science to this endeavor.

My new painting is "Pacific Bay"....I enjoyed doing this painting and did it after having spent a week on the beach in California this past summer. That is usually one way I get ideas for painting subjects is doing something and then wanting to get those major impressions on canvas. What I focused on in this painting was the waves, as I have always loved how translucent sea water is. Seascapes are challenging to do, but they can also be very rewarding. This is an oil painting on a 16 by 20 inch stretched canvas.

This painting did not sale. It was listed for $25.00

Starving artist

Solitude is not getting much traffic at all. I have no bids and no watchers with only 2 days left. I can say that the last 3 weeks on Ebay have been my worse....Well, no one said it was going to be easy and I guess that is where the word "starving artist" comes from. I'll keep my day job....On that note, my study section met today regarding my R15...I am really hoping to break the 200 barrier for a score. On another note, I am applying for a Jefferson Science Fellowship, which would give me the opportunity to work in Washington D.C. for a year and develop foreign policy to tackle Alzheimer's disease. It is a long shot that I would win such an award, but as they say you can't win the lottery without buying a ticket. I can't believe that for one of my letters of rec., the president of my university is going to write a letter in my support. That should carry some weight!

My guess is solitude will not even get another page view.....I will be posting my next painting on Sunday so till then.

Cost analysis

OK, here is my best guess cost analysis of how much I would like to sale my paintings for if I could pick a price...Most painters would say that they value their time at around $30.00 per hour. Most of my paintings take on average 7-10 hours. Let's use 7 hours the minimum, which would give a value of $310 dollars. Supplies:
1) Canvas....on average $10.oo for a 16 by 20 inch
2)Paints and medium....this is really a guess, but I would estimate I use about $5.00 worth of paint and medium for one painting.
3) Wrapping and boxing painting for shipment. Including bubble wrap, tissue wrap, tape and box, I would say this is probably around $4.00 per painting.
4) Shipping...I always seem to short-change myself on shipping charge and usually I end up paying at least $1.00 more than what the buyer actually pays.

In total therefore, I would like to list my paintings for an average price of $330. Well, I usually list them for $25.o0! So, I am making a whopping $5.00 per painting. Now, why don't I list them for much more? They would not sale,period. There is no demand for my paintings, so I could never get the true value of what I think they are worth. Only once out of about 20 paintings I have sold on Ebay have I had more than 1 bid. I always figure that if my paintings are worth more, somebody would bid 1 more dollar. Anyways, I can truly say that my paintings are listed as a real bargain on Ebay. On a future post, I would like to talk about an artist on Ebay who really has been successful and who I admire....

About the Painting "Solitude"

This is my first painting posted on my blog. It is currently for sale on Ebay for $25.00. I spent the better part of 12 summers working, hiking, and climbing in Glacier National Park, Montana. Our work location was in St. Mary's at the Park Cafe (great pies!), which is actually on Blackfeet Reservation. Because of my experiences with the people who make up this great tribe, I have tremendous respect for these people and Native Americans in general. Therefore, I love to acknowledge them in some way in my paintings---my favorite of which is to paint tepees in the landscape as shown in this particular painting. I also tend to paint in seasons, and since now it is fall, I am using fall colors in my paintings. Well, the painting took about 8-10 hours to paint over a two week period, which is pretty average for one of my paintings. The next post, I think I will give a cost analysis to show how much I think the painting is really worth, if I could set the price...Of course there is no demand for my paintings so this is just wishful thinking!

First entry---Monday 10/12/2009

My First entry ever on a blog. I guess I should give some background to myself. I am an Associate Professor in the department of biology at Boise State University. I have a research program in neurodegenerative diseases with an emphasis in Alzheimer's disease. I also do quite a bit of teaching: this semester I am teaching pharmacology (for preprofessional students) and molecular neurobiology.
My major hobby is painting. I paint in oils and love to do landscapes. I would like to use this blog talk about my paintings, but also other things as they arise. For instance, this week is a big week for me as I have a pending NIH grant that is going to be evaluated and scored. As other scientists know, this is a very difficult process with a low degree of success. Further, it is completely out of your hands and you have no idea how your idea/grant will be viewed. So....it is pins and needles. My last 5 or so grants have gotten lousy scores so I am not very optimistic---how can I be? I am also posting my first painting, entitled "Solitude", which is presently on Ebay. I "try" to sale my paintings on Ebay, but it is very challenging. There are only about 20,000 paintings listed at any given moment. I don't make a dime as I sale my paintings for $25.00, which barely covers costs. More on this later....