WATCHING PAINT DRY -- part ii

I posted my last stop-motion painting clip feeling confident that my new cable release bracket would be the solution to my camera movement problems. As usual, the ghost of Robert Burns seems to have bitten my well-laid plans in the butt. My brilliant little invention forced the threads of my camera's tripod acceptor, and stripped them, causing this to be my jumpiest clip yet. Appropriate that the painting should be of a frog -- specifically, a Northern Casque-headed Treefrog (Hemiphractus fasciatus), a bizarre little fellow that lives on or near the forest floors of Colombia, Panama, and possibly Costa Rica. Long considered a member of the typical treefrog family, Hylidae, today the five or so species of casque-headed frog are believed to have diverged from other frog taxa some time back, and are generally given their own family.

Wobbliness notwithstanding, the clip shows a detailed underpainting laid down in raw umber. The board is then tinted, and the hues and values of the various components are laid in. Once a basic foundation of the subject is down, it is masked with liquid latex to protect it while the background is painted. With the background established, off comes the latex, and the final coats of paint are brushed on.

Once I've found a used digital camera with manual settings and an actual cable release port, I'll dedicate it to my animation stand, and once again, I find myself feeling confident. Hopefully I'll have the whole thing together in time to film the next painting: a portrait of a Spectacled Owl (Pulsatrix perspicillata) that's sure to have the best production values yet. Stay tuned.

If you can't access the video embed, click here.