NEW FB PAGE

Please check out my latest attempt at social media...
https://www.facebook.com/gregmcculloughart

THE ICEMAN THROWETH

Last Thursday my “Olaf” was officially released.  This is the framed Limited Edition, 16x20, $375 Giclee and I would be showing you the $39.95 Deluxe Print with it’s cool, wintry mat, but they sold out by Sunday.  :)  More is on the way for my Downtown Disney - Art of Disney Gallery signing this Wednesday thru Sunday 1:00 to 9:00ish.

McMICKEY CARICATURE

Happy Birthday Cathy!!  I am so very proud of my Catherine McMillan original!  It is one of very few pieces hanging in the studio and is the first thing you see coming through the door.  I love your work and THANK YOU for this daily smile. - greg

LIVE PAINTING

This week at Epcot I was able to start a program that I have been aching to begin for a while.  On-Site painting… very fun for me (35 years of caricaturing will do that to a person) and seemingly… interesting to the guests.  The plan is to paint a couple hours a day at most of my signings (please see Signing Dates on the right). “Baby Unicorn” is the first and should be followed by Maleficent and Hades.  These 14x14 “portraits” will be done as limited edition “Originals”.  After a few have been done, one of the better paintings will be scanned and printed as 12x12 LE gallery wrapped, Giclees and the standard deluxe prints.

MEET MY SON

On July 29, 2013 a miraculous and awesome twist of fate occurred.  I gained a 35 year old son, a daughter-in-law and four grandchildren… overnight. :)   Please let me introduce you to Chris, Callie, the four kiddos AND my first drawings to be received as a grandfather!  Life is good.  Thank you Chris, Callie and Caron!

SWW 2014

Par for Star Wars Weekends, SWW 2014 has been a blur of BUSY!  For me the fun comes to an end this weekend.  If you are near (or on your way...) to Disney World please stop by my little corner of the Art of Animation Gallery in the Disney/Hollywood Studios and say hi to me and my psychotic duck!!

I’ll be signing Thursday through Sunday 11-7 PM.

ARTIST PROOFS

I have put up for sale my personal, Limited Edition, Artist Proofs of the earlier work done for ACME Archives.  You can find the available numbers of canvas and/or water color paper giclees by visiting, http://www.artifx.com/APs/Home.html clicking on the image of choice and scrolling down.  And yes, Ariel is (sadly) sold out.

If you are interested in any of the images please let me know at greg@artifx.com

PLEASE MEET "MR" DUCKMAUL 2

My latest addition to the Star Wars Weekends... a duck ya don't want ta mess with!

I will be signing at the Rebel Rendezvous event in Darth's Mall, Thursday May 15 from 11:00 to 3:00 and Darth's Mall May 17 and 18 from 6:00 - 8:00.

This year I get to bring all my artwork and set up into the Disney/Hollywood Studios - Art of Animation gallery May 28 - June 1 and June 4 - 8, 11am to 7pm.  Please come visit.

I believe all seven of my SWW prints will be available throughout the SWW's at Darth's Mall.

"LOVE IS AN OPEN DOOR"

Creativity runs in the family... I HEART my nieces!  Check out their latest production.

"Love is an Open Door"

ELSA: ICE PALACE QUEEN

The newest Frozen design "Love is the Key" is about to go to paint!  This original painting of Elsa will be 24x36 and hopefully will be completed in a few weeks (lotta other stuff going on!).  Limited Edition giclees and 11x14 Deluxe prints should be available within a few weeks of the finished art.

PAINT PALETTE AND SET-UP

I’ve been asked a few times about my paint palette so I thought I would give a tour of my paint room.  I am very pleased how it has evolved over the last decade starting from a corner in the garage.

And yes, Olaf will be available shortly.  There are four other Frozen pieces in the works.

The room is 10”x11” study that opens to a hallway allowing me to back up and see how things are progressing.

The palette itself is nothing more than a 24x18 piece of glass on top of an illustration board painted with a mid-one grey(Liquitex Basics Neutral Grey Value 5), on top of a 3/4” piece of plywood, held together with black masking tape around the edges and all mounted to a  Bogen tripod.  “The Masters” is used to clean the brushes.

Glass and the glass scraper is used for instant clean-up.  Palette knife for mixing and the “Tube-Wringer” is a must in getting ALL the paint from their tubes.

The base palette colors are: Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Umber, Viridian, French Ultramarine, Cerulean Blue  and Ivory Black.

Some rarely used extras are: Permanent Rose, Cobalt Blue, Cad Yellow, Venetian Red, Oxide of Chromium, Grumbacher Thalo Blue and Thalo Green.

In 2004 and before I found the Art of Disney Galleries, I thought that oil portraiture would be my escape from advertising illustration so I started one of the greats John Howard Sanden http://www.johnhowardsanden.com by buying all his out of print books and trying to copy his set-up.  Probably 85% of my oil painting workflow is based on JHS.  For portraits i began using his premixed “Pro-Mix” colors (all mixable from the base palette colors) and have found they help keep my Disney colors to more palatable hues.

My choice in brushes are also JHS influenced.  Although for style in the Disney Fine Art paintings, I only use the brights.

Silver Brush Silverstone Series Hog Bristle Brush 2, 4, 6, 8, 10:  Tougher bristles to get the paint onto the canvas.

Silver Brush Renaissance Red Sable 4, 6, 8, 10, 18, 20:  Soft bristle for the final stokes.

The only medium I use is Low-Odor Mineral spirits held in a Silicoil brush cleaning tank with a half cut-out top to avoid splashes.  Instead of holding a paper towel for brush cleaning I clamp one to the palette which allows me to start ad stop painting without any hassle or worry of clean up.  Cling wrap allows me to cover the unused paint for another day of painting.

My oversized Mahl Stick is a 3/8” aluminum bar from Lowes and the Mahl Stick “tower” was made from whatever was available in the garage but works really well!

Lighting is a regular flouresent fixture holding four “natural color” 48*, 40 watt Lumichrome Fluorescent Bulbs.

11x14 glass palette(s) with a drop of Oil of Clove help keep puddles of paint workable for days on the larger projects.

Hopefully you can gleam something useful out of all this.

Greg

A COMPLETED OLAF

Mary, your wish is my command...

The 24x30 painting is finished and the SKUs, scanning and printing are about to get started.  Hopefully in a few weeks the original and prints will be available.  Sadly, you can only purchase when I am signing at one of the park galleries.  Please check out the schedule and come say hi!

PS:  There is another four Frozen paintings in the works.

BITTER/SWEET... (sort of)

Driving down International Blvd, I ran into a billboard with my illustration of Beast.  Very cool to see the piece still out and brought up many a memory.  Somewhat sad in the sense it may very well be one of my last advertising illustrations.  My Beast was also the image used for the Magic Kingdom map for most of the last half of 2013.  I also got to do the New Fantasyland Ariel that was seen around town.  A great way to transition out of one profession into another!  :)  Thank you DDG and YS’s.

From 2007 to 2013 I had the awesome chance to do sooo many high profile graphics for the Disney parks that I am still agog at the opportunity that a Mr Bob Holden started with my first Disney Park illustration of the 2009 dated logo.

If you have an interest in seeing more of the illustration work, email me.

Last July, after becoming the third, resident Disney Fine Artist to the WDW parks, I have needed to turn down all inquiries for advertising art.  Some were AMAZING and I could not believe what I was passing up,  There just is not enough time!

After 25 years of being “guided” creatively, it is really nice having the opportunity to chose which characters and designs to work with.

LIVE PAINTING!

Today I was approved to do live painting at my Art of Disney gallery signings!  Very exciting.  The plan is do a series of simple 14x14, oil on canvas portraits.  This way things can happen quick and the guest will hopefully not get too bored.  It may not happen this week at Epcot but should be up and running on my next Epcot visit of March 26-30.  These are my first two of twelve villains that are in the works.

GEORGE SCRIBNER

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of taking a 2 day workshop with George Scribner.  Very impressive resume and I have been gawking at his Disney paintings for months for his bold, plein-airish brush work and full rich colors.  George is a wonderful guide into uncomplicated and painless painting.  Check out the transformation of my paintings in such a short period of time.  What I heard from him was (1) VALUES  (2) use the biggest brush possible for as long as possible and (3) utilize a limited palette (of which I had never attempted).

Assignment 1:  monotone sketch, looking for values and bold shapes.

9x12 masonite, gessoed and then grey toned.  Water soluble oil, not a big fan from my first use - takes a lot of water to get them "working", they don't seem to be able to clean from out of your brushes and 2wks later they are still wet.

Assignment 2:  paint still life with full color palette, 9x12 split, smaller space, larger brush

Assignment 3:   9x12 split, limited palettes: left: cad yellow, cad red and ultramarine.  Rt side: yellow ochre, alizarin and ultramarine.  I loved the limited palette and the amount of colors we can pull from them

Linda and The Art Room were great, creative hosts - the best I have experienced AND we got fed lunch both days!

EPCOT SIGNING

It's time to go play at the Epcot.  I will be signing this Wednesday through Sunday 1:00 to 9:00ish at the Art of Disney gallery.  If you get a chance come say hi!

FROZEN PAINTING 1

Just a tease of the painting that is on the easel now.  Hopefully the orig and prints will be available within a few weeks.

DAY ONE

Welcome to the first day of my long, overdue blog!