A Good Friend is Hard to Find, But Not This Time!

"The Falls"

By James Swanson

20"x 16" oil

Traveler Tom Bussler, CA

Here's how the paining was made.

One of the first new friends I made when I got my first job in Advertising was an Artist's Rep by the name of Tom Bussler. 

Traveler Tom Bussler

Tom was from Minnesota and us Great White Northerners (OK I'm from Wisconsin, but close enough) had somethings in common. But the main thing was we both liked beer. Go figure.

A while ago Tom moved out to California for work and some girl reasons. We now catch up every now and then on FB. 

Last summer Tom took a trip to Yosemite Nation Park. And I thought that his photo album of his trip was really well done and felt I could get sort of a feeling for this place in a painting. So here we go a walk to the falls with Traveler Tom Bussler.

Trail Map

Toms Trip Story: Started about 6:30AM from Camp 4(red) and walked 2.5 miles to Housekeeping-(green) where I caught a shuttle to the trailhead(blue). Hike began there up the Mist trail to Little Yosemite Valley then Half Dome(black). Back down to Nevada Falls and took the 

John Muir Trail(pink) back to trailhead- about 18 miles on the trail. A mile up the trail is the bridge below Vernal Falls (in background). Ragin' water and a bit cool this early.

Vernal Falls (317 ft drop). Mist trail runs along the side and up above. Named mist for a reason.

Stairs to right of Vernal Falls just to the right. Stairs and more stairs.....

Above Vernal Falls....

Tom's photo of Vernal Falls from the misty trail  inspired the painting.

Traveler Painting "The Falls": This is how I went about taking on this painting. Tom's Trip to Yosemite was quite inspiring. The reason I chose this photo to work from is the subduded color and the misty feeling it has.

Here are the Steps to "The Falls"

The start of the Painting. I like to get rid of all the white canvas  and rub in a good ground cover

A palette full of colors. I try and keep the number of tube to a minimum.
Here I have mixed up some of the basic colors for the painting. As the painting progresses  these colors will be combined to make lots more colors. This is the best way I've found for making colors harmony in a painting.

The real painting begins. The dark colors are painted in first. Warm darks are in the front and the cooler darks are painted in for the mid-ground. This helps create structure and depth for the painting right away.

Next I painted in the sky and started painting the farthest back background working my way forward. I worked that way because, I needed sky and the mountain to be close in value and this is a good way to judge them without a lot of other colors effecting them.

Here the painting is all Blocked-in. Pretty simple stuff, big brush and big strokes. Getting a painting blocked-in is one of my first goals in painting. Now I can go and start making adjustments and work towards the finishing strokes.

First round of details and adjustments have been made. Most of the work was in the water and rocks. The water fall is where I started and worked forward from there, getting a little sharper and defined the closer I came.

OK, it's done. There was a lot of things that I never had to change in this painting. The trees and the mountains were pretty much right. The main thing that I changed was the sky. It felt flat and didn't seem to go anywhere.

Framed and Ready to Go!

"The Falls"

By James Swanson

20"x 16" oil

Traveler Tom Bussler, CA

Many Thanks goes out to my old friend Tom Bussler for his long hike on this trip. Tom has a company called Hi Road productions,  that does a lot of work in advertising and TV, check it out when you get a chance! I have a few other paintings on the easel from this one. 

But that is another story :))

If you have a interesting place that you have been and would like to share it, send it on to me here or to www.theartistandthetraveler.org

So until next time Happy Trails!

A Good Day!

 

"The Day Begins"

By James Swanson/ Traveler Steven Procter

18"x14" oil on linen panel

Watch the painting journey of this painting and find out more about this project below.

The Artist Jim Swanson met Traveler Steven Procter through a few other UK walker friends  who just marvel at Stevens shots.

Traveler Steven Procter

I've always liked Steven’s sense of humor in his photo albums.

Steven's the ice beast 

It seems he had something funny to say about his photos that made them even more enjoyable to look at.

Photo from Stevens photo album

Traveler Steven’s Story: A fine short stroll from Silecroft up to one of my favorite fells. 

A little cairn on a minor top.

Conditions: great,

People: rare, Peace and quiet: total.

Steven's photo that I used for inspiration.

Artist and Traveler Painting"The Day Begins" Traveler Steven's walks have always inspired me and getting a chance to paint one was a treat. I picked this photo of Steven's because it was really different from all of the rest of my Traveler paintings. It's has so many contrasts in color, dark and lights it kept me thinking all the way through.

The steps to "The Day Begins"

The sketch on canvas. Steven's photo already had a nice design so all I had to do was a few shifts here and there. moving the man to the left a little was the main shift.

The Dark colors of the painting were put in first. With this painting it was over half the painting. One of the most important things of this painting is the shifts warm darks and the cool darks.

This painting went fast. With such a simple color scheme this painting was blocked in in no time.

With most of the big areas painted in it was time to define the man walking a bit. Keeping him painted the same as the rest of the painting is something that I had to be conscious of while working on this painting..

Keeping my darks and lights clean is one of the things I watch out for in my paintings. I try and put them in correctly the first time leaving only the middle tones to be adjusted.

Done.One of the things that I liked about this painting was the variety of darks in the shadows. Capturing them was a little bit of a challenge. Figuring out the warms and the cools is what makes the painting.

Details of the painting:

Framed and ready to go.

"The Day Begins"

By James Swanson/ Traveler Steven P.

18"x14" oil on linen panel

 This painting was a bit of a challenge and a lot of fun to paint. Many thanks and get well wishes go out to my friend Steven who I hope is on the mend with his battle. Your photos are inspiring Steven, and I hope to paint some more soon.

The Artist and the Traveler is always on the look out for good stories and exciting places. Pass them a long and maybe one will end up in this project. Send them here or see www.theartistandthetraveler.org for more info.

Until next time Talley Ho