O Twas a Joyful Sound to Hear!

O Twas a Joyful Sound to Hear - Psalm Sing from Daniel Foucachon on Vimeo.

Northern Light-Color Stage 8

Scumbled Naples Yellow onto highlights and glazed a mixture of Van Dyke Brown and Alizirim Crimson onto shadows. Next step will be to refine details.

Military Father and Child Reunions

Warning! You may need a Kleenex for this one!

The White Horse King

A kind soul, (my mother) bought this book for my Birthday. I'm looking forward to reading it with such anticipation I can barely sleep at night! Well...that may a be a bit of an exageration, but it does have a cool looking cover! Oh, yeah...don't forget to check out the video just below to view trailer for the book.

The White Horse King trailer from Gorilla Poet Productions on Vimeo.

For low-priced Christian books and discount Bibles visit Scripture Truth Book Co.!

Northern Light-Color Stage 7

I scumbled opaque flesh colors over skin areas and opaque light blue over curtain. Darkened shadows in hair with Payne's Gray.

My next step, when this dries, is to scumble opaque light on the highlights of her face, and add details with a small brush. I progress by glazing on one stage, and scumbling on the next. The effect? Luminosity!

Northern Light-Color Stage 6

I'm re-establishing shadows and capillaries closest to surface of the skin. I've also worked on some of the shadows of the curtain. I'll "scumble" (opposite of glazing) next go around.

Chris

Red Mask in the Mailbox Chapter 9

Monster on the Pan

“Hello, anyone home in there?” Joe asked, as he snapped his fingers in front of the boy’s face. Thomas’s mouth hung open, and his tongue dried like cool clay in his mouth. His eyes were blank.

“Can you stand up, Tommy?” his Dad asked.

Oh no, Margie thought, he’s been hit by a car! Her knees buckled and she grabbed the wall. A cold, steel bear trap tripped and grabbed the inside of her stomach. It was paralyzing and painful.

She had been inside watering plants when she had heard the shattering crash. “Joe, what happened?” Margie screamed from the doorstep.

“Dad…? You look funny...,” he said. “...and everything looks weird.”

Margie looked out the front door, and saw the car stalled in the road. She ran across the lawn and down the steps where her son sat on the sidewalk.

She hugged him to her chest, and rocked him back and forth. The blood from the cut on his head stained her white blouse.

“Mom, I’m O.K.,” he said, his words muffled by the hug of his mother.

“Is the boy hurt?” Mrs. Lucado asked, as she ran across the street; her hair in a big, fat, bun. “I’ve already called an ambulance,” she said. “I was in the kitchen mixing up a big pot of vegetable soup when I heard what sounded like a bomb landing inside of my house,” Mrs. Lucado said, bent over with hands on her knees, and investigated Thomas. “I want to tell you, I ran into the living room. It was like one of them Arctic blasts coming inside my house! I swanny it was cold. That’s when I saw the broken window, and found Frank Sinatra lying dead on the floor. Don’t cha’ know, whatever it was, came in through the window and broke the fish tank...sliced that fish right in two!”

“Oh Mrs. Lucado, I’m sorry,” Joe said.

“It’s okay, I can always get a new fish, but it’s your boy there I was worried about…, so I went ahead and called the ambulance.

“Yeah, that was a good idea,” Joe said. “Thanks.”

Neighbors watched the paramedics place the young boy on a stretcher. Some talked to Joe and Margie, others stayed on their porches and watched the red lights twirl.

Paramedics strapped him down, stretched a green-tinted, plastic-mask over his head, and pumped oxygen to his air starved brain.

“Tommy, you’re gonna’ be all right,” his Dad told him.

“Dad, I feel fine,” Thomas said. His voice sounded like the tin-can radio they built together. “but, everything looks so weird.”

“What do you mean?” his father said. “Do you mean things look blurry, or what?”

“Things look brighter Dad,” Thomas said, “that’s all I can tell you, is that things look brighter.”

His parents were not allowed to ride due to insurance purposes, so they followed close behind. Christmas red lights blinked on and off in the back of the van. The new color produced a dizzying effect, and his forehead throbbed with pain.

Sterilizing supplies and instruments hung from racks along the inside of the vehicle. A bag of fluid suspended from a chrome stand bumped and swayed with each bump in the road. A steel bed pan beside his head rattled against the wall. It sounded like an insane Hawaiian drum.

They stuck a needle in his arm and injected a pain killer. It stung at first, but gradually eased his discomfort. Thomas rolled to one side, looked face to face with the insane Hawaiian drum, and fell into unrestful sleep.

The ambulance hit a pothole and knocked him awake. The pan clanked beside his head and his eyes opened wide with horror. The face of a monster stared back at him. For the first time in his life, he saw the red exclamation point stretched across his face. He rubbed hard on the mark, but it would not come off.

And from a distant place in his mind, he heard the voice of his father echo from an empty can of lima beans, “I’m the Monster in the Can,” and he began to cry.

The End

Northern Light-Color Stage 5

Sunlight
I've added the "magical" color of Naples Yellow. It gives the mysterious impression of sunlight shining on flesh. It has some very unusual properties. I could not paint a picture like this without it!

Red-Headed Girl...Not!

I've also continued to refine hair. It's a little too "red," but I can easily fix that with a glaze of a transparent "green." I'm really pleased with the results of her hair so far. I'm not sure "how" I did it, but it seems to have worked!

Switched Medium

As a medium I've switched from store-bought Liquin to a homemade medium. I make this by adding 2 parts turpentine, 2 parts Damar Varnish and 1 part linseed oil. I add a "fatter" medium, the closer I get to completion.

Northern Light-Color Stage 4

I've tried to re-establish shadows with a mixture of raw umber and cadmium red deep in order to get "warm" shadows. Next step will be to begin to add cool, northern light from that window onto her face!

Below is a rare, behind the scenes look into my "super-organized" studio/office. I've added arrows to identify points of interest. See list below to identify green letters and arrows in picture.

A. Painting by daughter

B. Transistor radio on shelf behind canvas, (playing rock and roll only!)

C. Paint rag, (I almost guarantee you I will sit on this)

D. Coffee Cup (half/caffeine. in the evening)

E. Paint thinner (perilously close to cup of coffee!!!)

F. Homemade paint palette

G. Computer monitor (I paint from this in the later stages...I can zoom like crazy!!)

H. Paint brushes (I only use sable brushes)

I. One of my first paintings I have hanging on the wall for inspiration.

J. Canvas on easel, upside down, (I paint this way often in order to exercise the right side of my brain)

K. Color wheel, and flammable materials on top shelf.

Northern Light-Color Stage 3

I've glazed what I call my "flesh" color; a mixture of burnt umber, raw umber, raw sienna+ titanium, and flake white, over the skin areas. I also glazed mixture of prussian blue, small amount of yellow ochre, and white over curtain area. This "cooled" it down a bit. I also glazed Alizarin crimson on dark background areas to warm them up a little.

My little secret when it comes to shadows is; warm light=cool shadows, cool light=warm shadows. Works every time!

My next step will be to re-establish "warm" shadows on facial and hair features. When that dries, I'll begin to add light with one of my favorite colors: Naples Yellow!