This is the latest addition to my series on restoration experts. This scene takes place in the shop of Patrick Ottis Company in Berkeley, CA and features Patrick Ottis (in the tee-shirt) and David McCarthy breathing life back into a Ferrari V-12. Patrick graciously granted me complete freedom to shoot in his shop on two occasions, even though they were under the cloud of show deadlines. This painting was compiled from dozens of shots and it took a long time to come up with this composition; once it was decided, the painting advanced smoothly.
In this painting I reverted to a style I naturally gravitate to, called scumbling. Traditional glazed painting (shown in December 2011 blog installment) starts with a monochromatic (one color and white) underpainting and then several dozen thin glass-like layers of transparent color are added on top make a full color painting that can appear to glow. This is what the old masters, pre-impressionism, did.
This scumbled painting also started with a complete underpainting, but color was added with a VERY dry brush of color and not laid on top, but scrubbed in. It provides a whole different surface to look at and I like to use it occasionally. Check out Patrick's right arm, it's one of the finest anatomy studies I've done. Besides all the stuff in the background, I really like the way the figures came out.
