Originally submitted at Jerry’s Artarama Art Supplies

The Perfect Backdrop for Color Mixing This disposable paper palette offers the unique advantages of mixing on a toned, neutral grey background. Unlike other white colored paper palettes the neutral grey background lets you see color as it will appear on your painting. Each 50 sheet pad comes with a…

Grey Matters Paper Palettes

Perfect Solution for My Needs

Describe Yourself: Artist

Primary use: Business

Was this a gift?: No

I make my full time living from art, so good tools are important to me. This gray palette paper is just what I need for quick painting sessions between other demands of the day. I paint a lot of portrait commissions, and the gray color really helps with mixing light flesh tones (as compared to a white palette). The paper is pretty thin so you’ll need to support it (see photo). It has a smooth gloss coating so the paint doesn’t soak into it at all. Well worth a dime per session (I buy the 12 x 18 size and cut it in half). I’ve tried lots of other palette solutions and this is the best I’ve found so far. Give it a try!

(legalese)

Acrylic on 15 x 17 panel, for Etsy commission, bib overalls requested to be included, from customer reference below:

First painting I’ve tried with backlit subject.

“Anna 1″ acrylic on 12 x 16 panel, using as reference a photo I took last spring. Thanks Anna!

This was commissioned as an anniversary gift from a son to his folks. Based on a nostalgic, romantic snapshot (below) from the 1970′s. They loved it

Portrait of twelve relatives commissioned by a local couple, B&L. Acrylic on panel, 20 x 32 inches.

Reference provided was actually a “photoshopped” composite of three different photos taken at different times and places.

Thanks B&L!

The portrait will be framed and hung on the brick wall behind.

Whew! Everything went swimmingly for my presentation yesterday. I appreciated the overflow crowd in OSA’s main hall. I gave a whirlwind overview of how to develop your inner artist, develop artistic skill, market your work, sell your work, and use positive energy generated from that cycle to spin the next cycle…circling back with renewed confidence and enthusiasm to further developing artistic skills. I did a demo (under the slant mirror on the stage so people could see) of laying out a limited palette of colors, mixing flesh tones, & mixing “black.” Then I did a quick painting demo of roughing-in, from photo reference I took a few months ago. I enjoyed the process more than I thought I might, and look forward to similar opportunities that might come along in the future.

You don’t have to be an OSA member to attend. As far as I can remember, this will be the first time I’ve had to speak in front of a crowd since 1977! At that rate, my next presentation will be when I’m 93, so you’d better come to this one.

Here’s the blurb from the OSA newsletter: (link will only work for this month, otherwise check the archives)

SOLD via Etsy

Completed commission for a family who by sheer coincidence (since they found me on Etsy) live ten minutes away, so I hand delivered it and got to see the subject of my painting!

SOLD via Etsy

Completed commission, just shipped to Texas. Acrylic on 16 x 25 panel.

Source snapshots, from which I “photoshopped” the composition together:

SOLD via Etsy

I worked on this anniversary portrait at the show, getting it about 90% done by Sunday. It was fun to be able to ask passersby and other OSA members for critique and recommendations. It’s for an Etsy commission; I sent my customer a digital image of it for approval last week and he said, “You are a genius!  I love it!  It is amazing!  I am so grateful to you.  I will pay for it tonight.  No changes necessary.  Thank you!!!!!” Music to my ears…very encouraging. I hope his wife likes it as well as he does, or better. It’s acrylic on a 16 x 26 hardwood panel, from customer supplied old snapshot:

My booth (above) at the Spring Home & Garden Show about a week ago. As a designated “demo artist” I painted much of the time between 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. except for breaks.

I finished up a painting of one of my grandsons while at the show:

…thanks to Joel Bock Photography for permission to use one of his photos as reference. It was fun to work on Espen’s characteristic crooked little half grin.

I’m mostly recovered / caught up / unpacked from the show…and MORE than ready to dive back into painting.

SOLD via Etsy

Commission for newlyweds in Texas, acrylic on panel. 22-1/2″ x 16″; given as a gift from relatives, who had this to say about it: “This is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!! It’s perfect!!!!!!!! My dear–they are going to LOVE this!!!!!! Amazing!!!!!!!! Thank you!! You really captured their beauty–aren’t they a stunning couple? <Name withheld> looks like a supermodel.”

Yes it’s been awhile since my last post, but I’ve been getting a LOT done on the painting front! (including making frames, above)

Portland Home & Garden Show Feb 22-26 @ the Expo Center

Most importantly, I was invited by the Oregon Society of Artists to be one of their “anchor artists” at the Portland Home & Garden Show, next week: Feb 22-26! I’ve done shows for sculpture before, but this will be my debut with my “new” medium: portrait painting. I hope my banner and business cards arrive before Feb 22…and I finish making frames on time…and figure out how to light my booth…etc etc x etc.  At least paintings will be a hell of a lot easier to transport than ceramic sculpture!

I will be demonstrating painting for five days straight! I also plan to set up for doing mini photo shoots of willing passersby — head/shoulders shots for portrait painting reference. So come visit me and get your mug shot

The show is at the Expo Center near Jantzen Beach, Feb 22-26, 11-8 Wed Thur Fri, 10-8 Sat, 11-6 Sun, costs $10 to get in, but check around for discounts. There are three giant halls, the northernmost of which is staged with fully landscaped gardens, decks, fountains, koi ponds and so on. Around the entire perimeter of the garden room will be welders, sculptors and painters demonstrating their various crafts. I spoke with the show coordinator who has been fine tuning the ambience of this room of the show for the past dozen years. He loves art, and wants this giant indoor garden room to be one where show attendees will want to just hang out, relax, and enjoy themselves rather than scurrying to “do the show.” The OSA prez says the same thing — to just have fun like we do at the OSA center. Several OSA members will be demonstrating painting along the west wall of Building C, plus promoting the club and recruiting new members. Membership is just $30 per year.

Hope you can drop by for a chat! Bring a favorite hat/scarf/whatever for your mini photo shoot!

I’ve also been painting more portraits, including a commission from Texas, but am literally too busy to post the photos! Will do so after the show.

Okay, I’d better get back to building frames!

Practice portrait of Rosey by Steve Eichenberger, acrylic on corrugated cardboard bicycle carton, 9-1/4 x 13.

I enjoyed the process on this one, which is part of my goal in keeping things loose: to have fun painting!

( 1/5 addendum: I e-mailed a high resolution jpg of this to Rosey, who is currently in NYC, and she replied: ”Hey Steve!! This is awesome. I look simultaneously angry and proud. I love it. The loose style captures something really great. I showed this painting to my sister, and some friends — everyone has been so impressed! My sister said, ‘Whoahhh…that’s so badass!’”)

Portrait by Steve Eichenberger, acrylic on acid free paper, 14 x 17. SOLD

Another piece in my continuing effort to practice keeping things loose. I even crumpled up the paper before beginning, to make it less “precious” (which came back to haunt me after I finished the piece and decided to adhere it to a foamcore backing, but it turned out okay).

The background is pretty wild; I got a new set of palette knives and used one of them to pile on the paint.

The hair is just roughed in, but I decided it works with the background so resisted refining it.

Acrylic on corrugated cardboard, 13-1/2 x 15-1/2, by Steve Eichenberger.

<—Photo I took last summer at Portland Saturday Market.

For this challenge, I tried to loosen up on brushstrokes as in this self portrait by Theodore Gericault —>

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Step by step

Portrait by Steve Eichenberger, acrylic on corrugated cardboard, 12.5 x 24.

Done in response to this week’s DPW challenge to emulate an artist we admire. This is my second exercise in as many days to experiment with the look and feel of some of Egon Schiele’s 500+ works.

Thanks to friend/neighbor/photographer Willy Paul for permission to use a photo he took of his wife, Kris, for me to use as painting reference. Achieving a likeness was not my focus, but rather to experiment with the broad white accenting strokes, black outlining, unfinished areas and so on that Schiele often uses.

SOLD via Etsy

Very quick sketch in acrylics on corrugated cardboard, 12 x 16. This week’s DPW challenge was to try painting in the style of an artist we admire. I started out “thinking” Egon Schiele, but then forgot all about it much of the time I was painting… It served as a good “loosening up” exercise.

I may continue to fine tune this painting, but I’ve been working on it for so long I wanted to post it at this near-complete stage for a sense of progress! This was a challenging project for me, I learned a lot from doing it. I took other, easier-to-paint photos of Rosey as well, but there was something about the overall composition and expression that made me want to paint this one, so I went for it. The receding angle of the hand was a challenge, as well as the wonderfully curly hair. It’s always daunting to face such things, I just have to dive in and paint *something*…and then keep revising that something to look gradually better and better until some part of me says “OK” (or sometimes “Uncle!”).

I couldn’t get rid of all the distracting reflections on the glossy background when taking the above photo with the point and shoot camera I normally use for blog shots. May have to break down and actually set up our photo room with strobes, diffusers etc. to get a better shot.

90% complete, working from photos I took of R.D. a few weeks ago in my studio.

Thanks to .mosa for permission to use his photo (below) as reference.

Portrait by Steve Eichenberger, acrylic on panel, 15-3/4 x 20-1/2.

Thanks to Stephen Sheffrin, Portland photographer, for permission to use his photo below as reference.

Acrylic portrait of Marc Anthony by Steve Eichenberger, on 15-3/4 x 19-1/2 panel, using another photo by Damon Winter as reference (below, and previous entry).

I experimented with glazing this time: brown tinted glaze on yellow background and face (except for eyes); yellow tinted glaze on shirt.

Matt Damon practice portrait by Steve Eichenberger
acrylic on panel, 14 x 20-3/4

Reference photo from magazine cover (Fast Company, July/August 2011 issue) used by kind permission of New York Times photographer Damon Winter.

Yes, unfortunately it’s been awhile since I’ve had a chance to post anything… Travel, moving our handmade tile studio (again!), and other art related busy-ness has required all my waking hours for the past couple of months. As far as I know there are no further crises looming, but in these strange times — who knows?!? Better paint while I can.

Acrylic portrait on panel by Steve Eichenberger, 11-5/8 x 14-3/8 SOLD

I completed this portrait in a homestead farmhouse in Nebraska while on a road trip through several beautiful Western states last month. When I returned home, I e-mailed the above photo of it to the subject, who is an artist friend in Seattle; here’s what he had to say about it: “OK I am really speechless, or was, but now have more to say.  That is really, really cool – almost Van Gogh-like in the colors and contrasts.  I  am thrilled to see this as I have never had a painting done of me and to tell you the truth would not trust many artists to do a painting of me as I am pretty shy about having pictures, images of me taken.  Fantastic work!  Can I show off your work to people? … I’ll be following your blog.”

I took the above reference photo in my studio with natural north light, positioning the subject to get just the right amount of light on his right eye.

Custom portrait commission, approx. 16 x 22 acrylic on panel by Steve Eichenberger.

This was fun to do because it was a surprise commission for the recipient (the subject). I hear he was honored.

The symbology has to do with his middle name, which connotes strength and deep-rootedness. A large underpainted root system (not evident in the photo) can be seen in the dark lower section when viewing the original if you know it’s there, further supporting the symbology of C’s middle name.

White Bird Gallery

Left: “Quiet Solitude Under a Canopy of Stars”; right: “Gratitude 2″; center top: a collection of my cast crows/ravens. Paintings by Anne John of Vancouver, Washington. Several other artists also submitted rabbit themed art for this “Animal Instincts” show…unplanned.

The show runs through May 31.

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April 29, 30 & May 1 it was Spring Unveiling Weekend for the Cannon Beach Gallery Group, and they featured one of my sculptures, “Gratitude 3″ (which is in the White Bird Gallery show, in the front window), on the cover of their brochure:

The “unveiling” of the new show at White Bird Gallery was at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 30. There were scheduled unveilings at over a dozen venues throughout Cannon Beach, visit CBGalleryGroup.com for details (scroll all the way down for White Bird’s announcement).

Local Portrait Commission

by Steve Eichenberger

Acrylic on panel

16 x 22

He’s about a year older now than when the photo was taken.

Reference photo provided by client.

(Thanks C. for your OK to post this on my blog.)

Acrylic painting on panel, by Steve Eichenberger

“First Day at the Dog Park” SOLD

approx 13 x 26

(keep clicking on photo for close-up)

Based on a photo I took the other day at Luscher Farms dog park in Lake Oswego. He looks like a little bear.

Started this one yesterday, finished tonight…well, I might still work on the background, but I think the face is done. And I am pleased with the step toward looseness it represents in my experimentation!

I had a color experiment in mind too; I saw in a color mixing book the wonderful neutral greens that result from mixing ultramarine blue and yellow ochre, so started with them. I don’t usually like or use greens, so this was a good learning experience for me in that regard too.

In the slideshow below, the first one (the one that’s different from all the rest) is actually a completely different painting. I was struggling to get a likeness, painting out and re-painting various features, when I realized I wasn’t having fun. So I set it aside and started over using bolder color, less deliberation, and choppier strokes with almost no blending. Definitely more fun! Adjusting position/size etc of features was much easier as the entire image was freer, looser, more fluid.

It’s hard to quantify how well I did on the likeness…but for such an impressionistic rendition I’m OK with it.

I don’t like the background, may work on it some more later…or not…also want to keep moving forward to see what comes out next!

I scrounged some bicycle cartons today from a bike shop near my studio, so I have plenty of “canvasses” to work on. I’m motivated to make as many paintings as I can before April 1 when I open my studio for First Friday Artwalk. I don’t expect a big crowd, but it’s a nice motivation nonetheless.

My thanks to Bill Wadman at http://www.365portraits.com/ for permission to use his photo as practice reference.

Keep clicking through several screens on the above image to zoom in close to see the brush strokes (the final click should show a magnifying glass cursor).

This was a challenge for me because of its size — about 3 feet wide. I wasn’t attempting a likeness, just trying to get proportions reasonably in the ballpark since I was working far larger than I’ve ever done before.

This one taught me I don’t like working small! Face is only about 2-1/2″ tall. I used teeny tiny brushes. Not that happy with the likeness either, although for having just recently started trying to do likenesses I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on myself.

My thanks to Bill Wadman at http://www.365portraits.com/ for permission to use his photo as practice reference.

Painted freehand looking at various photos from the web (below).

Thank you to Lyle’s management office for giving me the go-ahead to paint his likeness.

on 8×13 corrugated cardboard

It helped to have various angles and lighting to discern shapes and decide what characteristics seemed most important for a likeness.

I did a preliminary study which took longer than this one, but I don’t like it as well as this one so I’m not posting it. But it did teach me that doing a study first is beneficial; I basically had the features memorized, including what to “watch out for” the second time around.

Lifesize portrait, acrylic on 34 x 42 cardboard, freehand from photo reference.

Photo credit: Bill Wadman, 365portraits.com. Used by permission.

First two slides: Practicing achieving a likeness. Not sure my “corrections” are better…maybe overcorrected. Will try again tomorrow, maybe split the difference.

My thanks to Bill Wadman at http://www.365portraits.com/ for permission to use his photo as practice reference.

3/6 update: I’m painting entirely freehand, just looking at the photo for reference…no enlarging, no grids. But I was curious which iteration I’ve done so far was more accurate, so I put everything in the computer and did some overlays. My conclusion is that I did indeed overcorrect. I’ll keep tweaking today. I think some good learning is going on.

3/6 evening: I did paint out and re-do a third time, splitting the difference, and I think it helped. May add a few final highlights and/or dark accents tomorrow. It’s my largest painting so far; lifesize figure on a 34 w x 42 h piece of corrugated cardboard that was throwing around the Watershed.

Literature about portraiture says a typical newbie mistake is to make all the features too large. In comparing my painting to the original photo I think I was too careful on this count; I made the features too small rather than too large, which in my opinion makes the subject look more mature. To me, iterations 1 and 2 look the right age for the subject, but they look perkier, more open than she does in the photo, as pointed out by a friend who came in my studio during iteration 2. I think I captured her more inward, slightly guarded expression in iteration 3, but in so doing aged her a few years vs iterations 1 and 2. Interesting how such seemingly minor adjustments have unforeseen effects…effects I can use on purpose in the future. (3/7 addendum: an artist friend had the opposite opinion about apparent age: he thought my portrait looked younger than the subject. Jackie thought the painting and photo look the same age. My first lessons in how subjective evaluating my work will be…)

One thing I liked right away about this subject is her sweeping jawline and the way it presents in the pose; my extra attention to this feature resulted in a bit of an exaggeration of that sweep, which I’ll chalk up to artist’s license.

To test myself to see if I could produce a likeness. 1 hour sketch.

Unfinished. Can’t decide what to put under his head. Someone suggested making him a dandelion’s head

Very fast sketch.

Quick sketch.

Quick sketch in box. My intention was to do the eye sockets in complete shadow, but I see from the photo I didn’t resist putting in some detail.