As with many of my paintings, I start out with a favorite toy from the past. I had seen this tin car on eBay a few times but the price was off the charts. I finally bought this one because of its color scheme and it was in decent shape.

In 1961, the Ford Motor Company designed a concept car for that year's Detroit Car Show. It was a gyroscopic controlled car of the future. It remained a concept car and it was obviously never produced for sale. The rights to reproduce it were obtained by a Japanese toy company and it made a couple of battery operated versions.

I have always loved the Hopperesque feelings of the quiet evening on the downtown street, looking at window displays, lit up like large TV sets. These staged window scenes are theatrically lit gems that entice the passerby to stop and dream of owning that glittering object behind the glass. I had wanted to create my own window someday with what I thought would be a classic old car on display until I saw this tin toy car. Not unlike something out of a Jetson's cartoon, the Ford Gyron looked like it should be floating in the air, defying gravity.

So, in my world, a young father, after a long day at work, is walking the sidewalk in town with his son alongside in his peddle car. He stops in front of the large fishbowl, and dreams of owning this amazing vehicle, hovering silently on the showroom floor. As his awe increases, his son's pressed metal car rises off the sidewalk, mimicking the wonder in his father's eyes. Hence the title of the painting, "Like Father, Like Son."

Here is sketch, drawn in my Photoshop software.

Here is the car I will be using for the son's vehicle...Studebaker? 

My canvas is 40" x 50" and is the finest portrait linen, stretched by hand over the best wooden stretcher bars with a cross support.

I've begun the painting at the top of the canvas, mainly because I haven't photographed my father and son models as of yet. That is scheduled to take place today if the sun is shining. I've mixed a warm mixture of yellow, red and black to my white for the color of the clerestory windows.

Since I don't own a vintage or modern peddle car, I've fashioned one out of a cardboard box and made a steering wheel from some paper plates that I glued together.

Well, my models were unable to make it today, so I painted a section of the painting that didn't come in contact with either the father or son. All of my paint applications at the beginning of the painting are a thin mixture of oil pigment and paint thinner. You can see the scrubbed look of the thin layer, giving me feedback as to what hue and value I will need in the final thick layer.

With the absence of my models and the need to paint, I've begun the basics of the peddle car.

I also went back to the Ford lettering above the store window and put in a warm edge on the letters, showing the warm light shining through the clerestory windows and adding a thickness to the lettering.

All neon signs have a framework that holds the glass tubing. I've painted that grid in along with the transformer that plugs into the power.

Here's a photo of the entire canvas. You can see how I've begun to paint in the window frame, stopping short of where the father figure will be drawn in.

Well, I've got my father and son models ready to go. Just need a sunny day to photograph them, the sun mimicking the showroom light source. So, I'll continue to address the few remaining areas that don't butt up against either of the figures.

A few details on the Gyron and the entry area on the right side of the canvas.

A few more elements are added...the peddle car shadow, the detail in the outside lower wall and the warm cast light on the window trim.

At this point, I am unable to go any further until I sketch in the two figures.

Today was model-photo day at my home and studio. My father and son team was Josh (dad) and Camden (son). My painting calls for them both to be looking towards the light, and for my purposes, the sun makes a great light source. Unfortunately for Camden, he had to look into the sun for an extended period of time and that's a tall order for a little guy. Well, Camden was a champ and fought through the rays of the sun, giving me a great pose to draw onto my canvas. Thanks Camden!

Dad Josh posed like a seasoned actor, looking exactly like I wanted my character to look. When I handed him a Stetson to wear, it was like icing on the cake. He had that look of having worked all day and while taking a walk with his son, pulled his jacket off to cool off as he gazed into the showroom window.  Thanks Josh and thank you to your whole family for coordinating this perfect photo shoot!

With the father and son sketched onto the canvas, it allowed me to paint all the large planes in the painting (ie. the back wall and floor of the showroom and the sidewalk outside.) Next, I'll paint a couple of simple warm hues on the Gyron.

I've brushed in some base color on the Gyron. These will be darkened later in the final paint application. Now, time to render Josh and Cameron!

Today is Josh and Camden day (Thanksgiving Day). I've begun with Josh at the top of his head and will work down.

Josh is scrubbed in with very thin pigment from head to toe. He's exactly like I had envisioned.

Camden is completed. Notice (even though it is not in the sun) that I have painted the reflected light on the front of his shirt. It gives his torso an added dimension and I think I will maintain it in the final paint application. You look perfect, Camden!

Here's a detail of the two together.

Here is the painting, now at the halfway point. All areas of the canvas have received one layer of turpentine-thinned pigment and it is time to study the overall color and darkness (hue and value) and make the final decisions in order to apply the tube thickness, final layer of pigment.

I painted the back wall of the showroom, making the transition of light and dark a smoothly as possible.

I've begun to paint the showroom floor. It needed to be darkened a bit to enhance the light that is striking various objects in the painting. One of these objects is Camden. Although the light that strikes his face (forhead, nose and cheek) is minimal, it is very important in terms of the shape of his face and the glow I want emanating from the showroom lighting. Look to the right of his head, in the yellow area and you can see the final darker value of pigment that I am applying.

I've finished the floor, softening the light as it transitions into the dark corners of the showroom. I also darkened the panels under the window, outside on the street. It shows that the gray shapes that separate the panels are now too bright and will have to be darkened also.

I've been working on areas of the painting that are not too discernible in photos on this step-by-step. I just painted all 60 of the windows behind the Ford sign and am now painting the warm edge of the Ford sign, defining the light that hits the edge of the sign.

Here is a photo of the front end of the sign. The mullions that separate the panes of glass haven't been painted yet, but are next in line to be given their final layer of oil pigment.

I've been detailing the red canopy on the car and the inside area through the back window. The roof is a mixture of cadmium red, alizaron crimson, cadmium yellow and black. I mixed up six values of the red color to take care of all the different areas of the canopy. I'll work on the chrome trim/metal pieces next.

I mixed variations of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna to make the grays for the metal pieces on the car. If I needed it to be cool, I would add more blue. If I needed it to be a warmer gray, I would increase the burnt sienna and for the reflected lights on the under side of the nose and rear trim piece, I added a little cadmium yellow and cadmium red. The car is now completed with its final layer of pigment.

As the rest of the painting darkens, it is obvious that the lettering on the window of "Battery included" is too light. With my palette knife, I stirred up a mixture of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna to achieve the right value and hue of gray to darken the lettering. You can see what a radical change this is.

Moving onto the battery image on the window, I'm darkening the yellow part of the battery with a mixture of cadmium yellow, black and alizaron chrimson. I add the alizaron chrimson because the yellow gets a greenish cast to it when ivory black is added. The light yellow, which was applied in the first thin application of paint, looked plenty dark compared to all the darker values on the canvas at that time.

This photo gives you an idea of the difference in the initial gray layer compared the final layer of paint. The gray on the battery is the same gray used to paint the lettering of "Battery included."

As I move to the edges of the windows, where the light strikes the frame around the windows, I'm mixing a handful of shades of yellow, each one going where it indicates that the light shines closely, not so close, reflective and not at all. My palette is a sheet of 1/4" plate glass that I constantly scrape with a razor blade as I move from one color to another. Although I only use 4 or 5 brushes on the painting, as they lose their spring or shape, they get piled up against my turpentine can and eventually go into a jar, away from the taboret.

Here is a closer look at the varieties of mixed yellows. At the top of the photo, you can see three of the final mixtures that went on the battery.

Everything on the building and inside the window is completed. I just applied the final paint on the cast shadows. Although most shadows at night tend to be on the cool side of gray or black, I decided on a warm brown hue for mine, giving a little warmth to the stage, supporting my two figures.

This angled view of the bottom of the canvas helps eliminate some of the glare in the photo, showing you the subtle variation in the shadow just under the window on the sidewalk. I've made the shadow get darker at the base of the wall, telling the viewer that there is a lot of reflective light even outside from the inside lights. I'll paint the sidewalk next, making a subtle but dramatic change from my original sketch.

Here is a photo of the whole canvas. I've save my father and son for last because their darkness (values in the shaded areas) are dependent on the overall dark value of the whole painting. I will determine what that hue and value is and begin finishing them after the sidewalk is finished.

The peddle car is completed. I increased the value of every area on the car, leaving just the father and son to finish.

I've decided to do Josh's hat and trousers today. I've mixed all the values of gray and black all the way to a warm white for highlights. Here on my glass covered taboret palette, I combined burnt umber, French ultramarine blue and white for the base mixture, leaning on both the warm and cool sides by increasing one or other of the two pigments. I've added alizaron crimson and cadmium yellow to a separate gray mixture which will be used for the warmer reflective areas of the trousers.

Here is a photo of the completed trousers and hat. On to the shoes.

The shoes are burnt umber and French ultramarine blue to make the black, along with Permalba white for the lighter highlight areas.

His shirt is a gray mixture by combining burnt sienna, French ultramarine blue and Permalba white. Cadmium yellow and a touch of alizaron crimson is added for the warmer reflective areas. After viewing the finished product, I'm not sure if I made the shirt dark enough for my liking. I'll decide that before I finish the painting.

This photo shows the entire figure. All that is left is his face. I'll mix up some thick paint and darken it to match his clothing.

I mixed combinations of alizaron chrimson, burnt sienna, cadmium yellow and white to get all the shades of the skin on Josh's face. I added a little cadmium red for the reflective areas.

Camden also had his face darkened and layered with tube thick pigment. I darkened his hair and warmed up the highlights in his hair. His t-shirt was darkened with cool and warm variations of gray, mixed with French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, cadmium yellow and white.

After seeing the effect that darkening Cameron's t-shirt had on the painting, I was sure then that I would need to darken Josh's shirt, although I had spent hours getting it just right as a white shirt. I wiped off most of the paint and changed the shirt color to blue, the color that I had chosen in the first color sketch.

Finishing the two figures finished the painting. I've signed it and will let it dry for a week, at which time I will give it a light coat of touch up varnish to bring out the dark values that have gone flat. Thank you for following along with my painting of "Like Father, Like Son." See you next time when I venture into a new image.