Ballplayer
 

I just completed this portrait in a ten-day whirlwind of painting. (If there are no images to look at yet, it

Bravo!!
Wow, what a great marketing opportunity! No images, yet, so I will be back to view it. I am sure it is wonderful. Good luck Saturday!!! :thumbsup:

Hi Michele,

This looks great! The motion blur in the background does convey the feeling of energy and concentration in the middle of the storm, as you intended.

Would you tell us what is the size of the original?

The painting is 36x48".

Oh, this is way too exciting! Congratulations!

Way to go girl!

A beautiful, strong finish, if I may say so! Nice light on the figure and the background really adds to that feeling of power and motion.

Stuart, Washington's famous limner once did a huge painting of that president in front of the backside of his horse in 10 days. It is at the Boston Museum. At that juncture in time I am usually ruminating over the color theme.

The Franklin Mint uses sports celebrity paintings on their limited edition plates. They use some of the top illustrators in the country, so I imagine it is well paid. They are always looking for new artists and with an intro like this there could be some interest.

Bravo! You succeeded on all counts. A proverbial home run!

Thanks folks!

Thanks especially, Sharon for the tip about the Franklin Mint thing. I will look into that.

There is also a possibility for a licensing agreement for limited edition reproductions of this image that the ball club could sell in their souvenir shops. Maybe.... We'll see if that goes anywhere.

Wonderful!
 

What a wonderful painting, Michelle! Congratulations!

Oh Michele, this is such wonderful news!

This is a strong "action" painting and a spectacular promotional coup. I know how hard you have been working all year, and I can't think of any artist who more deserves the sound of eighty thousand hands clapping.

Whew, when you put it that way, now I am terrified! Unveilings, in front of even one person, scare the daylights out of me.

Congratulations Michele. I always enjoy seeing what comes off of your easel. Thank you.

Michele,

Way to go!! This is fantastic. It is rare to see a portrait that successfully utilizes motion. This painting has sound too, - it roars!

I hope you can show us in a demo some time how one completes a large painting in ten days.

Please give us a report about Saturday, and your wide-spread, broadcast fame which artists (unlike sports celebrities) rarely experience.

Bravo, and congratulations,

Garth

Don't know if I'll have a chance to show you in a demo but my process was basically this: on day one I did an 8x10" color study. Each of the 9 subsequent days was spent very quickly laying in one section at a time, based on what I had decided in the study. Doing that one-day study saved me tons of time later, since I knew from the start pretty much what I was going for.

The shirt took a day, the pants, half a day, the shoes, two hours. ( I wrote this all down so I'd see if I was tracking to be finished on time, and -- heaven forbid -- if I ever had to do something like this in such a hurry again!)

Most of the painting has only one layer on it. I knew I had one shot to get it the way I wanted since there'd be no time to go over it again. I spent three days on the face and it has two layers on most of it. The motion part of the background has three layers on it. It initially went on too dark and too cool. Everything else (clothes, bat, helmet, etc) have one layer.

Congratulations Michele. What an exciting opportunity and a beautiful painting! It conveys so much energy and power.

--Good luck on Saturday!

Wow, wow, WOW.....Michele!

This is SO cool. You know, even though I've only lived here 8 years....I've been a Mariner's fan for over 20 years even while I was living near those Oakland boys. ;)

I just want to say, this is very exciting look at. You've captured "Gar" so very well! (That's our home nickname)

You've captured his likeness absolutely dead on. The movement is real. The moment of his powerful swing is just right there!

CONGRATS my Puget Sound friend!

Cya soon I hope!

-Geary

Congrats Michele!!!

In Jersey, the Mets and Yankees (mostly Yankees) have a bunch of collector items as you stated before. The active players bring in the big bucks, so hopefully this will lead to bigger things. Good luck.

Thanks Michele, this information is very helpful and inspiring. It takes considerable skill, experience, and talent to paint a portrait one section at a time in one shot, and have the cohesive, successful result you've acheived. Congratulations again!

Garth

Michele-

Nice job! Also REALLY savvy marketing. We can all learn from that.

Best--TE

Congratulations Michele! Great painting and possibly even more important is the publicity! I need to find better neighbors.

Michele,
Normally, I don't care for sports paintings but this is clearly the exception. I am a big baseball fan and this painting just WOW's me. You are really growing as an artist, and it shows.

Congratulations Michele with this dynamic painting. The player seem both concentrated and relaxed at the same time, simply just playing ball.

You have painted the joy of success, and that is what you will get.

Allan

This is fantastic Michelle. Congratulations! :thumbsup:

Wonderful MIchelle,
I love the colors!

For more about the unveiling of this painting, see this post.

Michelle,

Sorry to come in so late, plus to use such a cliche, but you have really hit this out of the ballpark!

I was thinking it was a pastel since your time was so limited, and it has that wonderful quality of movement in impressionistic pastels - but to think this is an oil (?) WOW.

Now we know why things are really exploding out there.

:thumbsup: