My thoughts and progress about my works

This has such meaning for me.  Not only was it a fun thing to do for my daughter, Ann, for her friend's birthday, but it was eye-opening for me in many ways.  Here's the progress on Janna's Guitar that I did for Ann as a surprise for her friend, and rock-star, Janna, for her birthday in August. 

Now here's how it all relates. One day I answered the survey for BuildaBridge Institute Artist Conference  (Philadelphia) and to refresh my memory I got out my notebook.  Flipping through, glancing at my notes, I turned to the page where I wrote down what I saw during music therapy.
My question during this time was "How should I develop my art skills?"  I had written what I saw during music therapy: Large paint brush, dark blues, small #4 round brush, small yellow dots and fine lines.

It made no sense to me at all back then or that morning.  So, today I called my friend and mentor, Jean, and asked her if she could see anything in that.  She said - It's "Gee-tahr" (as we call my painting in progress).  So, now I see it.  The background is the dark blues (used a large brush for that, and even the guitar itself could appear to be a large brush), the fine lines are the strings  (which I was amazed at how that is done and love the result) and the small yellow dots may be the marks on the guitar neck because they have a faint yellow paint on them to make them glow artsy stuff.  I  had not painted on this prior to BuildaBridge but did have it sketched for Ann to see. 

So, this painting is really stretching my skills, but I also wonder if there is more meaning in doing this. I had to add a note in my BuildaBridge notes:  "Guitar, where are you taking me?"  The 'large brush' vision may also be related to taking my art to larger levels, being more confident...don't know, but my eyes are open to possibilities!  Whoa!  This turned out to be an emotional morning! God is good and I love it when He talks to me!

Here's how I painted Janna's Guitar:

I began by blocking out a large margin inside the guitar, the hand/arm, as well as the neck and the smaller items that would eventually lay over the background. This gives me freedom to use a really wet wash for the background without fear of painting over something I don't want.

Using royal blue, alizarin crimson, turquoise and burnt sienna I mixed a gray, blue creamy puddle for the background.  I created the background with a wet-on-wet technique, using wet paint on a wet paper.  This took 3 layers, drying between each layer with a hair dryer – I'm impatient, no way can I wait for the paper to dry naturally!  Then when the last layer was nearly finished I took some of the darkest mixture and loosely painted the shadow of the guitar in the upper right corner.

Next I removed the mask from the guitar neck and laid in a wash of New Gamboge yellow, a thin wash of turquoise, and another of gray, preserving the yellow on the left side of the neck. I continued down the guitar neck in sections. 

  To make the guitar fret bars and strings, I lifted the darker paint using a synthetic brush, barely wet.  After painting with clear water, I blotted with a paper towel, repeating the process until the fret bars and strings appeared. Since the strings appear over the fret bars, I did the fret bars first.  After lifting the paint, I used a very small brush to add a thin dark line along one side of the strings and fret bars to give them dimension.

Attacking the hands was the more difficult for me.  I started again with New Gamboge yellow, adding a layer opera rose on top of that and a layer of blue on top of that.  I kept building the skin tones until they appeared more natural drying between layers.  I preserved a bright spot of yellow for the accent color. Where there would be shadowing on the skin, between the knuckles, the fingers, and where one finger shadowed another, I built up the color more intensely, adding a mixture of royal blue and opera rose to make a violet for the shadows. Always build the original color of the object before you add the shadows.  This way the original color peaks through the shadows and looks more natural.

  The bandana and ring were so much fun!  I did this by negative painting.  For the bandana I masked out general shapes, ovals, circles, ellipses, etc. where the white design is.  Then I washed with blue, yellows and opera rose to make the scarf appear folded, and to hit it with the highlight of the lights shining on it.  After this was dry I removed the mask and began the negative painting.  Taking a pretty strong mixture of the darkest colors, I used a size 0000 brush and started to drag in the colors to create the design in the white. 

For the ring, I painted around the white design I saw in the reference.  Oh, did I mention I used a magnifying glass on both the reference and the painting while I was painting?  Yah, it's pretty small stuff to paint, but I love it!

The reflection was done with a grayer shade of blue, and I dragged some clear water over it after it was totally dry to blur it just enough to make it look reflective.

  For the lower part of the strings, I used yellow first, then a gray blue, lifting where I needed the strings.  Negative painting technique was used again for the darker areas at the base of the strings.  I also highlighted with bleed proof white (not a watercolor, more like white-out!) on the lower part of the strings to get the affect I wanted in some places. 

The guitar body was painted with 4 layers of royal blue, turquoise and burnt sienna, masking out the whammy bar and the buttons. I again lifted paint to get the depth I wanted on the edge of the guitar.

The whammy bar, buttons & reflection were done by leaving a lot of white, then painting new Gamboge Yellow and Opera Rose around the white to make it shine.

  The quote was the final entry on the painting.  I used white India ink, and a dip pen.  And if you don't think that makes you nervous, just try it.  I was literally sweating for fear of that pen dropping a blob of white permanent ink on a finished painting!  But, it all worked out well.

All this work and newly gained knowledge was because I accepted a commission that I wasn't sure I could complete.  I am pleased with the results, as is the customer.  Never be afraid to try something new and challenging!  But, my best advice is to get a really good mentor who will help you through the difficulties by training you to do it yourself, not touching your own painting.  I have one and I could not begin to put a value on her friendship or her willingness to teach me everything she knows.