Warriors painting process

[johnny]

Here's a look into my process for making a painting. Like everything I do, it all starts with a sketch. Not the prettiest looking thing, but a start is a start.

I'm really into the old men's magazine and pulp covers, which I though was a good fit for the subject matter. All those guys worked from polaroids they shot from models or a lot of times, themselves. I know I'm opening myself up to a world of photoshoppery, but what the hell. I didn't have a helper, so I hooked my camera up to a tv, set the timer, and assumed the position. It was a pain in the ass.


Next, cutting and pasting my pics with the screen grabs I got from the movie:

Making some sense of it all:

Happy with the results, I printed out the sketch at full size and tiled the sheets together to transfer onto canvas:

I used Saral brand transfer paper. I put a book behind the canvas for some resistance, otherwise the pressure from tracing might stretch the canvas out of shape.
Transferred sketch:

I didn't take too many progress shots, except for the following. I'm using Golden acrylics from the tube and some Lascaux. The first layer of color is all very transparent and awkward. It always kind of freaks me out, feels at first like it's not going to go so well. Here's Swan, the main Warrior. You can see what I mean about the transparency:

Now the fine-tuning:




The way I work, it's all about finessing things until I'm satisfied. Pushing this, pulling that. hard edge here, soft edge there.
The punk:


I wasn't happy with the hand I drew for the baseball fury, so I took another pic:

This one I shot with the webcam to get a different perspective on it. Swan's right arm really bugged me. I drew it straight from my photo, but the camera/perspective really made it look stubby:

One thing that I've learned not to do relatively recently is settle for something that I know I can make better. Maybe nobody would care that the arm was a little stubby, but I would never be happy with it. I painted it once, so I can definitely paint it again. In the past I wasn't as critical and definitely a bit lazy. Somewhere along the line I learned some discipline. New arm:

Workspace:

And finished product. I'm getting this shot professionally, with the intent of getting some giclees done.

This is for the Crazy4Cult 4 show at Gallery 1988. Opens July 6th. I'm actually going to be there, it would be super cool to meet some of you LA peeps out there.
Thanks for looking!

[phoondaddy]

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYUUUUUUUUUUMM MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

Nice work Johnny!

[johnny]

One more thing I forgot to add, this spans from June 2-June 21. Working mostly nights and weekends, 3-6 hours at a time. I don't know what that adds up to, all I know is it's a lot. Man I hope I sell this thing.

[dspring]

that is so awesome Johnny... great stuff... really cool to see it come together like that

[johnny]

Thanks! It's nice when these things turn out the way you hope they do.

[jayryan]

also damn. nice work as always, johnny sampson.

[ZOMIC]

Amen brotha....very nice piece...awesome process

[rich kelly]

this came out great dude, and i know what you mean about needing reference shots. i have folders full of embarrassing poses and awkward faces.

[vrooooom]

throwin' up the topless shots

[ASPrintingPress]

Sooooooo goooooood. What an awesome process thread.