"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.