Space Art by Christopher Doll

Category: Painting From Life

  • Oil Painting, The Enterprise, and Cabooses

    Oil Painting, The Enterprise, and Cabooses

    We’re getting ready for a busy Fall and Holiday season at the shop, and things are heating up in the home studio too. I’ve been painting a lot more than I have in the last two years and I’m enjoying the results so far. Here’s a peek at some of the latest projects, and some of them fall completely outside the realm of SPACE ART.

    The Enterprise (In Progress)

    I’ve been wanting to paint this scene for years, and in my last post I showed you the preliminary stages. The Enterprise itself is still little more than the under painting but it’s coming along nicely. This is a big piece for me, 3 feet wide and 18 inches tall. I had to step away from it a bit due to the Country Village series that I’ve started but I plan on finishing this up shortly.

    Once finished, this will go on sale in my store, and I plan on making a limited number of prints available.

    The Country Village

    Next Spring we have to leave our shop at the Country Village and it’s a shame to see all of these wonderful buildings and places go away. I’ve started painting some of our favorites, and I’d like to capture many more throughout the season. These are small paintings, about 9″ by 12″, painted with casein on illustration board. I was inspired to try this medium by James Gurney, artist and author of the Dinotopia books. He is a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to learn how to paint. I highly recommend checking out his site and his YouTube channel. Thank you for all of your help so far, James!

    Artist Dennis Brown Studio in Winter
    Fae’s Caboose
    Keepsake Cottage
    Scout 829 Caboose
    The Chicken

    These are the first few paintings and I have more lined up. It’s a different subject for me, but I’ve enjoyed them. These will be on display in our shop at the Country Village this Fall and we will be having prints available in several sizes.

    Oil Painting

    A couple of years ago a good friend of mine from our local Science Fiction Model Club sold me his oil paints, tools, and a pile of canvases. He was getting out of it altogether and I was thrilled he came by. It’s taken me this long to break them out, but I’ve been wanting to paint with oils for a long time. First I picked up an unfinished acrylic piece I’d started last year, and decided to use the acrylic base as my under painting – a technique often used by artists.

    This piece is about 12″ x 20″ on wrapped canvas. It was a lot of fun, and I just had to paint something from scratch so I found a small 8′ x 10′ canvas board and tried out a moonlight scene with a lighthouse.

    I’m pretty happy with the results and it was a great way to get my hands back into oils again. It’ll be a couple of weeks before I can varnish these and have them on display in the shop, but both are available.

    Inquiries are welcome on these, or any other piece. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

  • Cape Disappointment Lighthouse Painting

    Cape Disappointment Lighthouse Painting

    Given the amount of space and science fiction work showcased on my site, people may be surprised to see me tackling a terrestrial subject like a lighthouse on a cliff. However, painting from life subjects is an essential method for anyone who wants to learn how to draw and paint, digitally or otherwise. I learned this both on my own, and through many art classes during college. While I majored in Industrial Design, the core program was based on London’s Royal College of Art – a program that focuses heavily on drawing from nature and life.

    Cape Disappointment, located in the Southeastern corner of Washington State, has a lot of history to me and my extended family. We’ve held annual family reunions in the area for over three generations. Some of my earliest memories include trips to the ocean beaches and the lighthouses, so I thought I’d tackle a landscape that held some value to me personally.
    This is a 20″ by 30″ stretched canvas, and I used acrylic paint. Some of the additives I used included a clear gloss medium which helped me build layers of transparent details building to the overall look. I started by blocking in the sky and water.

    CapeDisappointment_Start

    And that’s a shot from my home studio. From there I added the cliffs, clouds, horizon, and later came back and made the churning water. Sadly most of my visits to Cape Disappointment took place during rough weather, even in the summertime. Even under dark skies and rain it’s a beautiful location.

    CapeDisappointment_BlockedInCliffOcean

    Next I added the lighthouse forms and tree line. At this point they weren’t detailed, merely placeholders while I brought the rest of the painting up to a similar level of detail.

    CapeDisappointment_BlockedInLighthouse

    After getting all the elements in place, I focused on the lighthouse itself. My wife and I deliberated on having an explicit light beam coming from the lighthouse, out into the sky. To me it felt forced, so I left it as you’d expect to see it in person – a lonely light against a dark sky.

    CapeDisappointment_LighthouseDetail

    The closer you get to finishing a painting, the longer it takes to get all the details. I spent the last chunk of time working out how the rocks should look, water splashing against the shore, and refining the clouds and trees. In the end, I’m happy with the painting, but it still doesn’t feel finished. The curse of the painter, I’m learning.

    CapeDisappointment_Final

    I put it on a wall to take some photos, and my family liked it so� much, it’s stayed there so far.

    CapeDisappointment_OnTheWall

    As an exercise, I like to refer to this as “practicing my clich�s”, referring to a quote by Kevin Costner in the movie Bull Durham. In that movie Costner plays Crash Davis, a veteran baseball player tasked with trying to coach the brash and young Ebby Calvin LaLoosh (played by Tim Robbins) into becoming a big-time pitcher. Here is Crash Davis’ sage advice regarding interviews:

    Crash Davis: You’re gonna have to learn your clich�s. You’re gonna have to study them, you’re gonna have to know them. They’re your friends. Write this down: “We gotta play it one day at a time.”
    Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: Got to play… it’s pretty boring.
    Crash Davis: ‘Course it’s boring, that’s the point. Write it down.

    Some may find a lighthouse on a cliff is a bit of an artistic clich�, especially when you consider Art spelled with a capital “A”. But they make me feel good, they’re fun to paint, and people enjoy them. To me, this was a fun exercise. Enjoy!