By Justin Gerard
The Other Side of the Mirror- The Historian
Hey guys! We wanted to show some more working images for our story, "The Other Side of the Mirror".
The Other Side of the Mirror
Hey guys! I wanted to share a few sneak peeks of some of the paintings and working images Justin and I will be debuting in June for our joint Gallery Nucleus show. We have been working on a short story that we are both illustrating, and all of the pieces for the book will be available at the show. We have been working on this book since early last year, and are very excited with how it has been developing. We will be posting more images as we complete them, as well as more working images!
12x16 oil painting by Annie Stegg Gerard
Pen and Ink drawing by Justin Gerard
IFX 120 Workshop
Hey guys! I recently finished a workshop for the new issue of IFX and it is finally available!
Check it out here!
Dryads and Fauns Miniature painting series
Justin and I will be participating in Krab Jab Studio's third annual Faerie show with four new miniature paintings. We have been working on a series of Dryads and Fauns using some of the vintage brass frames I have been collecting. The first of the series was Morea, who I did a demo on at the beginning of the year. All four will be available for purchase at the show.
March 14th
FAERIE III Opening Reception
6 - 9 pm
Curator Talk 7:30 pm
krabjabstudio@gmail.com
"Ptelea" the nymph of the European elm
Annie Stegg Gerard
4"x6"
oil on Strathmore series 500
"Faun of Ptelea" the faun of the European elm
Justin Gerard
4"x6"
watercolor on Strathmore series 500
*framed under vintage bubble glass
"Faun of Karya" the faun of the nut tree
Justin Gerard
2.5"x3"
oil on Strathmore series 500
"Karya" the nymph of the nut tree
Annie Stegg Gerard
2.5"x3"
oil on Strathmore series 500
Miniature painting demo
Hey guys! Justin and I are working on a series of mini paintings of Dryads and Satyrs. My first painting in the series is Morea, the dryad of the mulberry tree. I thought I would document the process as I went along.
Step 1: The drawing
After deciding on a thumbnail I like, I transfer it to Strathmore series 500 paper by shading the backside of the thumbnail paper and tracing over it with a sharp pencil. The lines will be transferred to your new paper using this "carbon copy" technique.
I like to use the Prismacolor col-erase brown pencils to create the final drawing. In this case, the drawing is going to act as the underpainting for the image. Normally I would use paint for this stage but because this image is only 2.5x3 inches, pencil seems more appropriate. I pay attention to the overall lighting of the piece during this step to make the painting process run more smoothly.
When the drawing is complete, I seal it using golden matte medium. This protects the paper from the oil that is going to be applied in subsequent steps, ensuring that the painting is archival. Be sure the matte medium is 100% dry before you start adding oil.
STEP 2: Blocking in color
Once a palette is determined, rough colors are applied in light layers. I like to keep the pencil lines visible to act as a guide as I build color. After this step, I set the painting aside to dry.
STEP 3: Glazing
Using walnut oil alkyd, I mix hansa yellow and alizarin crimson to make a golden orangey hue. I apply this to the surface of the painting. Remember to observe fat over lean. If you use too much oil, it will bead up on the surface.
This step unifies the lighting in your piece. I am going to repeat this step many times before the piece is completed.
STEP 4: Detailing
While the surface of the painting is still wet from the previous glaze, I like to add a detail layer. Using a fine tipped brush and mostly titanium white paint, I can add in the highlights.
When detailing my image, I like to use one sharp tipped brush (Pointed Round 3×0) and one older brush that is a little frayed (Angled shader 1/8") After the sharp details are added with the fine tipped brush, I can go back soften them by dabbing them with the frayed brush. In the example above, you can see what the strands of hair look like before they are softened.
STEP 4: REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT!
So typically for a piece like this, I will do steps three, four, maybe even a dozen times. It is crucial to make sure the painting is dry each time you cycle through these two steps. When you glaze the piece, your highlights will become diminished, but don't panic! Just paint them back in during the detail stage. This allows the painting to gradually build dimension and vibrant color.
STEP 5: Presentation
For this image, I have chosen a vintage early 1900s solid brass filagree Italian frame. I have been collecting these tiny frames, and have a little stockpile built up that we will be using for all of the paintings in this series.
Sketchbooks 2014 mailing out!
Hey guys! The orders are in, the books are packed and we are mailing out all the orders! It's been an industrialized assembly line here at Gallery Gerard. We've got everyone packing and stamping and boxing, all in a line. It's going great, (though there has been some union talk among the cats who are demanding lighter hours and more catnip. The hairy little ingrates!)
For those of you who ordered special edition books, here is a sneak peek of what you will be receiving in the mail!
Sketchbook Special Edition Sketches Preview
Hey guys! We wanted to show a few of the drawings we have been doing in the special edition sketchbooks. There are just a few left, and they can be purchased in our shop.
Here is Justin's preview:
And here is Annie's:
Sketchbook 2014 preview
This Thursday at 10am EST, we will each be releasing our 2014 sketchbooks on our shop!
Here is a sneak peek of some of the pages:
Annie Stegg's 2014 sketchbook
The first 300 books will be signed and numbered. We will also be offering a limited edition package that comes with an original drawing in the front, as well as a limited edition mini print.
Justin Gerard's 2014 sketchbook
The Wrong Door
"The Wrong Door"
Watercolor, ink, digital.
This painting is a intricately layered cultural criticism ingeniously disguised as a fairy tale about rediscovering our inner falcon spirit. It transcends social constructs, it defies human wisdom and confounds science. It launches the viewer to the outer moons of ...
Wait.. oh no, wait, that was for a different post.
*ahem*
This painting is about wizards and dwarves and dragons.
Most of the time I spend a great deal of effort on drawing and redrawing my figures several dozen times to work out different poses and outfits. (Boots? Armor? Dresses? A fancy hat? Real investigation work.) However, for this one, I went more on instinct because I had the holiday MADNESS.
Does this ever happen to any of you guys? The holidays hit and you're traveling, and eating, and seeing family, and eating, and lighting Christmas trees on fire, and eating; and all the while, you are NOT DOING ANY DRAWING AND YOU'RE SLOWLY GOING INSANE.
So at the end of the holidays I had to do something and this was the first thumbnail on my desk.
I painted this on my new favorite old paper: Arches 140 lb. Hot Press.
The painting is watercolor and liquitex inks (ala Arthur Rackham).
I used much heavier pencil work this time this time than I usually do and I also didn't spray fix my pencils because I am a dangerous man and that is the sort of thing that dangerous men do.
------
ALSO:
My Sketchbook is finally finished! (I know it's 2015 now, yes, but 2014 was not a year to have a book printed in. Ask anyone. They all say sketchbooks should be printed in 2015.)
It goes live on our store Thursday morning at 10 AM EST.
Each book is signed and numbered.
We are also releasing the limited, special edition of Sketchbook 2014 at the same time. The Special Edition comes with an original drawing in the front as well as a signed 6 x 9 print available only for this run. IT WILL ROCK.
To see how the previous year's special editions turned out check out these posts:
On the Easel
Here is a shot of a watercolor and ink painting I have been working on over the Holidays.
Merry Christmas You Guys!!
Wishing You all the best this holiday season!
From Annie and Justin and all of us here at Gallery Gerard.
New sketchbook cover: Philyra
Hey guys! I wanted to show you the cover I have been working on for my 2014 sketchbook. The sketchbook will features all of the preliminary drawing I have been working on for my Daughters of Oceanus series this past year. I hope to have it ready for preorder by the end of the year. More images to come soon!
Philyra
11x14
oil on board
December 2014
The sketchbook will features all of the preliminary drawing I have been working on for my Daughters of Oceanus series this past year. I hope to have it ready for preorder by the end of the year.
Beorne and Bolg at the Battle of Five Armies
This is the third post on Beorne and Bolg at the Battle of the Five Armies. We are about 95% Finished! Still a few odds and ends to tweak but it is getting to a nice stage of pleasant mayhem.
This time, instead of trying to explain how we went from here to here:
...I am attaching a GIF to show the stages that the painting goes through.
I like making GIFS. Sometimes when I paint I feel like I am actually going backwards, making the piece worse minute by minute. Seeing the actual progress of it can be really encouraging.
In the GIF you can see I am working values first before ever really getting into saturated colors. That is because saturated colors are evil.
They are like petting a cat....
Everyone is purring and having a nice time when suddenly he whips around and tries to bite your hand off.
That is what working with saturated colors is like.
I am still working on some of the fine details, and of course my signature. (Everyone knows that the quality of one's painting is directly proportional to the size and complexity of the signature.)
After it is finished we plan to make prints of it in time to be released alongside sketchbook 2014...
Stay tuned!
For previous posts on this painting check out:
The Battle of Five Armies: Tight Drawing
I've been busy penciling away on my tight drawing for the Battle of Five Armies. I am trying something new this time around and am working with graphite alongside the usual colored pencil.
Graphite has a tendency to muddy the delicate tones of a watercolor, to smudge, and to be too soluble, and so I usually prefer working without it. However, on the other hand it has the benefit of giving you more control, sharper detail and a better value range.
With so much area to cover and so many figures to work out I have opted to risk the muddiness this time around and utilized it to lay out my figures. I am finding that I really like how it blends with the Caran D'Ache Pablo pencils I have been using for the colored bits.
In the above image I have used the graphite to really isolate the characters from one another. This reinforcement of the major shapes will help a great deal later on when I begin to work on the lighting. It will help separate the characters from what's behind them, and thus keep the whole scene from merging into one blurry goblin quagmire.
"...with them came the bodyguard of Bolg, goblins of huge size with scimitars of steel."
A story note here: If you saw my last post you will notice that the giant goblins in the Bodyguard of Bolg have gotten their noses back.
In "The Hobbit", Tolkien calls the orcs 'goblins' and not 'orcs.' And though in his later writings he would use the terms interchangeably at times, he generally means orcs when describing the miscreant servants of the dark lord. (He would do this in part to give his creatures more distinction from their fairy tale interpretation of goblins.) Thus, there was only orcs of varying sizes really, and Peter Jackson it would seem, had it right all along.
However, that explanation is not good enough for me. The damage is done Professor Tolkien. It's too late and too bad and now no matter what, when I read the Hobbit, I will always see them as big-nosed goblins.
To add some justification for this: I still hold that The Hobbit is more a fairy tale and less a fantasy epic. Goblins fit better in this setting than orcs do. The orcs fit in the drama and epic glory of the later writings, but "The Hobbit" is a tall tale, told by a curious and sometimes dubious author in Bilbo Baggins.
So right or wrong, I have decided to go full goblin here.
Next Week: Watercoloring!
The Battle of Five Armies: Round 2
by Justin Gerard
As some of you may recall, a few years ago I took a stab at a battle scene which was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's Battle of Five Armies from "The Hobbit."
I had originally decided to do a version of "the Hobbit" for myself, both out of love of the story, and also so I could nail down my own ideas about it before Peter Jackson and the good folks over at Weta released theirs, (and risk having it possibly influence, or even replace, my own ideas).
Now it is several years later and Jackson and co. are about to release the third and final installment of their films based on "The Hobbit." This one will almost certainly feature a particular scene that I have always wanted to paint. One that Bilbo never even sees, but that nonetheless was one of the most interesting little side events from the story.
Beorne's final showdown with Bolg
It's only mentioned very briefly, but yet it always held my imagination. I've always wanted to paint it.
So now I am going about drawing all of my various heroes, villains, miscreants and warriors. There are so many interesting little moments to work with in a battle scene like this. Especially a battle scene where so much interesting development has occurred throughout the book leading up to this moment.
I'm hoping to have the painting finished long before the final installment hits... but after working out my rough sketches, I am realizing that I have more than 50 figures performing some kind of action in the scene. Maybe I've lost my mind... I mean, there comes a point when you have to ask, 'how many goblins is too many goblins?'
But I can't wait to jump in and start painting them.
The Battle of Five Armies 2014
BE PREPARED FOR MADNESS.
One last note for those wondering: We finally have our print store back up!
To follow the developmental work from my original series on "The Hobbit," visit the Hobbit posts on my old blog at quickhidehere.
IlluXCon 7
Hey guys! We are going to be in the main show at IlluXCon this year, September 17-21 in Allentown, PA. Here is a list of originals that will be for sale in the show!
Justin Gerard New Sketches For Sale
Annie Stegg Gerard Oil Paintings For Sale
"Klytie the Purple Flower"
"Ianthe the Nephelae Nymph"
"Kerberos"
"Flora the Fox"
"Bancroft the Badger"
"Ms. Field Mouse"
"The Toad"
Annie Stegg Gerard New Drawings For Sale
Klytie the Purple Flower
"Klytie the Purple Flower"
18x24
oil on panel
Klytie was a water-nymph and in love with Apollo, who made her no return. So she pined away, sitting all day long upon the cold ground, with her unbound tresses streaming over her shoulders. Nine days she sat and tasted neither food nor drink, her own tears and the chilly dew her only food. She gazed on the sun when he rose, and as he passed through his daily course to his setting; she saw no other object, her face turned constantly on him. At last, they say, her limbs rooted in the ground, her face became a sunflower, which turns on its stem so as always to face the sun throughout its daily course; for it retains to that extent the feeling of the nymph from whom it sprang.
- Mythology Guide http://www.online-mythology.com
Ianthe the Nephelae Nymph
The latest painting in my Daughters of Oceanus series. See her in person this coming week in the IlluXCon main show!
"Ianthe the Nephelae Nymph"
12x16
oil on board
September 2014
Kerberos
Another painting for my baby creatures in mythology. Meet, Kerberos, Hades' savage hellhound who guards the gates of the underworld! He might try to steal your slippers as well. Watch out!
Kerberos
8x10
oil on board
