Dueling Skate Decks

My two skate decks entitled "This Town Ain't Big Enough" are complete and will be on view along with many others starting this Saturday until the end of May in Lakewood. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a love for history in general - the Old West being one of my favorite periods - so this particular image was fun for me to develop.

I thought I'd share my process on this one. The idea began with two tiny, tiny thumbnails that resolved the basic composition and major shapes and lines. After developing the drawing further using reference material from the period, I transferred the gist of it onto the decks via grid drawing. Moving into the acrylic stage, I worked in varying layers of transparency and opacity, gradually building up the values and intensities. Originally I had planned to paint an opaque background on each deck but when I realized the wood surface was a very complementary touch I let it be, even at the cost of exposing pencil construction lines that had already been sealed in. For the majority of both paintings I used only ultramarine and burnt sienna along with gesso. A touch of cadmium red and yellow ochre highlight a few small areas.


Update: 5.02.09

The show opened tonight with a great turnout! Thanks to Keith Corocan for putting everything together and doing up the space nicely. For those of you in the greater Cleveland area, the show will run until about the end of the month.