Traveler: A Wood Cut-Out Painting and it's Process

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Traveler

Acrylic on layered wood cut-outs, 11" x 14" framed

One of many pieces being created for Character and Narrative, an exhibition coming to Foothills Art Center 

August 16 - October 20, 20019

Each piece of the cityscape and the three characters were cut out using a scroll saw. All of the wood pieces and the frame were primed with terra cotta primer. The paint is Maimeri Polycolor, a very light-fast and opaque sign-painter's paint.

I like this piece a lot. Below you'll find the process sketches...

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...which I began on my iPad. Initially this was going to be a traditional painting on canvas. Somehow these little guys with backpacks didn't hit the mark for me. So...

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...I began sketching some scary fellows, which weren't right either. But the little guys in the bottom center were promising. In the meantime...

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...I started thinking about the town--on paper. And I could finally...

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...start painting!

Thanks for checking it out, and please follow me on Instagram @tomsarmo_art

Alice on Stage

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Detail crop from the painting, Alice on Stage.

 

Alice Liddell was Lewis Carroll's muse for the two "Alice" books that he wrote. I've done many works based upon Carroll's other characters, but finally chose Alice as the subject. 

 

A photograph of Alice Liddell.

 

 While I used the dark hair and hairstyle of Alice Liddell as a jumping off point (I am no portrait artist) there was probably a bit of Ramona Quimby and Lucy Van Pelt in my mind as well.

Interestingly, Carroll wanted Alice Liddell's personality in his heroine, but chose Mary Hilton Badcock as the model for her looks. 

 

 He sent this photo of her to Sir John Tenniel, who firmly rejected using any model for his drawings.

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Before I began to paint Alice on Stage, I sketched many Alices. This is the one I finally chose for reference, and then decided to break with traditional Victorian-children's fashion and make Alice's coat very fancy for the painting.

Been resting up from a hard push and many paintings over the past six months. After some sculpting and other "relaxing" forms of art, I'm back at it--and enjoying the evolution of the new work. I will post some soon.

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Details!

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 A little fellow--a tiny detail from The Wizard.

Helikon Gallery's director and fellow illustrator Cayce Goldberg suggested we produce a book to go along with my exhibition, and I was blown away by his creative approach to book design. Filled with full color paintings, the book features many close-ups and details!

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 Bringing the reader's attention to the details within the artworks was only one of his ideas--and it was a lot of fun! As we worked on the book, Cayce searched the paintings for small, interesting components, which he then added to individual pages.

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Here's a shot of one of the interior pages. The skull is a detail from the painting, The Hermit.

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This is the back cover of Innate Tapestries: The Endless Stage, with cut-out details from The Hermit, and other complete paintings within the book.

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 Detail crop of The Owl and the Pussycat.

For me, a great deal of the enjoyment came from revisiting my own paintings in a new way. Studying the details close-up is not what I'm used to--often, painting is a process that's sort of unconscious working, so I'm not always totally aware of what's going into the artwork. That sounds strange, but it's true.

 

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Detail from The Voyage of the Aeolus.

 

Combing the works for details led to some pleasant surprises about how my hand works with the media, too.

 

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Here is a blown-up detail of the cricket from the painting, Pinocchio...

 

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 ...and the complete painting in the book.

 

I hope you found checking out the details enjoyable--thank you for visiting and supporting my art!

 The signed, 96 page, limited edition book is available here:

The Art of Tom Sarmo

 

Thanks again!

 

Character, Outline, and Texture

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I'm working on many pieces simultaneously right now, using a variety of media. As always, I am studying--and hopefully growing as well. Three ongoing chases:

1. Character

2. Integrating outline

3. Texture

 The Night Walkers. Honore Daumier.

Daumier is one of my favorite artists. Three aspects (among others) strongly appeal to me: 

1. His characters

2. His use of outline
(Scientific studies have shown that the outlines in his oil paintings are either lithographic crayon or charcoal.)

3. His use of texture.

Recently I've adopted him as my mentor.

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I'm continuing my life drawing practice with an eye on character.

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 St. Joseph the Worker (detail).
Just completed a commission in which I used both charcoal and black paint for the outline.

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And this work-in-progress is a study in character, outline, and texture. It's also prep-work for an upcoming project.

If I can produce a good painting and learn more in the process, it's been a good day. Thanks, Daumier!

And thank you--for stopping by!

Screenplay Process: Part Three

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The second painting for the Screenplay series is about the Editor. In the first post about Screenplay, you can see the sketch of an "editing machine" by clicking here:  

Screenplay part one

I'm not one for sticking to factual representations of anything, machinery or otherwise*. 

Here is the new version, penciled, then inked onto watercolor paper. I used a brush and ink for the outline; for the the crosshatching a Crow Quill 102 nib.

I tried out a lot of heads before settling on the one I wanted.

Here's my original composition sketch, but the expression pretty much came from...

...this selfie. Eeesh.

Penciled in and adding ink outline (sorry for the poor quality photo).

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More ink with the prelim sketch as reference. The final piece will be 12" x 12".

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And a cropped detail of the nearly finished ink drawing. There are more layers of cross-hatching to go than I want to think about. Watercolor washes will follow, and that'll be faster.

Thanks, as always, for reading!

Next up: The third painting in the series; the Projectionist.

*My resource for the editing machine

Screenplay Process: Part One

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I'm charged up to be part of an upcoming show at Helikon Gallery & Studios. The theme is film, and I was struggling to find a subject for the three, 12" paintings requested by the gallery. Luckily my wonderful muse gave me time to verbalize my difficulty.  She listened carefully, and then said "What about paintings that cover the the people and equipment involved in the process of film making; camera man, film editor, and projectionist? In your style of course." Perfect!

The thumbnail sketch above was the first idea for the camera man piece--along with a ghost...

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...then I tried out some characters and equipment. This part of the process--besides getting the idea--is often the most trying for me. The idea's there, but hasn't congealed. It's just an amorphous cloud in my head. Somehow I have to give the idea-cloud form, while researching the actual details. Do I do it this way every time I approach a project? No. My process is all over the board every time.

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 This time around I did more, mostly pathetic thumbnails...

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...and then landed this one. Frankenstein's creature has always fascinated me, so he (and his bride in this case) became the film's subject. Along with some anachronistic Victoriana of course.

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Then I got distracted by the sweet machinery involved with film editing, and worked this sketch up to a finish, just because it was pretty enjoyable. So much for a logical sequence.

Next time, more progress!

 I appreciate your interest--thanks for the visit. Check out Helikon Gallery's site here 

Helikon Gallery

and if you are in Denver, check out the actual gallery!

Illustration Construction: Part Three

Don't yet have a title for this in-process watercolor of the artist in his studio.
It's a section of one of three slightly different interiors based on the sketches of the previous two posts.  http://tomsarmo.blogspot.com/2013/06/illustration-construction-part-one.html

Took it into my head to work the same painting using three different media: Watercolor, oil, and gouache (or maybe acrylic?).  I reasoned that it would be good for me to focus for once, and believed I must finally choose a single medium in which to work. (Occasionally, self-delusion and irrationality visit my studio. They tend to hang around awhile, too.)

Some details of each prep-drawing follow.

Ended up tweaking every drawing, so they are slightly different. Sort of like that "Doublecheck" activity in Highlights magazine--sorry 'bout that.

This is a detail of the artist done on gessoed hardboard prepped for oil. It's brush and india ink.

 This one is a detail of the artist done on Crescent watercolor board, in sepia ink. Already begun to work the color  into it (see first pic above).

 This one is a detail of the artist in preparation for either gouache or acrylic (can't decide), again using india ink. (Btw, the ink has to be sealed prior to acrylic being applied.)

This is the artist's assistant (he holds the lantern-stick) in the oil painting. Good thing oils allow mistake-fixes.

This is the assistant in the watercolor version.

The assistant turned into three birds for the gouache/acrylic version. There's boredom in action for you.

It does seem a bit absurd to do a similar pic three times, but it's what I've set my mind to do.
 With many other irons in the fire, it may be awhile before these are completed. Oh well, wish me luck.

And thanks for checking in!

Leaving Home

Detail of a recent painting.

An artist's life is pretty sedate (translate to "boring except to the artist").  At least that's this artist's life.

Having some coffee, getting the dreaded social-media/internet/business out of the way, and heading up to the sanctuary of the studio.  A quick review of the previous day's work, choosing the music, and finally disappearing into the little world currently on the drawing table for the next 8 hours.

The process for this painting follows:

The door painting idea had its inception with these study sketches of boots. As I was drawing them, the picture concept jumped into my head. 

Boots to walking to traveling to leaving home. 

I guess.

 Then the concept of the door took shape and I threw out a rough page of sketches

after photographing this meticulously-devised prop.

I worked out another very rough sketch of the door character.

Then I painted the picture.

The Green Door Leaves Home. Oil on canvas, 6" x 18".

The idea of a door wrenching itself out of its frame and hitting the road pleased me quite a bit, probably because most days I really only leave my home in my head.

Thanks for reading!