The Gallery

Proverbidioms IV
(Who Missed the Boat?)

POSTER RELEASE DATE IS DEC.15
* Release date is tentative.

TO ORDER A POSTER CLICK HERE

Below are photos and notes showing the stages in the
creation of the new Proverbidioms painting.

Latest Report

November 30, 2007 - 92 days into the painting. The painting is finished!! At 11:47, Thursday November 29 the new Proverbidioms IV was at last born. I put it down in the furnace room where it is hot, to hasten the drying time. I need to rub some oil or varnish into the painting to bring out the colors before photographing it. I do the photography outdoors. The painting will be placed in the shade, facing the dull gray stones of the castle, and the light from above will be very even and natural. Indoor photography never works well on these large paintings. Today would have been a perfect day for photography because it is sunny, warm, and there is not yet any snow, unlike the forecast for the next several days. I'll report soon as to the progress on printing a poster. - T.E.

December 1, 2007 - It snowed last night, about 3 inches. In order to do the photography outdoors, I had to shovel and brush away what snow I could, then cover the plants and snow against the house with burlap, until all sources of reflection were gone. I rubbed varnish into the painting, then, because the temperature today reached a high of only 23 degrees, I had to gradually acclimate the painting to the cold temperature outdoors so that the gesso panel would not crack from the shock. My wife held onto the painting because of high winds. The photo session was successful. - T.E.

December 5, 2007 - In order to record the greatest amount of detail, I stitched together four close-up photographs of the painting and also inserted close-ups of the printed matter in the painting. I color-corrected the resulting digital image, chose fonts and formatted the list and title for the poster. Today my printer picked up the files. Match prints and a mockup of the poster will be available for inspection on Friday, and the posters will be printed early next week. Everything is on schedule. - T.E.

December 7, 2007 - Wow, today I saw the sample match prints for the poster. It's going to be gorgeous! So colorful, and thanks to the miracle of digital photography a very close match to the original painting. - T.E.

Earlier Progress Reports & Pictures CLICK TO ENLARGE THUMBNAILS (* Days noted are actual days spent at the easel)
	November 2006 - The subject matter, a forth Proverbidioms, is decided. The task now is to collect a long list of colorful sayings that I may wish to include in the painting. - T.E.
	January 2007 - I have collected over 1,000 sayings. After studying the list, I have determined major landscape features, buildings, and objects needed for the painting, and an impression of the design forms in my mind. - T.E.
	February 6, 2007 - Today I photographed models for the bulk of the poses needed. I am assembling a detailed, small-scale sketch of the composition. - T.E.
	Early March, 2007 - I constructed a panel of untempered masonite over a redwood and cedar cradle, measuring 45 x 67 inches. After sanding, a strong glue size was applied and the panel gessoed the following day, using traditional rabbit skin glue and chalk. After two weeks, the surface was sanded, and sized with gelatin to reduce absorbency. - T.E.
	April 20, 2007 - The composition is finished except for a few figures and details that will be added along the way. Next week I will enlarge the drawing to full-scale on a piece of heavy rag tracing paper before transferring to the panel. - T.E.
	May 11, 2007 - The small scale drawing was enlarged to actual size, and drawn in outline on a piece of heavy cotton-rag tracing paper. After the lines were cleaned up, the outlines were drawn again on the reverse side of the paper. Finally the drawing was taped over the panel and the lines transferred by rubbing with a sharpened stick. The photo shows the tracing. - T.E.
	May 18, 2007 - The painting has begun. After 5 days of painting, I have finished much of the background: the sky, the distant hills, a pine forest, and a locomotive's smoke. I like this stage of painting for several reasons. The large open areas allow me to paint quickly - I get off to a good start. Later, when I paint the meticulously detailed figures and objects, the process will be very slow. Secondly, the background quickly adds depth to the picture and it begins to take on life. Thirdly, I find particular enjoyment in painting the rocks. In these areas I can be inventive. I paint them in shapes that are on the edge of looking like something, but not quite - to tease the imagination. Doing the drawing was creative, but for the most part, once the actual painting starts, it is just hard, tedious work. - T.E.
	May 25, 2007 - 10 days into the painting. Lots of small interruptions this week. I added the large tree, carved heads, enhanced depth to the mountain, flags, parts of five buildings, and more. - T.E.
	June 1, 2007 - 15 days into the painting. I painted the buildings, seven figures, and more. Although a third of the surface is now finished, the detail intensifies as I work toward the foreground. - T.E.
	June 8, 2007 - 20 days into the painting. This week I painted a dozen small figures and animals, two burning bridges, part of a giant clock face, and some trim on the large house. The figures were very tedious to paint. They were painted using a small pointed brush (round size 0, which is about the size of a toothpick end), and a very steady hand. My eyesight is not what it once was either. I paint with my face about ten inches from the panel. - T.E.
	June 18, 2007 - 25 days into the painting. This week I added the grassy areas on the left, together with surrounding figures, objects, ground boulders, and the lamppost. - T.E.
	June 25, 2007 - 30 days into the painting. This week I painted most of the cruise ship, all of the locomotive and car, and additional landscape elements and objects. - T.E.
	June 29, 2007 - 34 days into the painting. I painted the stonework of the boathouse, additional grass to the right of it, and some figures and objects. Approximately half of the surface area is covered. This does not mean I am half done, because eventually I will return to areas already painted to make color adjustments and to add lots of signage and other details. Now I will take off two months to vacation and to work on the castle. Look for updates to resume next September. - T.E.
	September 4, 2007 - Work has restarted on the painting, after taking off the summer. September 12, 2007 - 40 days into the painting. I completed all the figures along the center strip, and also wood posts and supporting stones under the boardwalk. Although I am painting from the top to bottom, you may notice that I have left blank the windowed parts of the yellow building, the main deck of the tour boat and the planks of the rear boardwalk. This is because I intend to add additional characters and objects in these places, but have not yet designed them. I hope to find some time this weekend to do this. - T.E.
	September 20, 2007 - 45 days into the painting. I completed the horses and several figures and objects along the front edge. Rather slow going. Lots of interruptions. - T.E.
	September 27, 2007 - 50 days into the painting. Added a monkey in a suit, the pool at center, along with three figures and a truck full of turnips. - T.E.
	October 4, 2007 - 55 days into the painting. I finished a beautiful chocolate chip cookie on the right edge. It looks quite delicious. I've decided to work from left to right from now on. I've made some progress deciding on additional figures and objects for the unfinished areas I have painted past (the boat, the boathouse doors, and the rear boardwalk. I will need to pose a model or two, and draw everything out. My daughter will be home from college this weekend. Perhaps I'll ask her. - T.E.
	October 11, 2007 - 60 days into the painting. As I paint in the foreground, the figures and objects are larger and I can cover a lot more surface area. It's hard to tell if the red carpet is too bright. It really draws attention, but this is also because it is new to me. The background will be a brownish-gray boardwalk and the carpet will not stand out so much then. In the last days of the painting, some colors may need to be adjusted. Sometimes, due to the fact that I am staring at the painting all day long, it is hard to tell what might not be working. A good trick is to put the painting upside down on the easel, for a fresh perspective. This is hard to do though when the painting is almost six feet across and made of heavy wood. My son and his girlfriend visited this past weekend and I photographed some poses with them to add figures to the unfinished boat, center left. - T.E.
	October 18, 2007 - 65 days into the painting. I finally painted the midground boardwalk after adding an additional object to it. The midground and most of the foreground are boardwalks. I was not looking forward to painting these. It is one thing to paint dirt and grass, but to paint over 200 narrow boards all perfectly straight with cracks in between and wood texture would be tedious. So I tried something I had never done before. I drew the cracks on first with black India ink and a straightedge. The black showed through the paint a little to act as a guide. After coloring and texturizing each board I emphasized the cracks again by running a sharpened dowel along the ink lines to push away the paint. It worked perfectly. I also started adding the missing figures on the boat. My son, with his large handlebar mustache, and his girlfriend posed for these figures. I am concerned that I will not finish this painting by December 1st. I was hoping to publish it as a poster in time for Christmas, but there is still so much to be done, and even after the entire surface is covered I will have to go back and add a tremendous amount of lettering on books, signs, newspapers, clockfaces, T-shirts, dollar bills, and more. Once finished the painting will have to dry a week or so before I put on a temporary varnish, in order to photograph it. And if it snows (I live in upstate NY) I will not be able to photograph it at all for months, as I do this outdoors where the light is even. - T.E.
	October 25, 2007 - 70 days into the painting. As I frequently use the same models for numerous poses within the same painting, I try to alter their appearances somewhat for each pose so they do not all look alike. Botticelli's "Primavera" always bothers me because he did not do this and the female figures all look alike, obviously because they are the same model. I am having fun with the main male model in this picture. In real life he is bald and has a distinctive build, but he gives me very good expressions which makes him a valuable model. A couple of weeks ago I painted him as a sort of creepy blonde fellow. This week he is a handsome Spaniard! - T.E.
	November 3, 2007 - 75 days into the painting. It doesn't look as though I've accomplished much this past week, however the foreground center vignette was very detailed, and I completed unfinished details from earlier figures such as shoes, etc. I also started painting all of the writing on signs, etc. The text added above the boathouse arches is from a font I designed a dozen years back called Grandville. It fits well with the curves because the unusual font has several rounded corners in place of serifs, intended to make the font "friendly" rather than formal. - T.E.
	November 10, 2007 - 80 days into the painting. I have finally finished the scene on the boat and the landscape behind it. I deleted one of the windows on the boat. This is hard to do. My panels are carefully constructed to last for centuries. There is such deep "tooth" on the panel's surface, for good adhesion, so that you can never remove any previously painted colors completely without damaging the surface. The best I can do is to dissolve the previously painted area with turpentine, after masking it, but this leaves behind some color stain which is not always easy to paint over. I continue to add figures and text. Most of what is left is the background which can be painted fairly rapidly, although I do still have a lot of planking to do. But as a strategy to getting a poster printed before Christmas, I will first rework some areas that use slow-drying pigments. Normally I would allow the painting to dry for a week before I can safely oil it to bring out the colors for photographing. If I save some fast-drying areas for last, it will shorten the drying time. The boathouse still needs another figure or object before I can finish it. I can't decide what to put there and it's driving me nuts! I had my wife pose for a new figure, but I'm not yet sure it will work. - T.E.
	November 17, 2007 - 85 days into the painting. A good week. I covered lots of surface area, including all the rest of the boardwalk planking. (There are now 237 planks in all!) The December 1st completion date is beginning to look realistic, though the long Thanksgiving weekend will interrupt the painting and I will be anxious to return to it, especially with the end so near. This is an exciting time for me after almost a year of hard work. Publishing an early edition of the poster may be impossible if we have any snow that sticks (I am in upstate New York). Then, photographing the painting will be impossible until April, as I do this out of doors for the even natural light. - T.E.