On Friday night at a pub in East Durham, New York I painted Josh "Papa" Dukes as he played traditional Irish music with the band called "The Yanks."
In his other life, Joshua Dukes is also a Master Sergeant in the U.S. Army and a drum major in the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, the official escort to the President. (He's at the center of this video)
I had one failed start, which you can see below in the center of Step 1. This is a lay-in of someone else that didn't work out because my subject moved to another pose. No problem--I just shifted gears, wetted out the lines, and dove into the new portrait, painting over the other one.
When Josh switched from flute to bouzouki, I started a second sketch, since the pose was so different.
I was using watercolor and water-soluble colored pencils for the warm colors, and casein for the white and black. Most of this painting is transparent, but casein gave me opacity where I needed it. Most of the painting was done with a very large sable watercolor brush. The whole study took about 45 minutes.
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Bio of Joshua Dukes
Fife and Drum Corps
The Yanks Band
Previously: Dan, Accordion
4 comments:
Thanks for a very instructive post and for sharing another great sketch. Also, thanks for answering the questions that are always on most of our minds: material, time, mixture of media, etc.
It's especially nice that you shared the part about the missed pose that you painted over. As in a couple of earlier posts (I'm thinking particularly of the gouache sketch of the line of plein aire painters), it's good to see that an aborted sketch doesn't necessarily mean a wasted page in the sketchbook or a missed chance to start over.
It's SEAN! James, I really enjoyed meeting you and Sean last month. seeing how he works was cool too. I guess he is now moved into his new place in your home town. I think it's great he was able to make that leap. Nice caricature of him there.
Jim,
Great post! I like how you are able to switch gears and salvage a false start. Why fuss at the beginning? :)
It's a small world. When I was in the Army, I was stationed with the Old Guard from 1991-1993 as an illustrator in the Headquarters Drafting Office. Before computers, it was a mixed job of engraving plaques, cutting mats, framing photos, and prepping parade fields for ceremonies. To prep a ceremony site, we were the group that came in and marked where soldiers/platoons stood during ceremonies. Everything had to measured down to the inch!
During that time with TOG, I had the opportunity to paint two 20'x40' backdrops for the "Spirit of America" show.
If you have not already seen them, the Fife and Drum Corps is a must see group as well as the U.S. Army Drill Team. Precision performers.
Tell Josh "Thank you for your service."
Thanks again for a great art blog Jim!
-Gene (The "Army Artist Guy" from IMC)
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