My Kreindler project

[gregr2]

My 2 cents, I think the Aaron on his knee would work great for this project.

[mark evans]

If you decide to go for a portrait, you might consider a painting of his 1958 Topps card. The bright green background, I should think, would be quite striking. Plus, you get Braves logo, etc., not to mention his name for viewing guests who don't know baseball.

[billyb]

Effe,
I am so glad you are sharing this process with everyone, as for many of us, it is a learning experience of what we can and cannot get done. (size matters).
Future winners will have a better idea of the whole process, from this point to completion.
Congratulations again, and, I like Aaron kneeling also.

Bill

Maybe with this we can lure you to the photographic side.

[CW]

That's pretty funny... the Aaron kneeling and the shot of him jumping at the fence were my two favorites as well.

While the jumping shot wouldn't work in this size, as mentioned, I'd also go with the Aaron kneeling. I'd imagine Graig would have a blast with it, too, as he'd have the stadium to "play" with in the background, and he'd have the added challenge capturing the sunlight from the photo.

[baseball tourist]

I love the two Aaron choices too. You can't go wrong if you choose the knee shot or upsize and go for the fence image. I would have gone with Hank too. I feel that being 3 fans away in the attendance count and you picking Aaron, that I have won (sort of)! Now if I could just convince you to let me borrow the painting on weekends!

[71buc]

I too am very happy for your good fortune and a bit jealous. I think Hank Aaron is a great choice and the shot of him leaping against the fence has long been one of my favorites. However, if I was choosing an Aaron image I would go with something quite different. Although he isn't in uniform I find the image poignant. It was taken moments after signing with the Clowns. He was leaving Mobile and his family as a scared teen not knowing what the future held. For me there is a lot of emotion in photo and it represents one of biggest moments in baseball history. How could anyone imagine that the frightened young man in that photo would go on to such greatness?

[ethicsprof]

great photo, mike. I taught Aaron's daughter around '80-'81 and love to see the personal side of his life in the photos and paintings.
and congrats John on being the lucky winner.

best,
barry

[terjung]

I have the honor of having one of Graig's paintings in my home office. Based on my experience, I would advise you to ask Graig for his opinion on size and subject matter early on in the process. If you tell him you'd like a Hank Aaron, he may have dozens of images of him that he can show you.

I'm considering having him do a second painting for me and he has shown me many images of the subject that I didn't even know existed.

During your discussion with him, ask him what size a particular image would need to be in order to do it justice. Just my $0.02, but I think it is better to have his involvement in all stages. He is an amazing artist and his process starts well before the brush hits the canvas.

[nebboy]

1st photo - head and chest. Right in Greg's zone

[Tigerden]

John good luck in your pursuit of the ideal Braves image for Graig to paint. Though I am partial to the Tigers , I had saved these two Braves photos and would have given them serious consideration if I had been fortunate enough to win the raffle.

[Tigerden]

...and this photo of Eddie Mathews.

[DHogan]

My favorite is the one with him jumping near the fence.

[perezfan]

Same here.... by a landslide. And that could have made a killer 16" X 24" painting, by isolating as necessary on the leaping Aaron.

The Peskin pose chosen is pretty majestic as well. I like Aaron's face a bit better than the similar image (which was posted at the beginning of the thread).

[billyb]

John,
Great choice.

Graig,
I will be looking forward to your magic show. Keep up the great work.

[whitehse]

Looking forward to seeing this image come to life if Kreindler-color!

[GKreindler]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for tuning back into this thread. Now that we have the image all worked out and I can actually put something down on canvas, I'll be updating it a LOT more regularly until the piece is in John's hands. And certainly, I really appreciate you all chiming in and sharing your thoughts.

First off, I definitely agree about the quality of the Aaron jumping image - it really is pretty bad@SS. I think that one would make one heck of a cool painting, especially at the 16" x 20" size (or thereabouts). However, I'm definitely loving this Peskin shot as much, too. I guess I'm just at peace with the fact that I know I'll do the other one at some point as well.

Anywho, onto the canvas at hand. The drawing is officially on the darn thing.



They're a few people off the boards who have asked me about the squiggly lines and what they represent, so I thought I'd address it here for those of you who may be curious. For the most part, having an underdrawing done for a painting acts as a road map for most artists, whether it's for something as simple as gesture lines, or if it's meticulous to the point of creating a full-on black and white guide that will later be glazed over with transparent color. By no means does everyone use them, and I don't want to say whether I think it's 'wrong' to do so, but for me, it works.

For me, rather than just doing an outline of things for a skeleton, I prefer to get a bit more involved. All of the those squiggles that you see are changes in value, color, and/or temperature. Sometimes those changes are subtle, sometimes they're major, but the most important thing for me is that they're there. It's kind of a way of thinking about the drawing as being sculptural moreso than a bunch of lines that I'm filling in with color. Though, I guess you could say that it still looks rather paint-by-numberish. Whoops.

Anywho, now that it's all drawn in, I can start with some color. The drawing was spray fixed with a Krylon product called Workable Fixatif, which will create a clear acrylic-based barrier between the drawing and the paint that'll go on top of it.

With that, I put a warmish oil wash over the painting to create a colored-ground to work off of. For me, the ground is meant to do two things. One, to get rid of the stark white of the canvas as soon as possible. Traditionally, when creating a ground one would usually do so with a medium value so that when colors are placed on top of it, they can observed closer to their real value. For example, on a completely white surface, a small spec of paint in a medium value would look much darker than it actually is.

The second thing the ground does for me is create certain atmospheric effects that can't be attained in any other way. Since all oil paint has a bit of translucency to it, whatever's underneath a typical stroke of mine will show through and effect it in some way. That's the sort of thing that will create richness, nuance, and a lot of headaches - all parts of the process.



After the National, I plan on jumping back into the thing and starting to put down some actual color. But man, I'm THRILLED that I have something to show before heading out to Cleveland.

I hope y'all dig my thoughts along with the progress shots, even if it can sometimes sound flowery or long-winded. Regardless, as per usual, any thoughts, comments, or critiques are ALWAYS appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

Graig

[Kawika]

Originally Posted by GKreindler

All of the those squiggles that you see are changes in value, color, and/or temperature. Sometimes those changes are subtle, sometimes they're major, but the most important thing for me is that they're there. It's kind of a way of thinking about the drawing as being sculptural moreso than a bunch of lines that I'm filling in with color.

Easy if you are from Krypton and have X-ray vision. Just sayin'.

[varsitycollectibles]

I lean towards Aaron flying into the fence. Great action shot with an ad that says paints on a painting? Would no doubt be sweet.