I recently submitted a painting to Grey Cube gallery art contest ‘Animals‘. No, I don’t usually paint animals, but I chose the cover, and one of the internal illustrations from my recent book ‘The Alphabet Clan‘ and the cover was accepted!
There are so many species on the brink of extinction, hence this influence.
A couple people suggested some markings on the spider – so I put a couple dabs of white on when I’d finished painting the stucco at the other end of the house…..
I’m guessing here at spider markings…
Then I thought I’d add some red to make it more feroceous-looking.
That’s it, I’m done!
I used my rusty knowledge of six legged things to come up with head, thorax, abdomen. I was thinking of a straw colored spider.
Then I went and did a bit of research – spiders don’t have a separate head and thorax, so there was a bit of a rework in order to make this anatomically correct.
Then I realized I’d put the legs on the abdomen, not the thorax, so a bit of reworking again to make it correct.
Fixed all the booboos and starting to work on the cast shadow.
Shadows in and the eyes. All I need now is the twinkle in those eyes.
The full view. And you can see I’ve also completed the maintenance on the edge of the roof. Of course now Ken’s thinking I should add some markings to make it more dangerous looking. Maybe.
I wasn’t happy with the shadows, still. Thought they were too dark. I experimented with going over some with a thinned down layer of Kilz2.
It’s subtle but the shadows on the lower part and the left are ligher, and I’m happier with them.
Lightened all the existing shadows and finished the rest. Then my sweetheart tempted me with an offroading bicycle ride, so I decided the Spider itself can wait.
Well, I’m saying spider but I’m actually still on the web. No pun intended.
Today I had company. There were two water main breaks in the area. This was the one I located.
I continued working on the shadow this afternoon. I’d spent the morning prepping other parts of the house for a lick of paint, sanding and putting in filler.
Can you spot the mistake? I had to go white it out with Kilz. Fortunately in the afternoon’s dessicating breeze, I didn’t have to wait long for it to dry.
On two occasions I had an audience as the workers vented the hydrant just outside the corner of my property and created a lake in the street.
The workers wrapped up just when I had finished the shadows for all the spokes, so it seemed like a good time to quit.
Just keep going. Storm is coming in, but I want to finish the web today.
This is the dangerous bit. Just to the right of the rabbit brush bush is a nest if fire ants. I already have my share of bites.
Ok, that’s enough for today.
I decided to do a new mural. I’d never been happy with the moon, but had never really made the effort to fix the problems:
So seeing as I have more time on my hands, I thought there was no excuse. I had enough Kilz to go over the moon.
I sketched out guidelines for the rays of the web using a string and two pencils, so I could more accurately get the fall of the threads.
Painting in the top of the rays where the side of the garage is in the shade.
Getting there! Decided to put a rough outline of the spider in to figure out how big I want it to be.
That’s enough for the first day. It’s a really rough siding board and not easy to paint detail on! And maybe my neighbors driving by will enjoy a bit of entertainment as the spider progresses.
On Friday I hung a group show featuring work of pets and animals at the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley. It features the following artists (just in the order they are on the wall): Sandy Zelasko, Mike Holder, Kelly Vela, Jeni Bate, Terry d’Chacon, Kay Levie, Diane Morgan and sculpture pieces by Janice Osborne and Alana Marston. The show will be up through June 28th.
From the right: 4 paintings by Diane Morgan, 3 photos by Kay Levie, 1 painting by Terry Chacon. Under, a basket of prints by Mike Holder
Four paintings by Terry Chacon on the right, to the left, a photo by Kelly Vela, two paintings by Jeni Bate and two of Janice Osborne’s glass sculptures
From Right, 2 paintings by Terry Chacon, 7 photos by Kelly Vela, 2 paintings by Jeni Bate and 2 glass sculptures by Janice Osborne.
From the left this time, 4 photos by Sandy Zelasko, 3 paintings by Mike Holder, 4 photos by Kelly Vela.
Four glass animals by Janice Osborne.
Four horse pieces by Alana Marston.
#1206 Three for the road. Oil on canvas, 8×8″. $50.
The inspiration for this change of direction was that I hung this little unwired canvas on my ‘drying hooks’ in the studio, by its corner. The scene itself is entirely out of my head. The direction was one I followed, as you will see in later posts. It has also spawned other (as yet unrealized ideas)….
Skyscapes for the Soul - Jeni Bate 