I was recently commissioned to paint a piano (paint ON a piano, as opposed to paint a picture OF a piano) for The Big Draw event to be held in downtown Pleasanton on May 10th, 9am-4pm.
The piano arrived at my studio a few months ago looking like this:
...a little worn out (notice the wonky keys), but a lot of fun details to work with. All it needed was a little love, understanding, and PAINT.
I will now take you through a step by step process of the transformation.
Step #1: Create the underlying value pattern. This helped to determine the overall composition of the piece (dark vs. light).
Step #2: Lay in the under painting for each section.
Step #3: Go crazy! Well...start to incorporate the 1st layer of brushstrokes and drawn lines in order to create an element of energetic fun.
Step #4: I needed to push some of those brushstrokes into the background and bring in a calm layer to help unify the whole. I decided to add a layer of white, which would allow another layer of gold to glow on top.
Step #5: And here is that layer of gold I was talking about...
Step #6: Bring it all together by adding some unifying lines and brushstrokes to help draw the eye around the piano and let the playful energy do it's thing.
Step #7: The final touches. Add some color to those wonky keys, and give precise instructions to the viewer, "play me play me play me please play me play me play me play me please play me."
And there you have it! This piano will be on display outside of Studio Seven Arts from May 3rd - May 18th. The public (that's YOU) is asked to participate in this interactive art piece, so please come by and tickle the ivories (and the red, gold and purple keys too).