Monday, February 23, 2009

Live party painting


This is a painting I did at a Bar/Bat-Mitzvah during the party in about 5 hours. It was my trial painting for the company- "Untouchable Events" and I'm going to do some more in the future. The challenge was to try to get some recognizable people in the painting even as they were moving. The light source was all over the place- constantly moving and changing color, so that was a challenge as well.
For the next one, I'm going to get photos ahead of time for the main people at the party and incorporate them in the scene.
This is acrylic on masonite.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jessus dude, this must've been sooo difficult to do! Great job!

Everybody's gotta be in a Gang said...

Thanks, Jesse- yes, it was difficult; I was starting to lose it at the end... I think I really just needed a breather and some food.

Next time I want to be a little closer to the action; in this one I was far away in the corner- good for an overview, but I couldn't really make out the Bar-Mitzvah boy and the Bat-Mitzvah girl on the dance floor.

The Keeper's Notes said...

Interesting idea that they would want something like this....my original impression I had in my mind when you told me about this asssignment was different than the finished version...I thought it would be more about the guests and less about 'the environment'. It seems that you put more work into the surroundings than the people. There's just a few 'recognizable faces here, but I suppose it captures the mood of the event.

I do like the colors and the feel of the scene; I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the next gig when you've got some reference to work with.

Everybody's gotta be in a Gang said...

I would be surprised if any impression you or anyone else would have of a piece of art before seeing it would be the same.

As I've said before, this was a trial, and the clients didn't know I was going to do this, so I couldn't get photos ahead of time of the Bar-Mitzvah kids, and I was far from the real action to see any faces or figures that clearly.
Actually, a lot of people are interested in something like this- it's a different and unique memento to take home after a significant time in somebody's life. In the ones that follow, I'll hopefully be a little closer to see more people, but anyway it's hard to try to capture a likeness of about 200 people in 5 hours in paint and also get a feel for the surrounding. It would take me at least 5 hours to do a good painting of ONE person- if they were right in front of me and standing still, let alone a couple hundred moving all over the place with lights flashing everywhere and loud music blaring. This is not an easy thing to do, but I think I'll get better as I do more. This is the first one I've ever done, so I have to work out some of the process still.

Paul Moyse said...

This is great Dan!! And it's an excellent idea for putting a new spin on live caricature. Looking forward to seeing how the next ones turn out!

Everybody's gotta be in a Gang said...

Thanks, Paul! The next one is in 3 weeks, so we'll see...

Everybody's gotta be in a Gang said...

Or so I thought... They canceled on me, and have not hired me for live-painting since. I only did one more party with them doing caricatures, and it was very unorganized and micro- managed- with 3 different people telling me what to do. It was just like a big corporation with all the bureaucracy and idiocy you can imagine. Fun stuff.