The Beginning of the Beginning.

In this painting series I usually show how I go about a painting, but for this one I am adding a bonus section.  I'm going to show you a behind the scenes look at how I go about making a scene ready to paint. And then I will paint it.

The Cafe photo that I'm working with comes from Traveler and Artist friend Franklin of Morlanwelz, Belgium. Franklin and I have known each other for a few years and swapped photo reference before. This photo is of a cafe bar in Antwerp Belgium.

"Would have loved to see more people in here ....But look at those reflections of light and the shadows."
- Franklin

This is Franklin's Antwerp Theater bar scene. It does have wonderful lighting and a dynamic feel to it. I loved it when I first saw it and had it in the back of my mind to paint for a while now. Happy to finally get to it!

Here is my first step in starting this painting.

I'm flipping it. The girl sitting works much better facing left than she did facing right. It lead the eye off the image- which is never a good thing. I am also lighting the image. I need to see in the shadows a bit more. Even if I don't paint in all the details I need to know what everything is so my strokes can be more meaningful.

While I'm lighting the image I also push the saturation a bit, just enough to see the color in the shadows and highlight.

Here is how I am going to attack this painting. Like always I will tone the canvas. Thinking ahead it will probably be a mix of Venetian Red and Burnt Umber. Or I might swing back and use some Burnt Sienna. either way I will rub it in and then rub off the highlight areas and draw in where everything goes. 

After mixing up the colors for this painting, I will start painting in the structure of it. I work from dark to light, so I will paint in all my dark areas- curtains wall and chairs. Making sure that even being my darkest darks that they read as a color.

This photo montage is sort of how it will look when I get this part done.

Next I will attack the floor and walls and start to give the chairs I choose life. 

It's a beautiful floor and the reflection with the light coming across it is so cool and interesting.

This photo montage is sort of how it will look when I get this part done.

When the floor is done I will paint in the refection and sun light. The people in the scene I'm not even going to think about until after I get the windows started.

This photo montage is sort of how it will look when I get this part done.

The next step is to paint the windows in. They are the lightest things in the scene and are 

painted in last.

The people in the scene at this point will look pretty much like this.

And finally I will get to the people. I know they have been waiting, but first things first. To paint the people in sooner would tighten up the whole painting process. Since the people are small they have to feel as if they were painted with the same brush as everything else or they will stand out like a sore thumb.

With a plan I am making for this painting I will start the real painting process and post the results here as I finish them. I will be painting this with my painting class and will share their take on this great photo reference as we move along. As always a big thanks goes out to my friend and Traveler Franklin, see you all on down the road.

To see more of the Artist and the Traveler painting project go to www.theartistandthetraveler.org

My old friend and traveler Fran Kras sent me this photo to paint for a good cause. This is how it was made. Take a look.

Oil painting by James Swanson Fran's Cats 9"x12" Linen panel
Inspired by Fran Kras's photo of her 2 cats. This painting is going up for auction for a cat shelter in LaGrange Park IL called Cat Nap from the Heart. If you are interested in this painting contact them and maybe you can win it. If you need a great copy writer visit Fran's website she's as good as they get!

Details from painting

Thanks Fran again for the photo inspiration hopefully we can feed some cats.

Check out the "The artist and the traveler" website to see other painting adventures from this series or to start your own.

A Long Way To Get Home.

Our Next Traveler painting comes from the daily commute to downtown Chicago of Ron Guzman. Traveler Ron has been taking my Saturday painting class for a few years now and finally brought in one of his great city scenes for everyone to work from. This was a 3 week project for us because of the complexity of it. Thanks Ron!

"Early Morning on West Jackson Blvd"
By James Swanson & Traveler Ron Guzman
20 "x 16" Oil On linen Panel

Ron's photo at 6 am on
West Jackson Blvd, part of his early morning commute.

 Traveler Painting "Morning on West Jackson Blvd" With Traveler Ron Guzman
Traveler Ron has been studying in my painting class for a few years now. He's always there early with a smile on his face,   ready to get going. Ron's been making some very nice paintings in the class and wanted a bit more of a challenge on our last painting and gave up one of his morning walk photos to the class. 


Here is how the class and I painted the scene.

End of 1st weeks class. This is where we were after one class. We worked out the composition, sketched it on the canvas, and painted in the sidewalk.
There was a lot to take in on this cityscape, that is why we were taking are time and doing a 3 class painting of it.  

Final painting
After the second class this is about where we were with the painting. All blocked in with a few color corrections to make. I spent about an hour more on the painting after class and put in the details that I wanted. The background was wet and just right for the finishing touches.

 Details from the Painting

"Early Morning on West Jackson Blvd"
By James Swanson & Traveler Ron Guzman
20 "x 16" Oil On linen Panel

A BIG thanks goes out to Ron and my painting class for putting up with me this session 9 well all of my sessions:) This painting was a challenge I must say, but we attacked it in smaller bites and made it work!
Check out more paintings from this series at www.TheArtistAndTheTraveler.org
See ya on down the road!

A Good Friend is Hard to Find, But Not This Time!

"The Falls"

By James Swanson

20"x 16" oil

Traveler Tom Bussler, CA

Here's how the paining was made.

One of the first new friends I made when I got my first job in Advertising was an Artist's Rep by the name of Tom Bussler. 

Traveler Tom Bussler

Tom was from Minnesota and us Great White Northerners (OK I'm from Wisconsin, but close enough) had somethings in common. But the main thing was we both liked beer. Go figure.

A while ago Tom moved out to California for work and some girl reasons. We now catch up every now and then on FB. 

Last summer Tom took a trip to Yosemite Nation Park. And I thought that his photo album of his trip was really well done and felt I could get sort of a feeling for this place in a painting. So here we go a walk to the falls with Traveler Tom Bussler.

Trail Map

Toms Trip Story: Started about 6:30AM from Camp 4(red) and walked 2.5 miles to Housekeeping-(green) where I caught a shuttle to the trailhead(blue). Hike began there up the Mist trail to Little Yosemite Valley then Half Dome(black). Back down to Nevada Falls and took the 

John Muir Trail(pink) back to trailhead- about 18 miles on the trail. A mile up the trail is the bridge below Vernal Falls (in background). Ragin' water and a bit cool this early.

Vernal Falls (317 ft drop). Mist trail runs along the side and up above. Named mist for a reason.

Stairs to right of Vernal Falls just to the right. Stairs and more stairs.....

Above Vernal Falls....

Tom's photo of Vernal Falls from the misty trail  inspired the painting.

Traveler Painting "The Falls": This is how I went about taking on this painting. Tom's Trip to Yosemite was quite inspiring. The reason I chose this photo to work from is the subduded color and the misty feeling it has.

Here are the Steps to "The Falls"

The start of the Painting. I like to get rid of all the white canvas  and rub in a good ground cover

A palette full of colors. I try and keep the number of tube to a minimum.
Here I have mixed up some of the basic colors for the painting. As the painting progresses  these colors will be combined to make lots more colors. This is the best way I've found for making colors harmony in a painting.

The real painting begins. The dark colors are painted in first. Warm darks are in the front and the cooler darks are painted in for the mid-ground. This helps create structure and depth for the painting right away.

Next I painted in the sky and started painting the farthest back background working my way forward. I worked that way because, I needed sky and the mountain to be close in value and this is a good way to judge them without a lot of other colors effecting them.

Here the painting is all Blocked-in. Pretty simple stuff, big brush and big strokes. Getting a painting blocked-in is one of my first goals in painting. Now I can go and start making adjustments and work towards the finishing strokes.

First round of details and adjustments have been made. Most of the work was in the water and rocks. The water fall is where I started and worked forward from there, getting a little sharper and defined the closer I came.

OK, it's done. There was a lot of things that I never had to change in this painting. The trees and the mountains were pretty much right. The main thing that I changed was the sky. It felt flat and didn't seem to go anywhere.

Framed and Ready to Go!

"The Falls"

By James Swanson

20"x 16" oil

Traveler Tom Bussler, CA

Many Thanks goes out to my old friend Tom Bussler for his long hike on this trip. Tom has a company called Hi Road productions,  that does a lot of work in advertising and TV, check it out when you get a chance! I have a few other paintings on the easel from this one. 

But that is another story :))

If you have a interesting place that you have been and would like to share it, send it on to me here or to www.theartistandthetraveler.org

So until next time Happy Trails!