Me and Father Mike

This is me and Father Mike at St Richard's Church. We're standing in front of four mosaics done in the 1950's by Jackson, Mississippi artists Karl and Mildred Wolfe. Both are now deceased. They are of the 14 stations of the cross. They had been put in storage for years and recently brought out. We were in a hurry and not able to get a real close look at them. I plan on going back and studying them later. They were an unexpected set of jewels. The real reason my wife and I went was to see two fantastic pieces of art the church owns. One is a 14th century madonna and child statue from Northern France. The other is a crucifix from 13th century Catalonia. Both are in their sanctuary. Prayers were going on, so I wasn't able to photograph them, but I'm planning on going back soon and making sketches of them both. They were marvelous. I was intrigued when I first met Father Mike at a city function and he told me about them. It's fascinating the art treasures that are hidden around us in plain sight.

Mississippi Artist's Guild

Nothing gives a teacher more pleasure than seeing a student succeed. I gave a two day seminar not long ago and was delighted to see that one of my students won first place in the Mississippi Artist's Guild show. I was even more gratified when I discovered it was for a painting she had worked on during the seminar. Congratulations, Janet.

Velvet

Okay, I admit it. I'm a sucker for the cute and cuddly. I saw this little gal under my bed a couple of days ago and couldn't resist doing a pen & ink of her. I'm thinking of calling her Velvet.

Color Charts

Are you concerned about the permanence of the paint you're using or want to buy? Wondering whether it's transparent or opaque? Well, if you're looking for a color chart to tell you those things, check out the website below. This artist has taken the time to compile in one site just about every color chart from every manufacturer you can think of. It's also very conveniently divided by either manufacturers or by color families. This is really a spectacular find, and time saver.

http://www.artiscreation.com/ColorCharts.html

Hattiesburg Train Depot

Below is a painting I did for the Hattiesburg Tourism Bureau.

This is footage of me with the mayor of Hattiesburg unveiling the painting at the train depot. The Hattiesburg TV news station WDAM channel 7 filmed if for their evening news and graciously sent me a copy. How cool is that?

This was by far the most fun I've ever had doing an illustration. The director was wonderful and gave me carte blanche to do the painting however I wanted. The original reason for commissioning the painting had been to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the train depot. It had just been renovated and they wanted to spotlight it to bring in tourism. I was told they were going to make posters, postcards, etc. of the painting. But having seen the beautiful city of Hattiesburg before, I asked if they minded if I painted the whole city instead of just the train depot. That way they could use it for more than just the depot, they could showcase the whole city. The director was delighted. The only restriction was the Train Depot had to fit into the illustration somehow

The director told me there were to be four works of art commissioned of the depot from realistic to whimsical. He had happened upon the Southern Artistry website which features some of my work. From there, he went to my website and stumbled upon some fantasy drawings I had done for a personal project. He said after he and the committee saw this and some of the other building I had done twisting and spiraling into the air, they had to have a painting like that. For more pictures like this, you can go to my website, billwilsonillustration.com and check them out.

So, my wife, and son and I took the hour and a half trip to Hattiesburg, MS from Jackson, where we live, and photographed the city. It was awesome. My son is an incredible photographer in his own right and you can tell he really gets into his shoots. You can check out his work at amilewilson.com.

The only problem I had was deciding what to leave out. Hattiesburg is absolute architectural eye candy.

The first order of business was to make a few doodles in the sketchbook. I did several scribbles just trying to get the action right. With something like this, the most important thing to do is get a real feeling of action and movement.

After I'd decided on the general composition, I did a drawing straight to my watercolor paper. I'm a draftsman at heart and usually don't like covering up my original drawings, but I also really dislike transferring. Not to mention, I was on a deadline.

I was on the most intrigued with doing the sign for the Saenger Theatre, so I started there. Visiting the Saenger alone is worth the trip to Hattiesburg. It's a newly renovated lavish old theatre.

I don't usually do this, but I literally painted in a circle from the upper right hand corner down to the depot and all the way around.

Azalea Faery

I did this painting today. Just a fun experiment with acrylic on paper. I'm sorry I don't know the kind. It's fairly rough and probably about 200lbs. It's fun to experiment, let yourself go and play with the paint. It helps you to loosen up and see just what the paint can do. It was also fun to full out the airbrush. It's hard to do things like the glowing lights without one. It can be done, just not as easily.

I did this pen & ink first. Don't be fooled by the picture below, the original is about 5 x 7. I printed it up this size and traced it off on a light table to the watercolor paper.

This is the layout of the studio while I was painting it. The painting is in an earlier stage. The background wasn't working so I played with it until I got it the way I wanted it. The painting is stapled to 1" thick foam core. On my next blog I'll explain a little bit about the materials I used

for this painting.

My Easel

Setting up one's studio to make it as comfortable and user friendly as possible is an absolute must for any full time artist. Below are some photos of my easel. I have two 19" Sony monitors mounted on Ergotron arms on either side of my easel. Behind it is a 2.8 quad-core mac. I got tired of working from photos. They're never right and you're a slave to the printer. This way I have them in photoshop and can manipulate them at will any time during the painting.