I’m probably best known for my night-time cityscapes. I’ve sold plenty of them. You’ll see a lot of them on my website. What you don’t see is how they’re created.
This is a painting of downtown Indianapolis at night. I love the feeling of nighttime with its lights, colors, and sounds. I wanted to develop that atmosphere in this painting. First, I put a whole bunch of lights on the canvas with white blobs of paint. Next I put in blocks of buildings and try to develop a feeling of perspective. Most importantly to me are cars. I start drawing abstract automobile shapes, usually with one main car and pieces of cars behind it.
After they are sketched in, I start slapping color in, usually yellows and deep blues to create the feeling of streetlight and nighttime. I have to have red cars somewhere. The closer cars will have splashes of colors to show reflections of the colors around them.
So now you can see how I start. Check out my site in two or three nights to see how my painting is progressing.
Filed under Oil Painting Technique by on Feb 17th, 2009. 3 Comments. 
This still life shows paintbrushes in a mason jar and tubes of paint sitting on a chair. The chair is included to show atmospheric perspective. It demonstrates the size of the jar against a larger object. Also notice the reflections in the seat of the chair.
Filed under Oil Painting Technique by on Dec 26th, 2008. 2 Comments.
I’d spent the morning with my three daughters. We had fixed breakfast over a camp stove in Brown County State Park. After we ate, we threw the Frisbee around. Our next destination was Nashville. There were a lot of fun shops and galleries to check out. By this time we were starved. We stopped at a little restaurant for lunch.
I tried to create the mood by not being too photorealistic, but more impressionistic. Jennifer, on the left, is reflected in the mirror to the left of her. Sarah checks out the menu, while Nicole enjoys visiting. I painted the window a whitish yellow and matched the same color in Jennifer’s hair, showing reflection. It continues down to the table below it. To the right on that table can be seen the reflection of the chair below it. Sarah and Nicole are lit up on their left side by the window with a shadow on the right. The painting shows the cozy warmth of being sisters together.
Filed under Oil Painting Technique by on Dec 13th, 2008. 2 Comments.
This is a small body of water in Ohio County, Indiana. To do a lake picture you draw a horizon line, then put in the features above it, like the trees and sky. Next, you do a mirror image of them below. There are ripples in water, so just paint small white streaks across the reflected objects. Even better, rub your finger across them to give a distortion that waves or ripples would make. On trunks of trees put in a light side and a shadow side to give depth and shape.
Filed under Oil Painting Technique by on Oct 29th, 2008. 4 Comments.
On a rainy night everyone parks along main street and go in to their favorite hangouts to be warm with their buddies. The cars wait outside in their parking stalls. As you look at the night sky, the color is actually black. Lights shine from above on the cars and wet roads beneath them, yet at the same time the walls behind are lit as well. The reflections of the lighted establishments glow. We don’t know what color the car and truck really are. All we really see is black. The buildings in the distance disappear into the night sky.
Filed under Artist Tips by on Oct 23rd, 2008. 1 Comment.
These are demos from the oil painting class I teach. The first one was from the first day. I just worked on the lay in and the basic color schemes. The next one was on the second day. I look for the colors and values, highlights, and reflected light. Look at the orange. It has a red reflected light from the apple on the right.
Filed under Oil Painting Technique by on Oct 12th, 2008. 2 Comments.
The Ohio River is the border between Indiana and Kentucky. One of the most scenic and historic towns in Indiana is Madison. There are a lot of old mansions there. Each year they have boat races on the river. I really love it there.
One night I took my wife there to spend the night. We stayed in a hotel at the east end of town up on a hill. We really didn’t know what it would look like in the daytime. When we got up in the morning we stepped out on the balcony to see this spectacular scene – there was a bridge going over the river to Kentucky. Mist was rising from the water. The fall colors were brilliant.
When I painted the scene I did everything from the river and up the hills in a very pale white, then gently layed in some color to give the misty, foggy feeling. The bridge was done loosely with faint portrayal of structure. I painted the river white and put a little reflection in it to make it “wet.” There is not a lot of detail in the trees or buildings, just a block of color here and there. The lone car on the road gives life to the picture.
Filed under Oil Painting Technique by on Sep 15th, 2008. 2 Comments.
I’m almost embarrassed to show you this painting. I did this painting in college. I think the fish are fun, but the red, pointy borders are horrible!! Still, I portrayed different kinds of fish with light reflecting from them. The big fish at the top is scary and looks like he’ll eat you. I’m not quite sure why I put this one on the blog, and I’ll probably regret it, but what the heck.
Filed under Oil Painting Technique by on Jul 29th, 2008. 6 Comments.
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