portrait

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Dirty Jobs portrait using the C.F. Payne technique

20080308 in Illustration | 1 comment

Mike Rowe, from Dirty Jobs

C.F. Payne, one of America’s best-known contemporary illustrators, bases his style on multi-layered technique that he invented. Known as the C.F. Payne multimedia technique, the process consists of creating a very detailed pencil drawing of the subject to be illustrated and then covering the drawing in several different layers:

  • Acrylic wash - used to give the subjects their lightest base color.
  • Watercolor wash - gives the subject their medium tones. Generally, a neutral brown-orange color is washed over the entire image and then lifted off of the the subject’s highlights.
  • Oil wash - gives the subject their shadow tones. A transparent mix of purple and green works great for this, especially in portraits. Again, the color can be washed over the entire image and then lifted off of the places where there should be no shadow.

Once the layers are in place, fix the entire image with some clayboard fixative (which leaves a good grain) and give the final coloring details with colored pencils.

I decided on trying to do a portrait of Mike Rowe, from the Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs, for my first C.F. Payne attempt because he has a very expressive face that I thought would be fun to work with. Overall I’m very pleased with how it turned out and I’d definitely try another portrait using this technique soon.

Self Portrait

20070912 in Artwork | No comments

This simple contour drawing of myself was completed around 2001 for a drawing class at the University of New Orleans. I was the only engineering student in the class.

Even though the rest of my classmates were artists, I had the best grade by far in that class and some of the best works. Why? Simple: artists are conditioned to have no self-discipline. Society tends to see artists as inconsistent and dependent on “inspiration” to get anything done and instead of overcoming the stereotype, artists tend to fall into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The real truth is that “inspiration”, just like the “muse”, is a fleeting myth and any artist who depends on it won’t get anything done. Remember: being is artist is a career choice, just like deciding to be a doctor, a lawyer, or a plumber. Like any career choice, you have to discipline yourself and work hard if you want to be successful.

Sitting Bull

20070827 in Artwork | No comments

“Sitting Bull” was commissioned about 3 years ago by my boss at the time. I worked at a computer lab at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez doing regular maintenance and upgrades. My boss was a bit eccentric as far as Native Americans were concerned, and had all kinds of paraphernalia around the office and at his home. Sitting Bull was his favorite character from Native American history, so as soon as he found out that I could draw, he asked for this picture.

I designed the overall composition based on two different pictures that I found of Sitting Bull. I thought a cloudy night sky would be a good contrast to the figures in the foreground, so I incorporated into the picture.

Interestingly, at first the sky included a moon because I have always envisioned Native Americans as dancing in the moonlight. Maybe that image was engraved into my mind by movies and other media, but nevertheless, I thought the moon was a good addition. Unfortunately, an ink spill ruined the drawing of the moon so now there is only a dark spot in the upper right-hand corner.