A Tribute to Francis...painting completed!

What's on my Easel...

Let's start at the very beginning... I met Francis one year at my friend and mentor, Deb Festa's Open Studio Art Tour. Francis was out in Deb's courtyard, greeting everyone and making them feel welcome. I didn't know Francis well, but I know that he was a warm, generous man with a huge heart. Over time, I got to know him better, as Deb would share with me about her Dad. Francis was a very creative man -- he was a photographer, writer, gardener, and he loved making and improving upon things.

Francis is no longer with us on this earth, but his memory lives on today in a single flower -- an iris. Francis evidently had a love for irises, because he had a huge iris garden. After his death, his daughter Deb, dug up some of the irises from his home, and brough them to her home to plant. Deb in her typical generous way, shared some of the irises with my husband and I, and we planted a special iris garden in the front of our home. When the first iris bloomed, it was a beauty. It's funny how a simple flower can spark so much thought and emotion, but it did and I was prompted to paint a special tribute to Francis. I'm thankful for my friend Deb, for her open arms and open heart. I'm thankful for Deb's family -- they truly are an amazing family, and I'm thankful for Deb's Dad, Francis. I think of him and I feel lifted up. He lived fully, encouraged much and was so very warm and kind. This painting is my tribute to Francis...

It was painted on the computer using Corel Painter 11 and a Wacom tablet, following traditional painting methods. the painting started with a line drawing, followed by basic color choices for the finished painting...

Once I had the basic design and color choices made, I started on the background -- yellow, to allow a nice glow to the finished piece, followed by some random squiggles...

I then blended the squiggles, added more color, and blended again to make it look like undefined flowers and leaves in the background...

Then, I started sketching out and detailing the leaves...

The next step was to block in the yellow iris and start detailing it out...

With the yellow iris in, I then blocked in the purple iris and started adding details...

With the background, leaves, yellow and purple irises painted, it was now time to tie it all together. I added some yellow to the purple iris, some purple to the yellow iris, color to the leaves where needed, and darkened the background just below the irises (to ground them).

The completed painting follows:

Memorial paintings are quite an honor to paint, and it was certainly an honor to know Francis and paint this tribute to him.

From the Jewelry Box...

I had fun making this pair of earrings for Samantha, in honor of her 30th Birthday. I needed something special to package her earrings and painted this earring card with watercolor paints on 140# Arches watercolor paper, outlined the painting with a black waterproof marker, then punched two holes to hang the earrings. Happy 30th Samantha!

©2009 Deborah Jeffrey

Today's Quote...

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." ~ Anne Dillard

Silent no more...

I’ve been silent too long! I ended up getting that flu/cold that is going around. It is now week 3 and I’m still battling a fuzzy head…oh yeah, and I still have to complete our taxes...definitely not a great combination!

With numbers dancing in my fuzzy head, I’ve forced myself to think of something pleasant…like making art! I haven’t painted in quite some time now, but I think I would like to take on a digital painting project – it has been awhile since I’ve painted a digital painting and thought it would be the perfect medium for creating a Morro Bay collage painting.


Here is my preliminary drawing…

For those of you who are unfamiliar with digital paintings, I’d like to share the process for making a digital painting.

First, I work with a software paint program called Corel Painter (version 11).

Wikipedia’s defines Corel painter as “a raster-based digital art application created to simulate as accurately as possible the appearance and behavior of traditional media associated with drawing, painting, and printmaking. It is intended to be used in real-time by professional digital artists as a functional creative tool.”

Translation…Corel Painter is a paint program that allows me to paint directly into the computer. I start with a photo reference and my line drawing and paint a painting, just as I would if I were using watercolor paper, brushes and paint. The program offers greater diversity though and I can paint in watercolor, oil, acrylic, pastel, colored pencil, or a number of different mediums. It also offers a number of brushes specific to each medium. There is a palette that allows me to select my colors and paint and mix them directly on the computer screen, or I can mix them prior to application – again, just like if I were painting with paper, brush and paints.

There are three things I absolutely love of about creating digital paintings:
1. I don’t have to wait for the paint to dry between layers.
2. There is an “undo” key, so if I do change my mind (or make a mistake), I can press the undo key and no harm no foul.
3. I can save the painting at different iterations. This allows me to be more experimental with my painting process, and I can try different backgrounds, color schemes, etc.

I could never pull off painting digitally using a mouse – why that would be like trying to paint with a bar of soap! Instead, I use a Wacom Intuoso 3 tablet.

The tablet comes with both a mouse and a stylus, and I use the stylus to draw and paint directly into the computer, via the tablet. The stylus and tablet are sensitive to hand pressure, stroke speed, etc., and it really does mimic the painting experience.

Once the painting is complete, I print out the finished artwork on an Epson R2400 printer. I print onto watercolor paper and the paper and ink are archival quality, with time studies stating that with proper care, the artwork is expected to last 100+ years.

Another advantage to digital painting is that you do have the option of printing additional copies of the finished work, with each “copy” being an exact color and quality replica of the “original.”

I learned how to paint digitally a few years ago, when I took an extended workshop from Fay Sirkis. Fay is a New York artist and she is one of Corel’s Master Painters. She is a wonderful lady and I found her to be very generous and encouraging. Her work is beautiful and I encourage you to check out her website: http://www.faysartstudio.com/.

Well, April 15th is coming soon, so my first priority is getting our taxes done…then it’s on to painting. I’ll post images as I work on the Morro Bay collage painting.

Bye for now…Deborah