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Mepps Lusox - An Original 8 x 8 Still Life Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Mepps Lusox

 Yesterday, I painted a still life of one of my newest fishing lures. That one was given to me by my wife for Christmas. Today's lure is one of the oldest one's I own. I don't remember where I got it anymore. I just know it's been in my tackle box for as long as I can recall. In fact, it's been moved from tackle box to tackle box as they wear out or break, but this Mepps lure has out lived almost every other piece of fishing gear I own. It's a bit worn now, which made it so appealing to paint, so I hope some of that comes through. It was a real trick getting it to stay in this position. It's a bit top-heavy and kept wanting to fall over. I finally had to use a little clay and string to get it to stay like this so I could paint it. 

Mepps Lusox © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Currently available through my eBay auction. Click here to go the auction.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Purple Tail - A New Original 8 x 8 Still Life Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Purple Tail

 One of my favorite places to look for inspiration is my tackle box. I love the brightly colored fishing lures that fill it and have painted them often, though not very recently. Well, it's time for that to change. I dug through my tackle box and quickly found myself gravitating toward this one with its long purple tail. I love the color in it and really wanted to try to capture it with paint. Since I wanted to concentrate on the lure to try to capture it as accurately as possible, I kept the background and the surface it sits on pretty simple. I like this approach with these small still life paintings because it lets me concentrate on the things I want to and not get bogged down with other aspects of the painting.

Purple Tail © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Currently available through my eBay auction. Click here to go the auction.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Lures - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Lures

 For Christmas this year, my wife gave me a new tackle box. It was a much-needed gift since my last one was being kept closed with rope and twine. After 20 plus years it's served me well, but it was time to retire it. So it was with great delight that I opened my new tackle box, but the real treat was that she actually filled the whole thing with tackle. She knows how much I like to paint my lures as well as use them to fish and managed to find a nice collection of used lures to fill the new tackle box with. The old ones are just so much better to paint. Each little nick and scrape adds so much character and makes them more enjoyable to paint. Below are step-by-step images of the parinting process:

 Here's an image of what I was looking at while painting. The lures are sitting on top of a piece of glass to give a little reflection. This is a simple technique to give the foreground some interest without having to add more objects to it. Looking at this image, I notice a few things that really look different than what I saw. For instance, the little piece of fishing line on the lure in the front didn't show up nearly that well in real life and I could also see a little more reflection in the glass than the camera captured. That's why I prefer to paint from life whenever I can.

This is my rough block-in. I did this a little different then I normally do. With this block-in, I used a lot more paint and didn't thin it with turps. Instead, I used a paper towel dipped in turpentine to wipe some of the paint and correct the shapes as I painted. I even used some of the paint on the paper towel to tone the canvas in the foreground and creat the shadows on the ground. I did this because I wanted to try to use some of the underpainting in the final painting. My thought was that the majority of my brush strokes from here on out would be in the negative areas. Because of this I let the painting dry overnight so I could work wet on dry.

Well I've got to start somewhere, so I choose to start with the background and work my way forward. I thought that this would work the best with the approach I was trying. I tried to use as much of background green color as I could to help define the shape of the lure and where ever I could I used the initial painting. A good example of this is the tail feather/hair. Most of this is actually the original painting with just a few little strokes of color to add detail and shadow.

Just about done now. I think I spent more time on that black lure than anywhere else in the painting. It just took a while to get the look right. Too dark and it would have been a big hole in the canvas. Too light and it didn't look like it was a dark-colored lure. After a bit of trial and error, I think I finally got it. Now I just need to finish up the last lure and a bit of the foreground.

The finished painting:

Lures © 

 Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid on this painting.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Day 42 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Changing Lures - by George De Chiara

Changing Lures

 I've turned to my tackle box several times during this painting challenge for models to paint. For this set up, I once again called on it, but this time I used the whole tackle box. I wanted this to have the feeling of slightly spilled or unorganized, like the fisherman has tried out many different lures to see what interests the fish. Sometimes he puts them back in the box, sometimes just getting them close to the tackle box is good enough. Hmm... this is starting to sound like some of my fishing trips.

Here's how this painting came to life:

Here's a picture of the set up. I did take a few liberties with this while painting it. For instance, I didn't like the green and yellow tail on top of the edge of the tackle box, but I needed to have it there to keep the rest of the lure in place (that part that goes across the handle). Sometimes, even when painting from life with something I have complete control over, I still need to edit what I see. I prefer not to have to do that, but sometimes it's unavoidable.

This image was taken at the end of my rough block in. The block in is painted with very thin paint just to get the placement of the large shapes. I do this with a combination of a large brush to get the big masses and a smaller brush to get better drawing details. I also use a paper towel dipped in turpentine to wipe out lighter areas.

Once the rough block in is dry, I being to refine the painting. I now start using thicker color. I started with that little yellow lure hanging over the side. I choose this spot to start, since it would help define the values of the tackle box since on one side of the lure is the lightest color of it and on the other side is one of the darker values for the tackle box. By getting these two values so early in the process, defining the rest of them is pretty straightforward. I just compare the value to the two existing values to determine if it's lighter or darker.

Just about done now. Since I had a lot of color mixed already for the tackle box, getting to this point was pretty quick.  In fact, it seems like a lot of the colors I need are already mixed on my palette already. The silver spoon, for example, hanging in the front of the tackle box is reflecting colors that I've already mixed to paint other objects in the scene. The same is true for the other one that I haven't painted yet in the image. Even most of the yellow color of the lure in the foreground turned out to be a combination of the yellows that I've already mixed of some of the other lures.

The finished painting.

Changing Lures

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Day 19 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Cisco Kid - by George De Chiara

Cisco Kid

It seems like every time I pull out my fishing lures, I have to do two or three paintings of them before I'm satisfied. For those of you not keeping score, I did one yesterday with 3 of my lures in it and now one today. For today's painting, I wanted to explore how I could make an interesting painting with very few objects. In this case just two, the lure and a small branch. I wanted to lure to be as large as possible and still have an interesting composition. To achieve that, I was going to need a good cast shadow, so I placed my light is such a way that it would produce a strong shadow. I had to play around with my arrangement of the lure and light for a bit to get something I was happy with. I think the key was getting the lure to rest on the branch. The helped give the painting some depth and movement. Here's how my painting came to life today.

Here is a picture of my set up. Sorry for the strong depth of field in this image. I didn't realize that's the way my camera was shooting this image until I starting writing this blog. Unfortunately, I have already broken down my set up in preparation for tomorrow's painting. This should still give you a pretty good idea of what I was looking at while painting today.

Ah, the all important block in. In reality, this is just a few brush strokes of color, but it took just as long to get these in the correct spot and the correct size as any of my earlier paintings. Like most of my earlier step-by-step blogs, this is done with very thin paint and a paper towel to wipe areas that need to be lighter or corrected.

After my block in has dried for a few minutes, I can start to work on top of it with thicker paint. In this case, the thicker paint is mixtures of colors close to what I used in my block in, except I don't use any turpentine to thin these mixtures and I use white paint to lighten them. In my block in, I almost never use white. I just thin the colors down or wipe some of it off to get the approximate value I want. Normally, I wouldn't put in details like the eye this early in a painting, but since this is the only lure in the painting I want to make sure things are in the correct place before I get too far. Since the eye is so large because of the intimate scale I'm working at, I felt it important to get it in there sooner rather than later.

Here I'm working on getting rest of the objects in the still life worked out. You can see I've got the back part of the lure painted in and the cast shadow for the hook on the back. I find it easier to paint these fine detail things in the reverse order I normally paint objects. Normally, I'll start with the object and then add in its cast shadow. For very small, fine objects, like a hook, I find it easy to paint the shadow first and then paint the hook on top of it later. Between this picture and the final image, I spent a lot of time working on the branch. You will notice I changed its length and shape quite a bit. I felt with the end of it going off the front leads the eye off the canvas too much. Plus, it cut the corner off a bit, since both ends of it were edging off. I know this may seem like a little thing, but with a composition like this, it's all the little things that make or break the painting.

The finished painting.

Cisco Kid

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Day 18 of the 50 Day painting challenge - The One That Got Away - by George De Chiara

The One That Got Away

Recently my in-laws came by for a visit. They have an old hickory tree that's falling down and have cut it up to use for barbecue wood. I've wanted to try some of this out next time we cook, so we asked them to bring us some. They brought a pretty good sized batch of wood and I was anxious to look through it and see what we got. While checking it out, I ran across one piece that really caught my eye. I knew I wanted to use it in a still life, but what would I use with it? Well, my fishing lures of course! When I'm setting up a still life scene like this I always think about what it must look like at the bottom of the lake. How many fisherman have lost their hooks, bait and lures to mysterious objects under the water's surface? I know I've lost my share of tackle, never to know what grabbed on to it.

This is what I'm painting today. You might notice that this set up isn't exactly like what I painted. When I was just about done with the painting my wife came into the studio and accidentally bumped my still life box, causing the lure in the front to fall down along with the branch it's on. While trying to set it back up, I knocked the tin down. Luckily, I was just about done painting when all of this happened. I had everything more or less painted, so I got the set up back as close as I could and continued to paint.

Here's my rough block in. The paint is pretty thin at this stage, and, with a paper towel, I can wipe out where some of the lures are going to go. If the paint doesn't lift off well or if it doesn't get light enough, I can dip the paper towel into a little turpentine and then wipe out the shapes I want. Even if the wash dries, a moist paper towel will wipe it off. This is very useful,  since these thin washes will dry in just a few minutes.

Once I'm happy with my block in, I can start to build up my paint. A good block in is like a map I can follow while painting. I don't have to worry about where things will go or if there's enough room for everything. Those questions have already been answered for me. Now I can concentrate on other things, like the drawing, colors and edges in my painting. Here I started with the yellow and green lure. To clean up the drawing of the lure, I need to paint the tin and one of the rocks. Before I know it, I have almost half the painting roughed in with more exact color and drawing.

At this point in my painting, I'm just trying to get the rest of the it roughed in with better color and more accurate drawing. I'm still using a pretty large brush and trying to avoid any details. I'll paint around the lure (lazy ike for you fishermen out there) on the log. It's easier than trying to cover the log color with yellow paint. The only way I know of to keep the yellow of the lure clean is either to paint around it or to paint the lure with very thick paint. I prefer the first choice, since it leaves the door open for the second choice as well. For the other little lure toward the top of the tin, I chose not to paint around it. I'll scrape some of this paint off when it comes time to paint that lure.

Just about done now. I have everything to a pretty good stage and I can now start putting in some details, like the hooks and some of the details on the tin. I'll go over everything at this stage to make sure I'm happy with the way it looks. You might notice I didn't paint the background like it is in the photograph. That was on purpose. I wanted the background to be mostly a light blue color, but I didn't have one piece of cloth or piece of paper big enough for this, so I the used two small pieces I did have, which, unfortunately, didn't match.

The finished painting.

The One That Got Away

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Day 3 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Bobbers - by George De Chiara

Bobbers

 After yesterday's painting, I'm still in the mood to use the contents of my tackle box for my models.  I thought it might be fun today to paint all the different bobbers that I have. While I'm sure there are many more varieties out there, I've been happy with these the few times I use a bobber. I usually prefer to just use lures when fishing, but I imagine that when I start to take my little girls out fishing, the bobbers will spend more time in the water and less time safe and sound in the tackle box.

 Here is how today's painting came to life...

Like in the previous posts, I did this block in with very loose brush work and thinned down paints. This is a bit more of a visual way to draw rather than using lines of color, although that's a perfectly valid way to start a painting and one I use when I feel I need to. With this type of block in, I just use my brush to sculpt the shapes I'm looking at. I use a paper towel to wipe out areas I want to remain white or just a lighter value than what's there.  This is a pretty quick process most of the time. I usually get to this stage within the first few minutes of painting.

I started with this bobber since both of the other bobbers touch it. By starting with this one, I'm able to better judge the size and shape of the other bobbers by comparing where they touch. Once this one is worked out, the others should go pretty quickly.

Once I'm happy with the orange and white bobber, I can start to spread out and paint the other shapes. I tend to think of this stage like a drop of water falling into a still pond and paint in a radiating fashion from the first object I start with. This helps in determining how much detail each section of the painting needs since I get a large view of the whole painting very early in the process.

I'm pretty much done at this point. I have a little work to do on the top of the painting and a few little details to put in, but for the most part all the major decisions have been made and now it's just a matter of finishing things up. It's at this stage that I like to go over everything and make any little adjustments I need, like the edges or a slight refinement of color.

Here is an image of what I've been looking at the whole time. Like in all my previous posts, I painted this from life and this picture was just taken to show you what I was seeing; well, as much as a camera can show you what I was seeing. You'll notice I left out that little piece of putty I left on the top of the board. I sometimes use this to hold objects in place.

Here's the finished painting. What do you think? Is there anything you would have done differently?

Bobbers

 
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD
Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Day 2 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Hanging Around - by George De Chiara

Hanging Around

Okay, so far so good. Two days down and two paintings done. Just 48 to go! For today's painting I turned to my tackle box, a favorite source of inspiration for me. With my wife and I raising one little girl and another on the way, I rarely get a chance to use my tackle for fishing anymore. Somehow painting the lures makes not using them a little easier. I know once my girls are a few years older we will all enjoy using these for fishing rather than painting, but, in the mean time, here is how today's painting came to life.

Like yesterday's painting, I start this one with broad loose strokes of color thinned down with turpentine. I also use a paper towel to wipe out areas that I want to remain white or near white. By dipping the paper towel into my turpentine, I can pretty much wipe the canvas completely clean if I wanted to.

Now that the block in is done, I start to refine my shapes and colors. With only two objects in this still life, it's really a toss-up as to which one to start with. I chose the larger yellow lure (the jitterbug for you fishermen out there), since it's cast shadow will fall over part of the other lure.

As I refine the lure on the left, the painting naturally progresses with it's case shadow and the background surrounding it. To keep the background and shadow interesting, I make sure to have as much variety in it as possible. Notice how there is still some detail and value changes even in the shadows.

You can see where this is going. With so much of the painting refined, it's time to finally get to that other lure. You'll notice I'm still avoiding all the little details like the hooks and the decals on the lures. Without the larger shapes, colors and edges not being correct there's no point in putting in these details just yet. These will be the finishing touches to the painting and it's what I worked on from the time this picture was taken till the painting was finished. Below is the final image again.

And here's a photograph of what I was looking at the whole time. You can see how much is lost with the photograph. This is why I think it's so important to work from life when ever possible. I only took this picture of my arrangement to show you what I was painting.

Hanging Around

 
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD
Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Jitterbug - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Jitterbug

It's been a while since I painted some of my fishing lures. There's something about them that I really enjoy painting. Maybe it's because I don't get to fish much, but by looking through my tackle box for lures to paint, I get to think about the fish I've caught using them. I make some mental plans when to use this lure or that one again. The downside to rummaging thought the tackle box is I want to run out the store and buy a bunch of new lures since I never feel like I have enough. Of course, the last time I did this I also had to buy another tackle box since my main one will not hold anymore. Well, at least I should have plenty of material to choose from for my paintings even I don't get to use them in the water as much I would like to.

Jitterbug

 
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 3 inches x 5 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to go to ebay auction.
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Along the Shore - Daily Painting by George De Chiara

Along the Shore

  This is the last painting in the current commission I'm working on. I've really enjoyed working on this commission. It gave me the opportunity to paint some things that I haven't used a lot in my other still life paintings, like money, branches, and foliage, which I can't wait to use in future paintings.  Unexpectedly, I found there is something I really enjoy about painting money. It reminds me of collecting coins as a kid. I still remember the thrill of finding a special coin mixed in with my change from the day, like a silver quarter or a wheat penny and running off to add it to my collection. It's a wonderful thing when I can spend an afternoon painting and be reminded of what it's like to be 12 again.

Little Bass' Picnic - Daily Painting by George De Chiara

Little Bass' Picnic

  This is one more in the current commission I'm working on. This is the third of four paintings that I've been asked to do. You can see the others here and here.  It's been  pretty interesting coming up with different arrangements of the two main lures (the big blue one in the foreground and the little green and white one on the cup's rim). It feels a little bit like the painting equivalent of a Flat Stanley and I've been tempted at times to take the lures out and paint them in front of famous settings, but have resisted so far.



 

Hanging With Big Blue - Daily Painting by George De Chiara

Hanging with Big Blue

 This is another one for the commission I'm working on (see yesterday's post). I wanted to try to capture a brighter feel, so I placed this whole set up on a white piece of matte board. The matte board reflects light, so I could see many details in the shadows. I always find the reflective quality inspiring and I find painting the details in the shadows very enjoyable because the shadows have surprising, wonderful color when I look and then "Squint and compare", as my instructor Bill Parks use to say. Today's painting rearranges a lot of the same elements I used yesterday, like the tin and coins, but the difference the reflections and shadows makes the effect strikingly different.  For the next one, I will need to gather up some supplies over the weekend, so tomorrow I'll probably paint something else, maybe....



 

Working Lunch - Daily Painting by George De Chiara

Working Lunch

 This is part of a commission I'm working on. The only requirement was that I use the two fishing lures; how they are used and in what context is up to me.  This has turned out to be an exciting challenge. I spent a couple of hours thinking about how I wanted to try and set these up and then messing around with different things.  I knew I wanted the lures to look like they where diving through the water and I had this idea that everything else in the painting could be things laying at the bottom of the lake, which is when the idea really came together. I liked the idea that this is a perfectly dry still life done in my studio, but it could almost be a scene found in any lake. When it came time to name this I asked my wife if she had any title ideas (truth be told a lot of the titles come from her) and she said "Working Lunch". I asked what that meant and she explained how the lures were lunch for the fish. I liked that, so Working Lunch it is.

Daily Painting - Feeding Time

Feeding Time

 
Another arrangement of my fishing lures. I had such a good time with the last one, I just had to do one more. As I was setting this one up and trying out different arrangements I was thinking, boy wouldn't it be a funny story to tell about how I hooked my own finger while doing this...well...that was a funny thought right up to the time I hooked my own finger. Luckily it wasn't that bad, just barely got the finger tip. I did, however, take that lure out of the set up. I figured if it wasn't going to be nice to me, I wasn't going to paint it.

The photograph really shows a lot of the canvas texture, much more then in real life. I'll have to see if I can get better picture of this one when the sun's back out and update the one here. [Updated photo 6/23]

I painted this very early in the morning. Not something I normally do, but my daughter woke up at 4AM needing a bottle and I woke up to get her. My wife looked like she needed a break. By the time I got her feed and back to sleep I was wide awake, so I thought what the heck and painted all morning. It was a nice change since I normally paint later in the day.

Daily Painting - Bobbers and Lures

Bobbers and Lures

  I've always enjoyed fishing, but can't seem to find the time to go much these days. I can't wait to introduce my little girl (8 months) to fishing one day. Hopefully she'll enjoy it and we can go together. In the mean time, I thought it might be fun to paint some of the gear in my tackle box. It's got such great color and shapes. I had a lot of fun setting this up and trying out different lures in my set up. Some of them brought back great memories of the fish I caught with them ( let me tell you about the one that got away...) and some of them I haven't had the chance to try out yet. 

 I think I'm really hitting a grove with my set ups lately. The last few have come together pretty quickly and I couldn't wait to get started painting them. I also altered the way I start an oil painting with the last couple. Instead of coloring the canvas with a ground and then drawing out the composition with a brush, I've been drawing the composition onto the canvas with a pencil and premixing all of the major colors that I think I'll need, in this case the tan color that all of the lures are against, the dark gray blue foreground color and the common dark color in the lures. I then block in all of my shapes using these premixed colors or altering them as I go. I really like this approach because it get's me to finished brush strokes much faster then any other method I've tried. It also gives me an easy way to mix my colors since they are all based on the ones I premixed.