When Helen Glispie emailed me and said that she and her husband, Butch, wanted to commission me to do a painting, I gave her a detailed explanation of the process. It is always a process of back and forth, me asking questions about their interests, and they giving me food for thought about what they might want. The photo above was the first thing that they sent me, explaining that the objects were room pass keys and other various momentos that represented their travels. Hawaii seemed to be the overriding image that kept rising to the top, so I headed that direction with my design. One thing that had to be in the painting was their family. Herself and Butch, their daughter and husband and their two grandchildren. I hadn't put more than 4 people in a commissioned painting up this point, so I had a new challenge, which was going to make it fun to design.

The Glispies are in Arizona, so the logistics of photographing the family and one momento (the ceramic hula girl) needed to be worked out. I did a surprise commission years ago for a man's 80th birthday, and needed to base it around his ranch in Montana. Fortunately, the ranch's foreman's wife was a professional photographer, so directing her to photograph some cattle and a horse and rider was relatively simple. I elected Helen to handle that task on this project. She had designed the Pono Construction logo for her husband, so she has the eye of a photographer.

I worked out my design in Photoshop, popping in elements from my past paintings and using some free images from the internet, soon to be replaced by photos that Helen will take of her family. Helen and I emailed back and forth, adding some new elements that helped tell the story, and sometimes tossing out some of the additions that just didn't work. 

 


Here is the hula doll with her ukulele.


San Diego is one of their destinations...


...as well as Laguna Beach.


Another Laguna Beach favorite.


Since the Glispies live in Arizona and Butch's construction company has built numerous projects there, it was nice to highlight the Arizona state flag.


I located a couple of vintage decal/stickers of a couple of their destinations.


This vintage Venice decal is very cool. 


This was a newer sticker which had the Rwanda flag on it.


Helen has a passion for flying pigs, and pigs that swim in the ocean! The "swimming pigs" of the Bahamas are located on Big Major Cay (Pig Island) in the Exumas.


Here is the final sketch that I put together in photoshop. With all that information, I designed the painting, using all the decals, room keys, post cards etc. as a travel wall, with a window showing Hanalei Bay, Kauai. In the sky, passing by are a "flock" of flying pigs. The two granddaughters, both experienced gymnists, balance across the window ledge as their mom and dad bring the day's beach supplies across the sand to the proud grandparents. As I like to do in my work, I've enlarged the tiki cocktail glasses they are drinking from, and put them in a work truck with Butch's construction company logo on the driver's door. The hula girl stands in the foliage of a beautiful hibiscus, strumming her ukulele.

Here is the first photo taken by Helen of something on her end that I need in the painting. I communicated with her via text message and she sent me photos until we got the lighting, the angle and the position of the ceramic just right.

With the 40"x50" linen canvas stretched on the stretcher bars, I've begun to draw the image on to the surface with a #2 pencil, following my sketch from an 8"x10" printout of the photoshop image.

I've begun to apply the first layer of oil paint onto the linen canvas. Until I have photos of the six people to draw from, I'll paint everything I can that doesn't get determined by a figure standing or sitting next to it.

I've continued to add additional detail to the decals and patch on the wall. Remember, this is only the first pass of thinned down oil paint. The final layer will be of 'out of the tube' thickness, adding the final detail which will also include the correct hue (color), and value (lightness or darkness).

Here's a close-up of the 'Phoenix' decal. You can see how thin the paint really is. I added turpentine to the tube thick paint and applied as close to the correct value and hue as I could see in my sketch. 

Moving down the right side of the canvas, with combinations of alizaron chrimson and cadmium red, I've rendered the hibiscus flower and blocked in the foliage. 


Here you can see the entire right side of the canvas. I'll continue to render this right side, stopping short of any areas that would contact any of the people that will be in the painting.


The Pono Construction logo on the side of the truck is very cool looking and I had to test my steady hand to get all the narrow outlining looking good. It came out great!


The hula girl ceramic is the next object to be painted on the canvas. The figurine has some nice reflective values in its shaded areas.

The flying pigs are a fun addition to the painting. 

I've roughed in the "flock of Pigs" as they pass through the viewing area of the window.


I've dropped back down to the truck and continued to define the details in it.

The truck is a large component of the painting and adds a lot of balancing color to the design. Here, I've mixed Windsor green, French ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow and white to come up with the different shades of green for the cab of the truck. Each plane on the toy truck's stamped metal surface reacts differently to the angle of the sun.

  

I've finished 'blocking in' the truck and the two cocktail glasses, along
with the cast shadow of the windup key, the truck and the flower.

Here's a closer look at the tiki mug, the red umbrella
and pineapple slice on the left.

This photo shows the tiki mug on the right, topped with the
blue umbrella and pineapple slice.


I loosely laid in the colors for the Bahamas "Swimming Pigs" logo.

I painted as much of the sky as I could, not knowing exactly
where the girls' arms and umbrella would be.

Here is an oveall look at the entire 40" x 50" canvas.

I've put the preliminary washes on the palm tree. Lots of
varying shades of green, mixed with thalo green, cadmium
yellow, burnt sienna and burnt umber. A little black and
French ultramarine blue in the dark areas.

I've also begun the underpainting of the background mountains.
There are many hues scattered on the hillsides and mountains of
Kauai. I'll try to give a glimpse of their amazing colors without
distracting from the main focal points in the foreground.

There are only a few areas that I can still put the first layer
of paint, as I need the six figures sketched in their places for me
to finish the areas around them. This "Hotel del Coronado"
postcard is one of those remaining objects. I've only roughed
it in, leaving out details like the windows on the building.
I'll render those details when I apply the final layer of oil paint.

I've painted in a part of the Hanelei pier and...

Here is a shot of the whole canvas.

I'm applying the final layer of paint on this vintage decal. It
needs to get considerably darker so as to appear that it is in
the shaded part of the painting. Red arrow 'A' shows the first
layer of paint and red arrow 'B' shows the final thick layer
that I am now applying.

As I continue to add darker values to the decal, other areas
that only have one thin layer of paint start becoming very light
in comparison. I'll continue to mix darker values of each hue
until they are all covered.

Here is the decal with everything darkened. When this dries,
I'll add the fine black details.