Reality TV & the Oil Sketch for My painting, "Curiosity"

An Oil Sketch is a way to help work out how to paint something before you commit to putting it down on the actual painting. This sketch, done in oil paints, my favorite way to draw, is of my daughter Brooke. She was 16 at the time.

It took more time to convince her to stand on a pile of rocks, in my studio while wearing a wet swimsuit, than it actually took to paint it. Ah, the teenage years.

This 9"x12" sketch is the actual size as it will be in the final painting. The actual painting is 48"x72" and is unfinished as of yet (it's in the queue, okay?).

This painting was an impromptu idea that I came up with at the request of the Home and Garden Networks reality show, "Garage Gold".

The director wanted to get footage of me painting a mural on the wall of my new studio, start to finish, on the day after we had wrapped up shooting. This man clearly had no idea how freakin' slowly I paint. I tacked a big piece of canvas to the wall and started slinging paint until he was satisfied. Once the show was all done and over, I left it on the wall and have sort of whittled way at it here and there over the last few years. It has joined the ranks of my other orphaned paintings, rolled up and waiting in a corner.

Here is "Curiosity" as it was on my studio wall. When completed, the young woman will be standing on a rock, in the early morning light, wet from swimming, staring at this odd light below the surface of the water (as in the oil sketch). She has no idea if this weird light is dangerous or not. She just has to have a look. Maybe I should add in a cat to further belabor the visual metaphor.

Once I have her figure copied into the placeholder I left in the center, all of the real painting fun begins. Adding the final color and highlights, putting the expressive brush work in, glazing. Varnish! It gives me a buzz. The work, not the fumes.

By the way, I absolutely love the smell of oil paint. It helps set the mood for me. They make odorless paints now. What an abomination.

If you are a painter or just have some "curiosity" (see what I did there?), feel free to ask questions in the comments or by email. I'm a big art nerd and a show-off and i love to share knowledge.