Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Cow Painting Guest Post

Yesterday I shared with you a cow painting painted by my little brother. 

011

He documented the process for the blog. The blog that he makes fun of me for.  Isn’t that thoughtful (the documenting, not the mocking)?  What is happening to my brother?  I’m worried.

I’m so glad he documented the process because I would not have realized how much thought and time went into this darling little painting.

Take it away little brother…

Picnik collage1

It all started when my bestest/only sister asking me to paint a cow picture.  I did a quick Google images search and found a cow pic that I thought would be cool.

Now that I was getting going,  I thought..I should learn how to paint.  Kind of a big deal if you are supposed to paint a picture for your sister for Christmas and you are very skeptical of your skills or lack there of.....so off to Google I went.  I searched "how to paint with acrylics"  and kablam, I find artisfun.com. So I read some stuff on there like the supply list and the tutorials. I found the photo realism one pretty cool so I thought I would try that.

I enlarged the photo and then did a grid method light box transfer…which sounds fancy but all you do is put it on a light box and transfer the picture and shading lines onto a new piece of paper.

Picnik collage2

Now it's go time.  Can i actually do this?.....meh, let's give it the ol' college effort.  Any good college effort includes Monday night football and Coors Light. Thanks Ray Lewis for the pep talk.

Picnik collage3

I painted for 3 hour the first night.  I had no clue what I was doing so I grabbed my picture and put paint to canvas. I started by blocking in the sky then moved to the grass and lastly blocked in the black of the cows. The next night I painted for 1 hour.  I didn't like how the grass turned
out...looked goofy to me so I went back over it with a standard flat brush and blotted the paint on the canvas kind of just mixing as i went. I also blocked in the white of some of the cow.  I added more paint to the sky due to the fact the lines were slightly visible.  The next hour I added more paint to sky and tried to get better clouds.  I then blocked the background out and layered another coat of white on the cows and blocked in an off white for the shading effect.  The next hour was spent on more detailed work to the front cow’s nose (pain in my arse) I then added more off white, colored in the faces knees ankles and back legs with a little shading . I finished all the background trees bushes fields and shading.  I spent 45 minutes more on nose work shading and tree shading tried blocking in the eyes with lighter color.  I had to spend 45 minutes more on the nose and the eyes….the EYES, they have souls!!! Lastly, I painted the sides of the canvas and sprayed with a glass finish. 

All told, I spent about 10.5 hrs and 50-65 bucks.  There are now two cows and a
lot of supplies (8 canvases, countless paint brushes, and enough paint to go a ways) to further continue painting because it was fun.  

~lil bro

A guest post from my brother. I never thought the day would come.  Maybe he won’t make fun of Décor and the Dog anymore.  Wait, who am I kidding?

Any painters out there?  Any wanna-be painters?  Do your siblings mock your blog?

18 comments:

  1. That was a fantastic first time painting!!!! I'm so impressed!

    Michelle, don't feel bad, I get mocked all the time about my blog too! They all read it though�� because their little jokey comments are about that days post!! Lol!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So funny that he makes fun of your blog, but now he is a guest blogger - haha!

    He did a fantastic job on that painting, way to go little brother!

    ReplyDelete
  3. He did a great job! A lot of work really went into that and I am impressed. I have no artistic skills. My mother and uncle can draw really well but I guess that gene skipped me! Oh well! Oh and no one really knows about my blog and whenever I have talked about blogs with non-blog people they have absolutely no idea of what I am talking about! By the way, I just sent you an email...
    -Shelley

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really like the idea of using a grid to paint. Whenever I try to do freehand, I get frustrated and give up. Definitely worth trying!

    My sister reads my blog every day. She's supportive of everything though. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh my gosh. I love how he's all "I have no idea what I'm doing" and then creates this gorgeous painting. I also have no idea what I'm doing with paint and a canvas, and you'd be able to tell by my end result. Totally impressed by his mad painting skills.

    ReplyDelete
  6. My brother reads my blog and then pretends he doesn't! And sometimes leaves snide comments for me - haha! But hey, they're our little brothers - we have to love them! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sounds like he uncovered a hidden talent, there is no WAY I could pull that off on a first try!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love the painting! Your brother is very talented. If he opened an Etsy shop, I would be a customer.

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a great painting!! Totally inspiring me to finally fill up those empty canvases I have in my closet...hmmm

    ReplyDelete
  10. It looks so good! Even with a grid I doubt I could pull this off!

    ReplyDelete
  11. He did a wonderful job! You can tell he cares a lot about you to create a beautiful painting, and then to discuss the process so you could blog about it! What a nice brother.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wow! I never realized what a process it would be, but it looks amazing. What a great bro.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Whoa, 10 hours on a gift for his sis? Your brother deserves some kind of sibling award. (You can delete this comment if necessary.) I think the only thing my brother ever spent 10 hours on is winning some kind of video game.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I am impressed! Your lil bro is very talented..it looks wonderful..he really put a lot of effort into this artwork.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Clearly being funny runs in your family :)
    But what a sweet brother! His work of art is quite impressive for a first timer!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow! What a fantastic and thoughtful gift! =) I'd buy a cow painting - they look so happy!

    ReplyDelete
  17. So fun that he took pictures so you could post this on your blog. :) My "little" brother (he's almost 23) has been asking me to feature his apartment on my blog as a sort of "What not to do" post. He lives with 3 other guys in Phoenix and they decorate with other peoples' trophies that they buy from Goodwill, and the tackiest lamps and art that they can find....

    ReplyDelete
  18. I love it! I'm going to email this to my son and just hope he'll paint me one!!!! He did a great job.
    Debbie

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

My blog has moved

You will be automatically redirected to the new address.

If that does not occur, please visit http://www.decorandthedog.net'.