A little history: Last year, John built an Asian-style pagoda for our neighbor across the street, and together we turned the main rafter beams into dragon heads. It was a wonderful collaboration – which even ended up inspiring a painting – and we’ve been looking for a chance to repeat it ever since. Enter my mom’s house … carving out bear heads for the second-floor overhang has easily been the most enjoyable step in this building process. Here’s how it went:

1. The Template: After spending a long evening Googling countless variations of “bear head”, we gathered enough photo reference that I felt comfortable drawing a bear in profile. I sketched the outline out on a piece of plywood, and John cut it out so that we could trace my drawing onto the beams.

2. Sawing and Gluing: To make the beam ends large enough to fit the bear heads (and to give the roofline a flared lip), we needed to make each one out of two pieces of wood. First John carved out the lower jaw with a chainsaw, and then we glued the top piece on before he sawed out the rest of the profile. The eyes and ears were also drilled out shallowly. Here’s a bear after the rough-cut stage:

3. Routing and Sculpting: Sculpting the bears was another 2-step process. First John and I traced the curves of the bears’ fur with a router, which etched a hard outline into the beams. Then we used angle grinders to round off the bears’ forms, sand the noses smooth, and carve into the eyes. Renée came to visit us in in the middle of this step, and it was great to be able to give her a first-hand tour of our bear factory (and to see how pleased she was with them).

4. Staining: We ended up using four different stains to finish off the bears – dark brown for the fur, tan for the snout, ivory for the teeth, and black for the tips of the noses. Staining them was a bit of a shock for me, after having spent so much time with the natural wood color, but we’re all happy with the results.

5. Hoisting them up: Actually putting the bears in place took quite an effort, but it wasn’t nearly as demanding as raising the trusses that they run off of! Each truss demanded three big lifts: up from the ground onto the lower roof, up onto the 2nd floor sill plate, and then raised vertically into place. Thankfully John’s employee Murray was able to work with us on the first couple of trusses, after which they became progressively easier … until the last one, which had to be hoisted in a vertical position from the outset, since there was hardly any sill plate left to rest it on.

The bears themselves were each sandwiched between two trusses, using liquid nails and a whole lot of timber screws. It’s a little strange posting pictures at this point, since the last set of bears and the roof itself will be such an integral part of the final effect. Tomorrow we’ll finish off the last bears for the end beams, which will be full beams running all the way up to the peak of the roof. Here’s a shot of our raw materials:

Until next time….

Time flies when you’re having fun! Work on my mother’s house has been a blast, and we’ve come a long way since my last construction post (way back when we had just laid plywood for the lower floor). Since then, we’ve:

• framed and sheathed the first floor walls
• framed the second floor walls
• roughed out the main stairs
• laid plywood for the second floor
• milled and installed beam ends for the first floor overhang
• sheathed and covered the lower roof, including two curved cricket areas
• raised the second floor trusses and installed special beam ends for the second floor overhang (see my next post)

Here are some pics from along the way:

On Saturday, August 28th I am offering a one-day portrait painting workshop in my mother’s studio in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Participants will learn my process for completing a full-color oil portrait sketch from a live model.

My focus will be on demonstrating how I approach creating paintings that I intend to start and finish on the same day. Although we will be painting a portrait, the techniques and principles offered can be applied to any genre – landscape, still-life, etc.

During this workshop I will be painting all day, explaining every step from start to finish as I work. Attendees are welcome to paint along and receive guidance & critiques, or just watch as I demonstrate. Adults and teens of all levels of experience are welcome. Please see the supplies list below if you would like to paint.

Time:

Saturday, August 28th, 2010 · 9:30am–4:30pm

Place:

Studio of Renée Daily
57 Academy Road · Bala Cynwyd, PA · 19004
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Registration & Fee:

The fee for this workshop is $150.
To register, please email me: info@jqdaily.com

Supplies List:

• Bagged lunch
• One canvas between 9”x12” and 16” x 20” in size (I’ll probably be using 12”x16”). I find it easiest to work on a canvas that has been toned a warm, light gray and allowed to dry beforehand. Please contact me with any questions about toning your canvas.
• Easel (any compact easel is fine, but no tabletops)
• Palette
• Brushes
• Paper towels
• Linseed Oil or Mineral Spirits (I use Gamblin cold-pressed linseed oil)

Paints:

Anything you like is fine, but if you are buying paints for the first time I recommend the following…

• Titanium White
• Ivory Black
• Raw umber
• Ultramarine Blue
• Viridian
• Genuine Naples Yellow Light or Cadmium Yellow Pale
• Yellow Ochre
• Venetian Red
• Indian Red

Please contact me if you cannot bring an easel or have any questions about the supplies list.

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This painting was created over two days during my most recent portrait adventure in England, and it represents my first commission to paint a house. Crockham Grange is the home of Randolph and Catherine Churchill, and I’m happy with how it translated into paint.

Preparations

Although I had already visited Randolph and Catherine several times before, I didn’t know their property well enough to approach this painting with a pre-made composition in my head. So I flew to England with three sets of stretcher bars – 14”, 18”, and 24”, and on my first night in Kent I stretched a 14” x 24” canvas and toned it lightly with raw umber and ultramarine blue.

Day 1

I started this painting in late morning two days later, and I began with an umber block-in to avoid the sorts of drawing errors which can occur when I just dive in with color. 14” x 24” is larger than most of my alla prima work, and this is a fairly dense composition. Plus the morning sun shone from behind the house (throwing the whole front face into shadow), so I felt good about just pushing around brown shapes while I waited for the sun to move:

I rarely begin this way with paintings that I intend to complete on the first or second day, since I generally don’t like fighting against the wet umber with my colors. Therefore I only carried this underpainting far enough to convince me that my basic shapes were reasonably placed. You can also see that I held back from massing in the larger trees on either side of the house. I think the picture above represents about an hour and a half of work, after which I went in for lunch.

By the time I came out again, the sun had come round, and I began blocking in my colors. Unfortunately, I neglected to take more photographs along the way, as I was quickly consumed with my work and rather nervous about how it was progressing.

My uneasiness probably stemmed from the amount of aesthetic decisions I had to make on the fly, many of which hinged on the weather. For one thing, the sun kept peaking in and out, and I had a difficult time deciding whether I liked the scene better in sun or in shade. Also, the sky behind the house was almost uniformly white, while the sky behind ME was light blue with cheerful little clouds, and I spent a long time wondering if I should try to superimpose the blue sky into my picture. In both cases, I sort of mushily split the difference, and decided to let the following day’s weather dictate the path that the painting would ultimately follow.

I worked for just under four hours that afternoon, after which the sun had moved beyond where I would want it to be. By the time I packed up for the day I had more or less covered my canvas with local color, experimented with handling some of the architectural details, and made a lot of mental notes for the following day. I then went inside to inspect my painting under indoor lighting and called my wife for moral support.

Day 2

I woke up the next day intensely interested in the weather forecast. If the day was cloudy, I could actually work from about 11am until 8pm under *reasonably* consistent light (this is the great advantage of cloudy days). As it turned out, the sun prevailed, leaving me with little to do that morning but wait and contemplate my plan of attack. I started painting around 12:30 – even though the sun was still behind the house – so that I could work up some momentum before a quick lunch.

One of the keys to successful outdoor painting is to realize which elements of your scene are affected the most by changing light and which elements remain more constant. In my case, the shadows cast by the roofs onto the front faces of the buildings and by the trees across the lawn were most affected by the position of the sun. Meanwhile, the trees themselves and many of the plants offered a wider window of opportunity – especially the tree on the right, which was more or less in shadow the entire day. The sky also remained a relatively consistent powder blue, allowing me to pick and choose between slowly drifting clouds whenever they looked best.

I estimated that my critical work would need to take place somewhere between 2:00 and 3:30. This actually worked out quite well, as it forced me to hit the ground running after lunch and quickly commit to my basic shadow shapes. I then spent the rest of the day filling in details based on a combination of memory and observation. I was also graced with a cameo appearance by Daisy, the Churchills’ Daschund, who thankfully stood around long enough for me to dab her into the lawn :)

Reflections

In all, this painting took me about 12 hours over two days, which I hope demonstrates that plein air painting needn’t necessarily be a mad 2-hour race to catch the fleeting effects of sunlight upon a once-in-a-lifetime scene. Although my most critical patterns of light and shade needed to be captured within a 2-hour window, these patterns were laid in on top of a whole day’s worth of preparatory work. And they were followed by almost 4 hours of texturing, detail work, and edge variation.

When it goes well, making outdoor paintings like this feels like riding a wave: you pick a good spot, paddle out and wait around, paddle furiously for a brief crucial stretch, and – if you’ve set yourself up well – happily cruise to the shore for as long as your momentum lasts.

The first painting is of Randolph’s son John Winston Churchill, great-great-grandson of Sir Winston S. Churchill. “John-John” is a delightful little chap, and he got a big kick out seeing a painting of himself! (When a two and a half year old recognizes himself in his portrait, it’s a good sign that the painting is shaping up okay). He was also surprisingly amiable about “posing”, which involved his sitting through Shrek and Thomas the Tank Engine while I put the finishing touches on his portrait.

The second portrait is of Randolph’s father, Winston S. Churchill (grandson of the famous Prime Minister). Winston had passed on only days before my previous visit to take photos of John-John, and Randolph asked me then if I would be willing to attempt a posthumous portrait of his father.

I don’t particularly enjoy having to paint from photographs, and I particularly don’t enjoy working from photographs that I haven’t taken myself. But from the first mention of this project, I could see that it was meant to happen, and the creation of this painting was remarkably smooth from start to finish. For me, it’s a good demonstration of the fact that when we are alert enough to trustingly follow the path laid before us, we will be given all the help that we need. I wish I could be so all the time!

As an added bonus, Randolph and Catherine asked me to do a painting of their home during my stay. Read about the creation of this painting ›

This Summer I will be offering an 8-week portrait painting class through The Art School in Vestal, NY. Attendees will learn traditional oil painting techniques while working from a live model.

By alternating demonstration and instruction, I will guide students through every step of my painting process: sepia underpainting – color block in – rendering – finishing touches. By the end of the class, students will have watched me craft a fully-realized portrait painting and also completed one themselves. Advanced students are also welcome to paint along on days when I’m demonstrating. Adults and teens of all levels of experience are welcome.

Although our focus will be on portraiture, the techniques and principles offered can also be applied to any type of oil painting – landscape, still-life, genre scene, etc. During the course of the class, we will discuss:

• Materials (paints, brushes, palette, etc.)
• Creating a composition
• Arranging lighting
• Uses for photography in painting
• Strategies for painting outdoors

Time:

Wednesday evenings, 6 – 9pm
July 7th–August 25th

Place:

801 Main Street · Vestal, NY · 13850
Get Directions ›

Registration & Fee:

The fee for this class is $225.
To register, please call The Art School at (607) 797-2517 or email info@theartschoolonline.com

Supplies List:

• One White Canvas between 12”x16” and 16”x20” in size
• Easel (any compact easel is fine, but no tabletops)
• Palette
• Brushes and a Palette Knife
• A couple of small cotton rags (I cut up old t-shirts)
• Paper towels
• Refined or Cold-pressed Linseed Oil (any brand is fine – I use Gamblin cold-pressed)
• Mineral spirits (If you like … I personally don’t use them)
• Raw Umber paint (any brand is fine – I use Gamblin’s raw umber)

*Raw umber is necessary for the underpainting stage. I will discuss my color palette on
the first day of class, and students will have a couple weeks to purchase any necessary
colors. Students who already have their own colors are welcome to use them.

Please contact me if you cannot bring an easel or have any questions about the supplies list.

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