Joker Commission

"Joker" 8x12, acrylic on canvas board
(Click on the image for a larger version)

This is the finished painting I did of the Joker from the movie "The Dark Knight" that was a Christmas gift for a co-worker's son. I managed to snap some progress photos as I worked on it to show a simplified step-by-step process of how it came together.

Step 1: Laying down the background color.

Step 2: Drawing in the Joker.

Step 3: Putting down the first layer of colors. This is mostly to just establish where everything is and what color it will be. Paints are thin, nothing too concrete.

 Step 4: Putting more down on the hair, face, and coat. Trying to solidify things a little more. The face came out alright at this step, but there was a lot more I still wanted to do.

Step 5: Final paint on everything from the neck down. Since these are acrylics, the paint dries fairly quickly which allows me work from the bottom layer up. As I finish the shirt, I paint the tie, followed by the collar, followed by the coat. This makes it easier to have everything naturally overlap. These were taken with my phone, so while the face and hair look a little different, it was really just me not getting even lighting every time I took a photo.

Step 6: Time for the hair! Adding more individual brushstrokes to make it pop. Anne had the smart idea of suggesting I have some hair coming down in front of his face, and I think it really improved things.

Step 7: And finally the face! Lots of work done on the mouth, sharpening up the eyes, giving the black around the eyes more definition, and shading in the face. Luckily the nose came out alright from the start, so I didn't have to mess around with that too much.

CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES

"Swimming Self Portrait"

Acrylic on Canvas, 18x14

"West"

Acrylic on Canvas, 30x48

Well, hi there. You've probably been wondering what happened to ol' swirlingpaint.com. One day it was there, and the next you end up here, with the most recent blog post being several years old. Hmmm, that's no good! After creating and selling paintings fulltime for the last few years, I decided it was time to take a step back and focus on a new direction in my life. Does this mean I've completely given up on paintings/artwork? Heck no! While it's been on the back-burner for a while, I'll never truly stop creating. While I'm not sure what the next step will be for me with my art, it will always be there, and anything new that I do create will go up on this blog. Can't say when that will be at this very moment, but hopefully sooner rather than later.

In the meantime! There are quite a few pieces that I never posted here on the blog, but did post elsewhere. Rather than deal with re-posting everything here, I'll just point you to my flickr account over yonder: http://www.flickr.com/photos/swirlingpaint/. There are quite a few paintings over there, many of which I consider to be my best work, so please pop over and check it out. If you're interested in purchasing an original painting or a print, just send me an email at swirlingpaint@gmail.com.