Painting a Native American Flat

[Flatsy]

Hello to all. After many travel days I am finally sitting down to work.
My computer does not like the Gallery Scripts so I have little faith in the V-Bench scripts would work for me.
So, I am going to post work in progress in this section until someone says stop I guess.
I chose a flat that Gary Baca (and Trish) from Tulsa brought back for me from Germany several years ago. It already had been cleaned and primed with Humbrol white. This flat is based on an illustration by Catlin and I have a book with it in my library.
Yay, I can start painting right away.
It wasn't until I started painting that I realized how this flat is loosely based on the Catlin drawing. The design of the flat is not that great, missing many features of the original drawing. The face is not attractive and the perspective is off. The arms, one in particular, are grossly enlarged.
It usually isn't until I sit down to paint a flat that I notice all of these things. It is then that I start really studying the reference. I think I need to do this before choosing a project. I chose this flat out of convenience (I thought). Now I realize that there will be more work than necessary to make this an attractive piece. I will have to use paint to adjust some of the design anomalies. The good news is that it is painting up quite fast, so maybe I can get on to a better project soon.
I have attached 1 picture to this post and will post 3 more.
I am painting with Vallejo Acrylics.
Photo 1 is the primed flat and skin underpainted with Medium Flesh.

-penny

 

[Flatsy]

Photo 2 is basic shading laid in with this color mix: 5 drops Medium Flesh, 2 drops Red Leather and 1 drop Old Rose. Eyes are laid in with mix of SS Black Brown and Prussian Blue 1:1.

 

[Flatsy]

Photo 3: Deeper shadows and designating lines on face using a mix of the original shade color (5 drops med flesh, 2 drops red leather, 1 drop old rose) mix and adding a drop of Burnt Cadmium Red and 1/2 drop of Prussian Blue.
Going back after this darker shadow, blend in a little of the original shade mix and feather together.

 

[Flatsy]

Photo #4. Highlight with mix of original shade color with 2 drops of Med Flesh and 1 drop of Basic Skin tone. Now is when adjustment of the face sculpting starts by adding highlights and shadows with paint to fool the eye.
Shade again with the darkest mix. Wash over the shaded areas with Leather Brown.
Add some highlights again and shade again adding a tiny little bit SS Cam Black Brown to the darkest mix. Adjust more of the facial features by adding dark shadows to lip and eyes.

 

[Sambaman]

Penny,
very nice stuff! I can see you adding some dark shadow to the inside of the left arm in an attempt to tone down the size of it already. Keep us posted on this one. I look forward to seeing it come together!

Jay H.
OKC

 

[Roc]

Very nice, looking forward to seeing more.

Cheers
Roc

 

[Guy]

Excellent work Penny, I like to see other's process on painting flats. After just finishing Roy Hunt's Chief Joseph I have started a couple of Speyer Flats from Karl Bodmer's prints.

I have been looking around for additional flats and Pat sent me a source that I shall check out today.

I moved this thread down to the painting thread where you can continue addint to this thread as you progress with your flat. I look forward to seeing your next step.

Guy

 

[yeo_64]

GREAT START,Penny !!! Looking forward to seeing more. Cheers !
Kenneth.

 

[bonehead]

Hey Penny,

Great start! Two small things though........

The eyes have too much of the "white" showing. This makes him look a bit startled!! (what was in that pemmican anyway?). You can tone down the white color by adding a little sand or ochre color to your basic white. The iris of the eye should cover between 1/2 to 2/3rds of the white area. This should eliminate the startled look.....

And, are his eyes painted blue??? Must be a "Hollywood" Indian from the '50s....!

Sorry for the critcisms. Your flats of the past few years have been so nicely done. I think just a little more attention to the eyes will move them into another category altogether.

Keep up the good work!

Mike

 

[PJ Deluhery]

Hi Penny,

I have enjoyed your work for a long time. It is fascinating to look over your shoulder and see how you bring a flat to life. Thanks for this sbs. Keep it going.

 

[garyjd]

Penny, Very nice job on the painting. I also like that you're doing it in acrylics.~Gary

 

[socko47]

Hi Penny, I was away for a week and am catching up on my forums. What a pleasant surprise to be able to see another of your flats - SBS. I always get inspiration from seeing work I like - yours, flats, native americans. Thanks for sharing.
J

 

[Flatsy]

Thanks to everyone for the comments. Especially on only a 4 hour paint job!
It is merely a rough start. I keep having other things come up so I am so frustrated with not being able to work on it. I started painting it and had to pack everything up and take it to a collectors club for a talk on the hobby over the weekend. I have a picture to post but can't get it out of the camera right this second (arrgggh).
I am hoping to have a somewhat productive painting session in the next few days and will have more pictures hopefully by monday.
Today, However, I must spend time on computer system maintenance, as now suddenly my camera and system and CD writer and system are not speaking nicely to each other and I cannot unload the camera. The system peripherals mounter is corrupt and it seems to be a pretty big deal. I think it is time for a new computer, this one seems to be dying. I think I am going to have to go to WalMart and unload the camera on to CD to be able to get the images to post.

And my my, Mike Good, getting a little over zealous on the colorful commentary, aren't we?
"And, are his eyes painted blue??? Must be a "Hollywood" Indian from the '50s....!"
HAHA. You are a very funny guy. And, evidently, you are a victim of my really bad photography.
And whatever that is, bring it to SCAHMS, I want some.
Gee whiz Mike, After almost 20 years of knowing me, did you really think I would paint a Native American's eyes "Hollywood Blue"? Ye of so little faith, I'm hurt...snif snif.

Seriously, I use a mix of Dark Prussian Blue and SS Cam. Black Brown for my Black mixture. This may be the "blue" you are seeing. I very rarely use black paint straight out of the bottle and I also try to refrain from using white except for extreme highlights. The "whites" of the eyes are light flesh with 2 glazes of the darker flesh tone mixture. The bug eyed look will hopefully be toned down with the rest of the glazes on the face and more detail to the eyes. The scale of the figure may not lend well to coloring the iris anything.

Well, gotta go, wish me luck on the computer. I really would rather spend the time painting.
Thanks to guy for moving this thread to the Painting forum.
And I am sorry to not be able to address everyone personally! No offense! I am not ignoring you! Hopefully time will lend better in the next month or so... I'll get better at this forum thing, I promise!
-Penster
PS-Pat I could not access the note you sent, send again?

 

[Flatsy]

Greetings,
well I have finally made some progress on painting the indian flat and have some new pics. I have been having technical problems with the computer so I am uploading a picture from the last session as a test to see if I can upload today.
In review, he has blue startled bug eyes. More to follow... -penny

 

[Flatsy]

I now go back and forth from light areas to dark. I have added Lt Flesh for highlights and a mix of Dk Prussian Blue and SS Cam. Brown Black to darker shade mix to darken and tone down.
I am giving him eyelids and shaping the eye areas and the mouth area.

 

[Flatsy]

Adding a little Burnt Cadmium Red to Shadows. Added a little Old Rose to lips. Added more Prussian blue/Brown mix to deep shadows. Now he has kissable lips...

 

[Flatsy]

At this point I am somewhat satisfied with the general look of the face. There is more to do but I can come back to the skin. I wanted a general feel for what the figure was going to look like so I ran some thin washes of color over the rest of the areas. I decided to go ahead and finish the figure.
It is now that I realize that the designer really did not understand the Catlin illustration in alot of areas. The blanket is a mess of wierd folds and a stripe that doesn't make sense sometimes. The lower part of the blanket that hangs down on the figure's left (our right) does not belong. In the illustration, there is a flap of the moccasin hanging down here.
Had I realized this before painting I could have ground them off to be a little more paintable to the original illustration. So next time I need to be more analytical before I start to paint.
More pictures later...
-penmeyer

 

[Guy]

Thanks for the update Penny........he's really looking good. Look forward to your next step.

 

[garyjd]

Penny, I like how this piece is coming together. The skin looks good, but can see how you you could do more with it if you wanted.~Gary

 

[Flatsy]

The next 2 photos are painting the blanket. The pallette for the blanket is as follows:
908 Carmine Red, Burnt Cadmium Red, mix of SS Camo Black Brown and Prussian Blue, and the highlight color will be a mix of Old Rose and German Orange.
The Carmine is the base. I shadowed the folds with the Burnt Cad Red, and then added a little of the dark mix to the Cad Red for deeper shadows.
The German Orange mix is added sparingly to the Carmine red for the highlight.