2012 Chuck Jones Auction Painting

Here is my contribution to the 2012 Red Dot Auction, to benefit the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity. The idea is that multiple artist submit paintings on identical 12" x 12" canvases, which go up for silent auction. The kicker is that they are all unsigned, so buyers are bidding purely on the basis of the artwork, not the artist themselves. This is pretty cool, as you're just as likely to pick up a piece from an emerging artist (like me) as from an established pro.



Last year, I submitted a piece featuring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, from one of my favorite Looney Tunes films, "Robin Hood Daffy". That one was done entirely with gouache paints, a type of opaque watercolor. This year, to celebrate what would have been Chuck's 100th birthday, I created a piece with both Chuck and Bugs, which I titled "Partners".



I started off by digitally sketching the piece in Sketchbook Pro, refining it before it even got to the canvas. I then printed it out and using a light under my glass-topped desk, transferred the sketch to the canvas (note to self for next year: buy a cheap projector).



I got kinda behind on time, and needed to finish the colors super quick. I essentially had a single weekend to do all this. So with some encouragement from my wife, I decided to give coloring it with my Prismacolor markers a try. I think for the most part, it worked out really well. And from a distance, the markers almost look like paint.

The background was a flat blue gouache paint. That part didn't turn out as I'd hoped, but I didn't have time to be picky. And as with last year's piece, all the black ink lines were done entirely with a brush and India ink.

As I write this, I still don't know if a) my piece sold, or b) for how much. Last year's painting went for $300, so I'm hopeful I was able to make a decent contribution this time around. I'll update this post when I have that information.

As always, it's such a thrill to get to work with the Chuck Jones organization. I also recently launched a new website for the Center that I designed and developed, and hopefully I can stay involved with them for the foreseeable future (assuming they'll have me).