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Virginia Parker's First Ever Led Zeppelin Themed Painting


Dandu

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Thanks for the encouragement. This is a departure for me. I'm usually go into my studio in the morning and emerge in the afternoon, looking slightly dazed, splotched with paint, and smelling faintly of turpenoid.

Although I have an idea of where I'm going with any given painting, there is an unpredictability factor. Unforeseen roadblocks and unexpected opportunities appear as you go along. The key is to stay both limber and persistent.

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Put in the maiden portrait. Used a screen grab for the source. Shifted around some candles for the sake of composition. Confession: I would rather choke down a toad than do a portrait, so it was torture. Bearing that in mind, here's the first round, and it could be worse. From a distance it's not bad. It's mostly curly princess hair and candles all around, which handily echo the candelabra to the right. Putting it in a frame really helped.

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Spent the lion's share of the morning on that. Stopping nearly required an intervention, but until this layer is dry, all I'd be doing is stirring reasonably nice tones into mud.

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Virginia,

All I can say is wow! The portrait looks amazing. I am glad that this is being shared with other Zep fans and art lovers. I am getting such a thrill out of seeing each new item come to life, it would be a shame not to share it. In fact, I am getting a bit concerned about what I am going to do when the painting is all done. I have been enjoying the process so much!

PS: If we ever do another project together, I promise, no portraits... but, watching you "choke down a toad" on the other hand.... :P

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Moving right along. Blocked in the upright books, and the creased and folded map. They aren't much more than shapes, but that's where I start.

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Placed the book beneath the candelabra. It's actually a leather bound volume of poetry by Sir Walter Scott. The cover is patterned, and stamped with red and gold. It have a different title before I'm done with it.

I shaded the candles a bit then plugged in the basic shapes of the three hawk feathers, which fall from the top right corner, under an arm of the candelabra. and just beneath and in front of the sword blade.

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Down to the knight Tarot card, and the iron handles on the front of the chest. Once those are done, I begin again, first with the blue background, then the yellow drape and the wooden chest. The next layer of blue will make a striking difference, ditto the yellow drape. After that, the detail work - veining on marble, the down on the shaft of each feather, the pitted skin of the tangerine - will only be visible in a close up photo (or if you are standing in front of it). It's the part that makes me the happiest.

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Stars, pattern on the yellow drape, book titles, print on the tickets and all other symbols and writing goes on last.

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One of Robert's quotes from the NY press conference Tuesday:

"I wanted to know what happened to that blonde chick -- Guinevere."

- On "The Song Remains the Same"

Maybe he should read this thread!

http://www.billboard.com/news/robert-plant-s-14-best-lines-from-led-zeppelin-1007976032.story#/news/robert-plant-s-14-best-lines-from-led-zeppelin-1007976032.story

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Thanks Gigi, Dan and MStork.

I placed the Knight Tarot card colors today, fiddled with the Guinevere face, did a second round on the Lovers Tarot card. Too wet to add the black outlines on the Tarot cards that will make the images pop. This is where self-discipline comes in handy.

I do like the juxtaposition of the crisp graphic cards and the softer natural face. I'm even okay with this version of the portrait.

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Itching to do another round on the blue background cloth, but that has to wait for Monday.

Cleaning my brushes and heading out to visit my PA daughter on the Hunger Games set.

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Spent most of the day mixing and painting blues. There are eight intentional variations, plus lots of merged edges that make another shade altogether.

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While I was working on the background cloth, I did a first round of paint on the embroidered stars, though they will have to cleaned up and shaded once the blue is dry. They are pretty wonky now. I shifted the stars around too, adding some and deleting others, and did the highlights on the iron lock. Next round will be the wood of the chest, and the iron handles. Maybe a bit of veining on the marble.

Now it's time to put my feet up and have a cup of milky sweet Earl Grey tea, with toast and jam.

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dear virginia

thanks for your posting and personal answere to my qwestions.

the painting is a great one cause i have trouble seeing it

with all the fine details on the computer...

i wonder if you are going to sell it and how much it will cost.

Hi Graf Zeppelin

Thanks for your interest and the nice things you said about this painting. It's a commission and thus already sold to Dan.

I've sent you a message about the cost, as the price of my work varies depending upon size and complexity.

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Worked on the wood grain and the iron hardware.

Changed the sword reflections again, and this time I think I'm sticking.

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Decided to change the chalice - I don't know what that odd, oyster-esque reflection is, and it's smack dab in the center of the painting. I went through the original source photos and picked out these to work from:

c3.jpg.

c2.jpg

That's the beauty of oil, you can change your mind as much as you want.

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You have an amzing talent Virginia, the painting looks great. Thanks for sharing it with us so we can see your work in progress. I have been a fan of LZ since 1970 and still enjoy their music and the memories that go with it. I am also a big fan of JRR Tolkien and his works.

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You have an amzing talent Virginia, the painting looks great. Thanks for sharing it with us so we can see your work in progress. I have been a fan of LZ since 1970 and still enjoy their music and the memories that go with it. I am also a big fan of JRR Tolkien and his works.

Thanks! I've been finishing some other works for an upcoming exhibit, but I did manage to compile a master list of the book titles, symbols, logos, and dates that I've been collecting that relate to Led Zeppelin. I'll make a thumbnail sketch of the painting and start placing these elements, seeing where they work best. It's the 'measure twice, cut once' theory.

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I usually go into my studio in the morning and emerge in the afternoon, looking slightly dazed, splotched with paint, and smelling faintly of turpenoid.

I used to love the smell of my painting class at community college but I sucked at painting and color mixing and eventually found that I enjoyed scratchboard the most. I love the starkness and contrast. My teacher Kim Mendenhall was into realism and her stuff was incredible. It'll be nice to see your project when it's finished. :^)

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Thanks for the reply. I am also a landscape painter and done a lot of painting with several types of paint and it has been good for me to use my talents and imagination. As I mentioned I am a LZ fan and now collected as far as I know all but one of thier songs and a few DVDs of their performances. I have most of Tolkiens' works and am learning the Quenya lanauge in writting and speach. This has been a great learning curve.

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I used to love the smell of my painting class at community college but I sucked at painting and color mixing and eventually found that I enjoyed scratchboard the most. I love the starkness and contrast. My teacher Kim Mendenhall was into realism and her stuff was incredible. It'll be nice to see your project when it's finished. :^)

It's amazing what can be done with that technique. I loved the sgraffito on buildings in Florence.

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Thanks for the reply. I am also a landscape painter and done a lot of painting with several types of paint and it has been good for me to use my talents and imagination. As I mentioned I am a LZ fan and now collected as far as I know all but one of thier songs and a few DVDs of their performances. I have most of Tolkiens' works and am learning the Quenya lanauge in writting and speach. This has been a great learning curve.

I am in awe of artists who can lasso nature. I'm particularly fond of George Inness and Albert Bierstadt.

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Worked on the Tarot card Knight of Swords earlier this week.

Today I'll either do a second round of color on the drapery, or work on the candelabra.

Spent yesterday going over my list of symbols, book titles, dates, and a phrase from a song I'm planning to include. I made a rough pencil sketch of the composition and tried different combinations.

Book titles are pretty straightforward - I know which ones I want to use, and which books I intend to pair them with. Playing around with the yellow drapery is both more challenging and more fun. It's actually patterned in red, and I plan to substitute LZ references. For example, I want to use the winged Apollo figure of the Swan Song logo in place of a tiger.

I found a few photo references on Google for the capital S on the Swan Song stationary - if any one can point me to a high rez of that I'd be grateful. I wanted to try placing it in repeating pattern where there is actually sort of paisley design.

post-21599-0-33135000-1351165995_thumb.j

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Most of the day I pushed the darks and lights of the bronze d'or candelabra, making the shapes more distinct. It's not done, but this is a big step closer.

candle+detail.jpg

Did fiddly outlining on the Lovers Tarot card and began the hologram on the ticket. The painted card is identical to the actual card except for two small changes I've made.

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In unrelated to Led Zeppelin news, I've been working on getting ten paintings done and dusted for a gallery show that opens November 9. If anyone is in the Atlanta area and wants to come by, please do and say hey.

I'm pasting the details of where and when below. If for any reason this is inappropriate to do on the forum, please let me know and I'll delete it.

Elements & Locations

Friday, November 9th, 2012, from 7pm to 10 pm at the Mason Murer Fine Art Gallery

Mason Murer Fine Art | 199 Armour Drive | Atlanta, GA 30324 | 404.879.1500

Gallery hours: 11 am – 5 pm, Tuesday – Friday, 12 pm – 5 pm Saturday.

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