Eastern Nebraska Veterans Home Project - "Defenders of Our Freedom"

United States Marine Corps

"Answering the Call"

So the First step is to actually draw! The debate for that was what size to draw them in. I decided on a two step process. This image is the first step.

It' a thumbnail sketch for the first one I've chosen to do- The Marines. (Each of the services is going to be done in a different era - for the Marines, I've chosen the present and the War in Iraq). In this small, quick sketch I've played with the layout of the different elements that I've selected for the piece. It's a bit hard to see with all the scribbling and erasing, but that's what a thumbnail sketch is for.

With this as a sort of road map, I'll be creating the final drawing. The second step in the drawing process will be a full size drawing of the painting. A 30" x 48" drawing. Doing it full size will really help with getting all the details into the finished painting that I want to include. It will slow things down at this stage, but it will speed up the painting stage (I think)! Anyway, Norman Rockwell - my personal hero - did alot of his paintings this way. So it should work great!

Monday, May 19, 2008. Okay so here's the drawing for the USMC in Iraq. And I know that you can barely see what's there. I thought that doing them on brown paper was a good idea, but I'm thinking maybe not. The brown paper is alot easier to come by in the proper size (30" x 48") And it's a lot more durable. But I'm even having a hard time seeing the final result. And I'm all about visual imagination. Anyway the next drawings will probably be on white paper of some sort.

But if you look real close here's what you are seeing-

2 Humvees - one to either side of the drawing. The bottom centerpiece is an M1A1 Tank.

Those are surrounded by soldiers.

Above the tank in the center are 2 Cobra Helicopters. On the left side there are 2 Sea Knight Helicopters and on the right there are 2 Super Stallions. Above everything is a KC-130 Hercules that has just released Flares.

I put a bit of color into this drawing just to help me see some of the possibilities for the final painting. And when I was manipulating the photo, I popped that color a bit just to be able to see the elements a bit more.

Wednesday, May 21 - Here's the drawing now transferred to the primed wood panel. It's a bit easier to see now.

What I did to transfer the drawing was to use a transfer paper that I found at my local art store. It's like the old carbon paper (for those of you old enough to remember what that was! *giggle*) without all the mess. It works great and it means that I don't have to re-draw everything, which is a long and time consuming process. It's why I decided to do the drawings full size. This way I make all the changes in the drawing and not on the "canvas". Sure does help.

Once all the elements were transferred I spray the whole panel with a workable fixative. That will keep the drawing in place while I paint.

BTW, I did find white paper in the right size. A wonderful manager at my local office supply/copy store worked with me and decided that it was okay to sell me blank paper from their extra large copy machine. Too cool!! So the rest of the drawings will be done on white paper.

May 23, Friday - I decided that the best way to start this painting, was to put in the main shadows in a medium brown tone. It's a tried and true method, that's come down from the old masters. I've done it a few times and found that it works well as long as you're sure of the elements in the painting and their positioning. It also helps when you have a painting that's high in details as this one is. You're able to really see those details and not loose them when you start blocking in the first layers of color.

I did get a bit bored with painting just the one color. LOL!!

Have a great holiday weekend!

Monday, May 26th -- We had our big Memorial Day Backyard Party yesterday. So today was really wonderfully quiet, And I couldn't resist working on this. So the first layer of color has gone into the background. As usual this first layer will take the longest to dry (you know I have never completely figured out why that is, I just know that it does)

It really does help to define the painting. Doesn't it? You can start to see the clouds of sand that are blowing up and the contours of the hills are starting to show up. It's giving the painting it's first hints of dimension.

I also started to add some of the darker shadows into the men. That will help me to retain the details from the drawing.

BTW, this piece of the set now has a name. It's title is --

"Answering the Call"

Monday, June 2, 2008 - As is normal at this point in the painting process, progress slows way down.

I'm adding the first layer of details and that takes a lot longer than blocking in background color. I've put a series of photos below. These show the progress of the last week. I think that this coming week will speed up some as I'm becoming more familiar with the various elements in the painting. (Painting humvees is just a bit different for me! *giggle*).

Tuesday, June 3rd 2008, I was able to do some more work on the background, that first layer was finally dry enough. I deepened the blue in the sky and you can now see some of the sand clouds starting. It will take a lot more layers to get the look I want though. Also did some more work on the left Humvees and one of the front soldiers. I got a bit cross-eyed working on the detail so I finished the day with just adding black to the Marines Seal. Scroll down a little and see some detail images of the work so far.

Wednesday, 6/04/08 - This picture isn't great. The light in the studio wasn't cooperating. Lots lore light on the left side than on the right. But you can see that I worked on the left Humvee and on the Marines Seal and on the sand in the lower left section. I'll take some close ups of the work on the sand in the next few days. It's really coming along nicely and I like the effect I'm getting. It's actually achieved by rolling the brush around sort of randomly on the canvas.

I think I will have to tone down the color in the seal. It's so bright right now that it's almost the only thing you see in the painting.

Along with painting the Marines "Answering the Call", I've been doing research for the other 5 paintings. Even though I have a sketch for the Navy Painting, I've been looking for photos with more details on the elements that I'm using. But those are very difficult to find. Photography was not very advanced in the 1940's. So ...

Here's an image of my husband building a model of the F6F-Hellcat. It's one of the planes that was on board the USS Princeton. When he's done I'll be able to take photos of the model in any of the positions that I want to include in the painting!! Pretty nifty don't you think?? So do you think I can talk him into building a ship or two? *giggle*

Thursday, 6/5/07 - I worked on the front soldier on the left, the rest of the base colors to the Marine seal, the bottom section of the tank and some of the shadows and the next layer of sand on the right side. It was a good day. It was one of those days where I get "lost" in the painting. By that I mean that the laundry may have been calling but I didn't hear it. And the dishes in the sink may have been hollering but I was oblivious! It was a wonderful day! LOL!

One of the dilemmas in doing a painting with so much detail in it and with such recognizable elements is to figure out just how much of the detail to put in. If you put in too little the elements won't look real enough and if you put in too much you just get a mess and you could be working on the piece into the next millennium. What I try to do is to step back about 8 - 10 ft. and from that distance you can decide if the element (the tank, soldier humvee etc...) look like what you want them to be. If so, then you're done with the detail level. If not then you have to add a bit more. Below are some close ups of the separate elements.

Friday, 6/06/08 - 4:30 pm - Well, it's the end of a great week of progress, even if I do say so myself. Below is the progress for the last two days. Nothing earth shattering here. More of the same. Working on adding the detail. Some times it's tedious, but then again like the last few days sometimes I get lost and magickal things seem to happen on the canvas. *giggle*

My only problem is that the blue in the sky hasn't really dried enough for me to work on the helicopters and the plane. It's still a bit tacky and if I try to paint on that all I will do is pull the paint below up. A rather frustrating exercise in futility. Been there done that! LOL!! So I'll just have to wait. So I'll turn all the fans on in the studio over the weekend and hopefully that will help.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - Finally the blue for the sky was dry enough so I could work on the third layer! I'd left the ceiling fans on in the studio for the weekend, but on Sunday afternoon it still was tacky. So I turned on the space heater too. THAT finally did the trick.

So I know that as you scroll back and forth between the two images (Friday's and today's) that there doesn't seem to be much difference in the two sky backgrounds. But really there is! I used a couple of different color blues to help give it depth (Prussian Blue, Cerulean Blue and Ultramarine Light). I worked the colors in a sort of mottled effect. It mirrors the mottled effect in the sand.

I finished the soldiers on the left side, worked a bit on the shadows of the soldiers and on the sand behind the tank.

Now on to the helicopters and the KC-130.

Thursday, 6/12/2008 - So the extreme color difference between this image and the one for Tuesday is simply the time of day that I take the picture. Tuesday's photo was taken in the afternoon and today's photo was taken in the morning. The windows in my studio face West so they get a lot of afternoon sun. Truly amazing isn't it? This image is far truer to the actual color than the others. When I take the final image of the completed piece sometimes it takes days for me to get the right lighting. I think for these pieces I may call in my good friend Eric Francis who is a professional photographer.

Anyway, I think this one is in the home stretch. I'm working on the aircraft now. Getting the flares in for the KC-130 is a bit difficult and will take a few layers to get it to look right, but it will get there. I was hoping to get this on finished this week, but it looks like it will be next week before it's done.

Happy Friday the 13th!! It's a very lucky day! Really!

Worked more on the helicopters yesterday and a bit on the flares for the KC-130, although I don't think you can see that in this image. I have to wait until the yellow in the flares dries, then I can add the white. The yellow will then become the ring around the burst of light of the flare. It really helps to make them pop. I'll get the helicopters finished today I'm sure. Then they'll have to dry over the weekend. I want to get some of the sand whirling up in front of them but I can't do that until they're dry, other wise I'll just have a nasty mess on my hands.

Monday, June 16, 2008 - As I hoped on Friday, I completed all the helicopters and worked some more on the USMC Seal and did some small detail work on the tank. Then I had to let the whole thing dry some over the weekend. Today I hope to get some of the finishing done and bring the whole piece together. Then it's on to the next piece in the series.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - Well here's the finished product. Yippee!!! At least I think it's finished. *giggle* I'll let it sit for a little while and then come back to look at it and see. I worked quite a bit on the Angel Wing Flares from the KC-130 and I think I got it right. And I worked on bring the blowing up sand in front of the Helicopters. And I think that that helped to give those elements the right depth. I also put some of the blowing sand up in front of the legs and feet of some of the soldiers that are farther back.

Well on to the next one!



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