SuperMax to the Rescue!

Forgive me, it has been 2 years or longer since my last post. Feels like the beginning of a "confessional" scene to numerous movies and cable shows that I have seen! (Hello "Boardwalk Empire!" Gotta love that show.) Regardless, I felt that perhaps seeing "behind the curtain"on the process that it took to arrive at my newest painting, The Adventure Begins, aka SuperMax, might be what it takes to get me out of early blog retirement.

I guess it's important to realize the reason behind the painting in the first place. I bought a Superman outfit as a gift to my nephew Max, for his 2nd birthday. Seeing the pictures of him wearing the costume got me thinking of his next birthday gift, but the clincher was that Max saw the painting that I did for his sister Sadie and actually asked where was his painting from me. So, I had no choice at this point. I was helpless against his strong-armed tactics.

However it was important to me that this picture was not simply kitch. I wanted this painting to be a piece of art that he could grow up with to remind him not to forget his childhood dreams, his innocence, and hope for the future. Or his cool Uncle Terry, of course!

Reference

I shot a lot of photos of Max the next time we got together for the holidays. Luckily, his dad was very helpful in coercing Max into the Superman positions. However, even with all of photos, I was not happy with just one, so I was forced to use his head from one shot and pasted it onto his body of another. (Thank you photoshop.) Here is that photo:
I also did some research for the initial background idea and found a rather green/grassy picture which I will not post because I did not personally take the shot.

Original Painting
I did the painting in Photoshop for a few reasons.
1) I needed some digital samples for my portfolio.
2) I wanted to "prepaint" the idea to see if I'd be happy with it before committing to a real canvas.
3) I wouldn't be able to finish the real thing on canvas quick enough in time for his birthday.

While I was somewhat pleased with the result, I felt I could do better. The background was simply "too green" for my liking and the composition could be more dynamic. So I was determined to do better.


New Background Compositional Value Studies

So I regrouped, did more background research ideas to get inspired and did some rather quick background studies in photoshop. Since the figure was already done, I could paste it on top of the new studies and get a "feel" for what end result may be.

ONE:
TWO:
THREE:
FOUR:
I showed these images to a few close friends, and all of them picked number three unanimously. Who am I to argue with that? So number three it was...

Color Studies

So wanting this version to be better than the last, I took one extra step. I did some quick color studies, varying from realistic to just somewhat more pushed. As a matter of fact, the one that was chosen from my small peer "feedback" group, was the last one that I did simply on a lark. I didn't expect it to be chosen, but just wanted to fill out the choices some. It wasn't unanimous on this one, just a majority vote. So you just never know, you know?

Realistic Colors:

Color pushed towards cyan:


Colors pushed cooler with more atmosphere:
Final Version

To go from the color study to the final was actually not bad at all. Since I had most of the colors chosen already, I could just use the eyedropper tool in photoshop to make sure I was on color target. Honestly, it simply became a matter of cleaning up shapes, adding details, and dealing with edges. The final image:


I was more pleased with the end result this time. I can only hope that my nephew Max will enjoy it for years to come! Now to figure out what to get him for his 4th birthday. Oy....