Winter Sun: A Wood Cut-Out

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Last year I delved into monochromatic painting in earnest. Greyed-blues on top of a terra cotta primer became a favorite, although muted orange on top of chrome green took a close second. 

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Planned this one out using paper cut-outs arranged within the frame. You can see from the photo upper left that the original face was a sour-looking old-man-face, haha. That changed pretty quickly.

Once the proportions were figured out, the buildings and the sun were drawn with brush and black acrylic, thickly outlined, and cut with a scroll saw (which is a fun and deeply satisfying part of the process).

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And then I painted it, assembled it, and varnished it!

Don't want to add tedious details here, but if you have questions, I am happy to answer any. Just message me on Instagram: 

@tomsarmo_art 

(because Blogspot won't let me respond here anymore for some reason, and unfortunately there's no help or support).

Thanks!

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

Landscape and Urban Sketching

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Last Sunday's Plein Air group decided on an urban site. Instead of my paint set-up, 

I'd brought a sketchbook and drawing materials, planning on doing 

some research for a new project.

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When doing on-location sketching of this type, I usually go for 

simplicity and quick studies, but...

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...this intricate scene caught my eye. The planned research sketching went right out the window.

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The complexity was a bit daunting, but decided to interpret the scene while 

capturing much of the detail.

 

Materials: Kona Classic toned paper sketchbook, Verithin Colored Pencil (Scarlet), 

Pentel Brushpen, Pilot Hi-Tech-C Pen (03), Uniball Signo (for white).

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

A Painting Sequence

 Silent Village (detail). Private collection.

 Continuing an exploration of greyed color in a limited range.

The old photo of Robin Hood's Bay

 Totally intrigued by the village (see post http://tomsarmo.blogspot.com/2013/02/english-village-smugglers-and-secret.html ), I enlarged it and found this great section of old houses.

 That led to this slightly exaggerated drawing on a board primed with cad red.

 I threw in an under-painting of grey--a bit of an experiment.

I scrubbed in very greyed-down color--thinly. I was going for a snaking back of the buildings, so I used the blues for that.  I wanted muted color and close values for a haunted sort of look. Still, there wasn't quite enough contrast.

Silent Village. Acrylic on cradled hardboard, 8" x 8", Private collection

The finished piece. No cheerfulness here I hope.

Thanks for the visit!