DONs' World

I wanted to show the students that in the C.F. Payne mixed media technique when Mr. Payne uses the very thinned oil mixture of Dioxazine purple, Permanent Green light and a  bit of Burnt Sienna to darken and neutralize everything, they could sue other color mixtures or even one color to achieve the same effect. In the blue Lincoln, the oil color was  Payne’s (no relation to Chris Payne) gray and some ultramarine blue for a little more blue color. In the brown Lincoln, I used a Gamblin oil color Asphaltum which is much like Burnt Umber. The results were good. And the blue lincoln was accpeted into the 3×3 Annual Proshow. So it goes to show you if you change a simple subject’s color to a different not expected color, your work will get into illustration annuals!

This is a work from several years ago when I was first working with C. F. Payne’s mixed media technique. I found a small printed pic of Jennifer Anniston on the cover of a tabloid mag and immediately got the ‘big idea’, ‘the vision’ and began developing the caricature design and drawing. Her hair, her smile and her chin all seemingly similar in shape became the point of design for this work. Also, this work has  a lot of colored pencil work, much more than others I posted. The point being is that practice is one of the best teachers. Make your mistakes, make your blunders, go through those uneasy feeling of being a loser and hopefully you will come out the other side accomplished!

These four illustrations were begun as demos for the course I teach at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Just so happened that I really felt like finishing them up over the Christmas break. Buddy Holly was actually completed over the summer as it was from a demo during spring quarter.

In these works, I used more actual painting with the acrylics to adjust the colors and values and etc. By dabing or using the squiggle line with a small synthetic round, you can adjust color and value more subtiley than with colored pencils. Some areas are simple flat shapes which contrast the rendered areas with purpose. These catagories are ment to be contrasted in art – values/lights and darks, colors/warms and cools, textures/smooth and rough and so forth and so on.

Here is one of the first illustrations I did using C.F. Payne’s mixed media technique. Although, Payne’s technique was derived from Mark English’s mixed media technique; Payne’s version seems to work better for me. This illustration called “Greenspan” was done from a small article in Time Magazine about the way the likes of Greenspan talk a language called “federalese” and after a few moments, most people, the media, realize that they have no idea what in the heck was said. So the concept of Greenspan as the court jester juggling the bowling pins seems to speak to the heart of the issue. We are entertained by the humor of that serious financial guy dress in funny clothes; we are being informed by the commentary but the whole time we are just watching a typical shallow song and dance show of of the feds manipulating the uninformed masses to take one more step towards their ultimate goal – own and control everything.

In this piece, I did not use the color in the same way as Payne. I used a singular flat wash of an ochre plus burnt sienna acrylic paint mixture  and gesso over the entire transferred drawing. The transferred drawing was rendered a little with terra cotta prismacolor, the verthin pencil. Payne in contrast uses graphite on everything except flesh areas where he uses burnt ochre prismacolor thick lead pencils. Next, I used a mixture of Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna watercolor (Grumbacher brand) to apply a a singular transparent flat wash. Let the wash to dry and then lift off the watercolor to create light areas and essentially rendering the form. Next a  wash of a very thinned out (with mineral spirits) oil paint mixture of Dioxazine Violet and Permanent Green light and a touch of Burnt Sienna is brushed over the entire image and allowed to dry so that the sheen of the wetness has disappeared. Using a kneaded eraser, erase out the light areas and again essentially rendering the forms. After erasing out the light values on the forms, I sprayed the work with Sureguard  (use only in a well ventilated area!!!) retouchable photographers lacquer. This spray will seal the work, add a tooth and remain workable  so I can add washes of acrylics to adjust color strength and colored pencils to add greater degree of rendering and details. Also, sometimes I will use acrylic paint in a impasto manner in areas to interest or texture.

Greenspan was selected for publishing in Applied Art Magazine and was accepted into SILA, Society of Illustrators of Los Angles.