Monday, October 10, 2011

Happy Buddha

During the weekend of the Baby Tattooville event in Riverside, California, all thirty guest artists contributed to the art jam.


The 4x8 foot acrylic painting was a surrealistic compilation of floating pink clouds, boys with ray guns, cow ladies, and green-haired girls. What could I possibly add to such a potpourri?


It seemed to require a happy Buddha, floating serenely in the midst of all the wackiness. I worked next to Travis Louie, who was putting the final touches on a one-eyed potato man.


The golden orb picks up on the cool light from the background and a warm glow from below. I love painting gold objects. The trick is to try not to make them too yellow. I saved the brightest yellows for the areas just around the highlights. As the planes turned away, they get quite dull and dark in color.

Watch the Baby Tattooville Sketch Jam in time lapse video
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10 comments:

  1. EZ GoodnightOctober 10, 2011 at 12:34 PM

    Bad ass.

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  2. Cynthia NicoleOctober 10, 2011 at 12:34 PM

    Your piece seems to be the focal point of the whole painting.

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  3. AljosaOctober 10, 2011 at 1:19 PM

    Very nice Happy Buddha. It looks very authentic & similar to those trad. Chinese statues.

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  4. Tom HartOctober 10, 2011 at 2:11 PM

    I love this mini-seminar in painting a gold object! And that warm glow really makes the image pop.

    ...Makes me want to go home and find something gold to paint (though I may have to settle for brass, my gold collection being rather,er, modest...)

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  5. RichOctober 10, 2011 at 2:30 PM

    He is happily and beautifully embedded.
    You've got all those ambient reflections right.

    You would probably have succeeded with a copper one as well, tin, bronze; opalescent, ruby; how about a diamond one?

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  6. T. ArispeOctober 10, 2011 at 3:11 PM

    Valuable gold-painting advice--looks like everyone had fun.

    By the way, thanks for your lecture in Van Nuys on Wednesday (I was the gremlin with the crazy scarf). Your material on composition has already been helping me immensely in one of my classes.

    I would have brought some Dinotopia books for you to sign but I have unfortunately lost mine. (I am now in the process of restarting my collection, however, so I will have more things for you to draw skybaxes in when next we meet.)

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  7. Jacques L DavidOctober 14, 2011 at 7:19 PM

    3'x9' James.

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  8. Jacques L DavidOctober 14, 2011 at 7:20 PM

    Happy, Happy, Happy FLOATING Buddha!!! Yaaaaaay, so much fun, thanx for making this event so exciting!!!

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  9. Jacques L DavidOctober 14, 2011 at 7:22 PM

    Dang, I just had a great idea, James, Somehow get that Happy, Happy, Happy Floating Buddha on a t-shirt!!! I will buy one for sure!!!

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  10. AnonymousOctober 24, 2011 at 2:12 PM

    this little buddha is a gem! Love the form and the brilliance.

    Leigh

    ReplyDelete

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