Oh Baby It's Cold Outside!

Sometimes there is a painting that just makes you smile when you are working on it. This was one of them. I just loved bringing his expression to life and making him look and feel really cold by playing with colours on his face and giving him dragon's breath.

Transparent Watercolour 15 by 22 inches

Do you think I ought to let him in to warm up now?

A Glimpse into my process of Creation:

 I guess when you paint pretty realistically, a lot of people presume you just copy a photo. With me, this is so far from the truth. I love taking photos but if I am happy with them as photos I personally feel no need to paint them because I am happy with them as they are. What I enjoy painting is something I can't capture easily in a single photo. So if, for example, I see an expression I love or an icicle that looks super awesome shining in the light I capture these small aspects and file them away in my 'one day....' folder. They aren't great as photos in their own right but the potential in each one is there. Every so often I look through this folder and sometimes when I do an idea for a painting just pops into my head. This usually happens because of something YOU have all written about or said, or something has happened in the world to trigger my idea. So Thank you all. You might all think you are just flittering away hours posting on facebook but you all help me by doing so. Keep it up folks!

With this painting I used a photo of Garry I took at a photo shoot about 15 months ago now, back at a time of year it was a lot warmer than it is now. I had no pre conceived thoughts of a painting when i took this photo. I merely asked Garry to convey a series of different expressions/feelings. In this one I asked him to look a bit pissed off. I had a LOT of work to do adapting this photo and making his expression into someone who was cold but the basics were there! I really accentuated his nose... I wanted to make it feel ultra 3D to really show the cold blues I was going to put on it. I also changed his lips a little (and yes, I did wander around the carpark at Walmart for a good half and hour pretending to look for my car LOL to see peoples expressions in the cold. I also changed his eye brows a touch... it's all very small changes... millimeters difference but enough to adapt his expression to suit what I wanted the painting to say...

... and yes... in -20 I did go outside and actually paint part of the painting there. Why??? because water freezes in these temperatures and so as I was painting the background the watercolour froze and formed ice crystals. Its only subtle because I didn't want it to detract from his face but if you look closely at the background you can see tiny ice crystal patterns. How cool is that!!! (pun intended LOL) So there it is... from start to finish. Realistic... YES but very different from what I began with ... such fun to do!