Finalist in The 2013 A.R.C. International Salon

For my first post of 2014 I promise to be a more active blogger. Not just on this blog but also on my painting blog- which you should be following. It has been a while since I posted, so in a very lazy move, I am basically just cutting and pasting a post from Verisimilitude.  Even this post about me being a ARC finalist is kind old news. I have been told blogs are done- pass'e- they are are "so 2009". Twitter is apparently not the hip new thing anymore either. Not sure what the newest online social media trend is now- maybe a site where you just post a guttural noise that expresses your feelings. Actually, that's a pretty good idea. Anyone want in invest in my new website- Gruntbook?

In a few days is the deadline for the next Art Renewal Center 2014 International Salon. I was very excited to be chosen for the second year in a row as a finalist. Last year I entered the first painting of a 3 part commission I am doing for the Demolay Internation organization in the Imaginative Realism category. I got the big glossy catalog in the mail the other day. Great to see your work featured along side so many great painters.


Here I am casually looking through the catalog on my fancy new desk (which will get a blog post of it's own soon) drinking my morning cappuccino (I know it is uncool to drink cappuccinos before 2 p.m., but that is how I roll). I will drink cappuccinos while I do all my blog posts from now on.
Here is a link to high res version of the painting on the ARC website.  CLICK ME!
If you want to own one of these catalogs for yourself CLICK HERE

Chivalry and Kids

I just started my next painting for the Demolay International organization. This is the second of three paintings for this commission. I am working on the painting now but thought I would post the image of the charcoal drawing. The drawing is 36" x 24" and has been traced with wax paper and transferred to the canvas.

Protect and Serve, 36"x24", charcoal and chalk on toned paper, © copyright Demolay Int. and Richard Luschek 2012

Wax paper is laid over the drawing, the big shapes are traced with marker and then the back of the wax paper is rubbed with charcoal.
The wax paper is then placed over the canvas and the lines drawn over with a brush handle or dull pencil. The charcoal will mark the canvas like carbon paper.  I then inked the lines with thin paint and then lay in in a value study.
More to come soon.

Demolay Away!

I finally finished the first painting in the series I am doing for Demolay International. It has been framed and shipped off. I delivered it to a convention in Louisville after which it was shipped on to Kansas City where it will hang in their headquarters.

Join the Fight, 36"x24", oil on linen, © copyright Demolay Int. and Richard Luschek 2012

I had the painting scanned and was not very happy with the results. I had a lot of work to do in photoshop to get the image to look like the painting. I like to paint on canvas with some texture and the lights of the scanner picked up all of those causing a lot of glare. I also increased contrast and adjusted the color that I thought would look good for the posters they should be printing up soon.

 It has come a long way from my initial sketch.

Pencil sketch with Digital paint over.

Dragon in Charcoal

I am finishing up the first painting of my commissioned series for the Demolay International. The design firm that ordered the project also wants the charcoal study I did for the painting. The charcoal study was pretty beat up from being around the studio-  an easel fell on it and I accidentally dragged a cloth across the front of it. So, I spent a bit of time cleaning up the drawing and then decided to just pop the light effect and fix some of the things that I had moved in cursory fashion while testing changes that I would make on the painting. I also decided to strengthen and correct the design on the shield, since I knew that would be an important part of the image.
I have to ship the image, and it is a big drawing- 24" x 36". I ordered a very nice frame with a warm, dark grey matte. The issue was the glass. The client asked for conservation glass, which is at least 3 times the cost of normal glass. So, the glass alone was going to be almost $120.
I was not comfortable shipping that huge piece of glass to Boston. Both the frame shop and I decided it would be best to frame it with plexi-glass. Now the issue with plexi is that it can produce a lot of static and suck charcoal particles off the drawing. Despite my better judgement, I used spray fixative on the drawing. Fixative protects and adheres the charcoal but it also kills the contrast a bit, making the darks a lighter, more silvery grey.
I am hoping the client will replace the plexi with conservation glass when they receive the drawing. This is the stuff you never really plan on or think about when taking a commission.

Join the Fight, 36"x24", charcoal and chalk on toned paper, © copyright Demolay Int. and Richard Luschek 2011

I will post the final image of the painting soon. I need to get a high res scan of the image so it can be reproduced as a full size poster.

Current State of Things.

There are a few fan articles for Harn which I have illustrated that should be coming out before the first of the year. These articles have a few of my drawings which I am pretty proud of. I will offer you just a peak of one of these illustrations.
Both projects have been a long time in the making. An article on a woodland tree house I think has an illustration I did in 2007 that will finally see the light of day. 

Nasty Goblin dude.

The other big project I have been working on is a series of paintings for the Demolay organization. The first of the three is coming along nicely I think. It has been a challenge. I hope to have the painting wrapped up by the first of the year so I can concentrate on the other two.  I still have to give the characters in the painting likenesses of specific members of the Demolay organization. I have not received the reference photos yet, so that will have to wait. I am just  making the faces up at the moment- using photo reference, looking at classical paintings, and working out of my head best I can.

Join the Fight, 36"x24", oil on linen, © copyright Demolay Int. and Richard Luschek 2011

In painting, I typically set something up and paint from life. Doing a large scale imaginative piece has been a bit out of my comfort zone. I am still struggling with the light in the picture and may end up building small clay maquettes to work out the light and shadow. I typically do pen and illustrations, so the addition of a full color painting with form and breadth is a different animal.
You can check out my last post on the painting when it was just in the color study/charcoal drawing stage. You can see the changes I have made since then.

This is Dragin'

I am working on a pretty big commission for Demolay International. As it is my first attempt at large scale imaginative paintings of this type. It has already proven to be quite a learning experience. I am to do three paintings, each 3' x 2', of a Demolay fantasy world with themes important to the organization. The paintings will be hung in their headquarters in Kansas City. The images will be used in an international marketing campaign to attract new members: posters, fliers, and ads. If you are unfamiliar with this organization it's a boys club modeled after the Freemasons. They are named after the last Grandmaster of the Knights Templar, Jacques DeMolay. The group use their namesake as an example of loyalty, of courage. They aspire to these "themes of knighthood and chivalry, fidelity and toleration."
In the paintings I will be representing those themes- in addition to all the super secret symbolism. After a long process of compositional sketches, we settled on the final three images and they have been approved by the organization. I will spend the next 9 or so months finishing these paintings.

As I have mentioned in a previous post, the first step was to collect or build some costuming and props.
I did most of the sketches out of my head, doing a lot of it directly in photoshop.
I am only posting  one of the sketches as the others have already changed and are not ready yet.

I had the brother of a friend get all dressed up in the Templar outfit and take some poses. He did a great job posing. A lot of the stiffness in the sketch was worked out and I tried a lot of different positions and foot work. Note, the final image will not contain Adidas flip flops.
His face has been blurred for his protection. While I think it is pretty cool, a photo like this could result in getting a wedgie at school.

From the photos I began a full size charcoal drawing to work out any final issues with drawing and composition. When completed I will transfer this to the canvas and begin painting. Here is an action shot of me at work.

Below is the charcoal drawing so far. The most tricky and worrisome part of the project is that I will be placing faces of select members of the Demolay and related groups in to the work. Jack, who is seen posing in the photo above will not have his face painted in the final image. A national casting call went out through the Demolay organization for models to play these parts. I have a feeling this is going to be the tricky part of this whole project as I do not have complete control over the photo references I will be receiving photos from 20 different people. Honestly, it could be a nightmare, but I will do the best I can. So far the project has been a lot of fun.

Look for more updates on this project coming soon.