Western Art by Denny Karchner – pencil illustrations, oil and acrylic paintings and prints – Welcome to KarchnerWesternArt.com

Here is day one. This is a 16″ x 20″ portrait with the background roughed in. I am painting with traditional oils. This painting is on museum-grade Masonite made by Ampersand. It has a white, textured clay surface and covered with white gesso.

Here is day two. I had managed to get Gordon’s face all roughed in.

Here is a close up of Gordon’s face after smoothing his facial tones with a dry brush. My wife Leigh took the reference photograph that I used to paint from. If you closely at Gordon’s right eye, you will clearly see the beautiful orange sunset, trees and sky reflected there.

Day three. I have roughed in the base coat for Gordon’s bandana and metal star concho.

Here is day four. You can see that I have painted in my basecoat for the shirt and vest.

Day five. I laid down what are the heavy shadow areas of the shirt and vest. I also roughed in the pouch of Gordon’s Levi Garrett chewing tobacco sticking out of his vest pocket.

On day six I have finished all the details on the shirt and vest. I have painted in Gordon’s S.A.S.S. badge that all members wear. Each member has one that is exclusive. Also, each member has their own number. If you look on one of the close-ups below, you can see clearly that Gordon’s member number is 16357. Also you will notice that in the reflection, you will see the blue sky reflecting on the top of the metal and the bright yellow of the fall grass at his feet reflecting on the bottom part of his badge.

On day seven I finished up the portrait by painting in the chrome link chain that has Gordon’s watch on one end in his pocket and the metal, enameled S.A.S.S. logo on the other end. If you look, you will see the end of a special stick in his vest pocket. This is used to remove the spent primers of his Navy Colt Revolver that he uses for his competition shoots.

Final photo.

Here are three close-ups.

Gordon was so pleased with my effort that he asked to have his picture taken with the piece. You can see, even in real life, his face has so much character… I had to add nothing.

I want to thank Gordon once again for posing for me and becoming one of my good friends. As he signs all his emails to me, Pards for life!!

Thanks for looking! Stay tuned, there are many more of my works in progress to come.

Denny

Here we go. Leigh took a fantastic photograph of a massive buffalo bull plodding through the famous Hayden Valley of Yellowstone National Park in September of 2005. I located another shot of Hayden Valley that I liked and put here buffalo bull into it. Here is the first day’s work with the sky completed.

This is day two. In the background are lodge-pole pines, native to the park and the distant rolling hills added.

Here I have the buffalo roughed in. I have been told that I do have some strange artistic techniques. I create in pieces. I do try to finish off the areas as I go, but I am a realist in another sense. I do go back in and re-work all the areas if needed after I see the piece as a whole. There will be many changes to what you see here.

Here is day four. I have roughed in the grass with the base greens. Olive green in the background running to the foreground which has more brilliant greens.

Day five. I have laid down another heavier covering of greens on the grassy areas. This will help create some of the highlights in the grass.

On day six, I have painted in what will eventually be the shadow areas between the blades of grass and flowers. I also went into the pine trees behind and added more detail.

Day seven, more grass detail, now comes the flower base coats.

On day eight I have all the pink flowers roughed in. On this day, I went in and laid more detail and contrast to the buffalo.

On day nine, I have the flowers almost done. All that is left to do is paint in all the fine detail in those flowers and the blades of grass and sign it.

The final!

Here are four close-ups so you can view the detail in these areas.

Thanks for looking! Stay tuned, there are many more of my works in progress to come.

Denny

The Grass Dance style is a very old dance rich in history that has become very popular. In the old days, it was the job of the grass dancers to flatten the grass in the arena before a Pow Wow. The name grass does not come from the stomping of grass, but it comes from the old habit of tying braids of sweet grass to the dancer’s belts, producing a swaying effect. Today, Grass Dancers resemble a multicolored swaying mass of yarn or fringe on the dance floor. The Grass Dance is a very fluid and bendable style, with the dancers trying to move their fringe in as many places as possible at once. The Grass Dance style was born in the North, but its popularity has spread South, and now this beautiful style is available for everyone.

The regalia of a Grass Dancer is very different from most other styles. The head gear is much the same: roach, spreader, and maybe a beaded headband. One primary difference in Grass dancers is the optional antennas, which are long, thin wires with fluffs attached to the end that protrude from the spreader in the place of roach feathers. Most dancers today wear fringed capes that are edged with lots of yarn or chainette fringe. Multicolored designs in the yarn are popular, but all white with colored highlights is becoming popular. A matching apron to the cape is worn to cover the waist, and usually fringed side tabs are worn as well. Instead of leather leggings, most Grass Dancers will wear a pair of jogging pants that have been modified with fringe just below the knees. The bells are worn just below the ankles above the moccasins.

Leigh took many photographs of the dancers. My first subject from that year’s Pow Wow is this fine, fine young man, grass dancer, Waycie Roundstone. Waycie was 26 years of age. He is full-blooded Northern Cheyenne from Lame Deer, Montana. Even though Waycie is a dancer, after going through the many photographs of Waycie, I could not pass up this fantastic head study that Leigh captured. One does not have to look straight into this young man’s eyes to see the intensity of his soul!

Here is day one. This is all my pencil lines drawn in and roughing in the background on my usual Ampersand museum-grade Masonite.

I have started this piece a little different, in the fact that I laid in the background first. There is just so much horse hair on his head that it had to be done this way. Something else a little different for me is the size. Most people’s heads are roughly 9.5″ to 10″. The overall size of the painting is 16″ x 20″, but Waycie’s head in my painting is life-size and a half, roughly 13″ tall! Most of my subject’s heads are rendered not much bigger then 3″ to 4″ tall. No room for error here! Every detail must be there or I feel I have failed.

This is day two. I have roughed in his face, hair and red bandana.

Day three. I have roughed in his horse hair head dress.

Here is day four. You can see that I worked on Waycie’s facial tones. The rest of the day was used to lay in the rough bead work. Still many beads and highlights on those beads to go!

Day five.

I have finalized all his bead work. The beads are actually a little bigger than a 1/6″, bigger than they appear. I did find a great way to paint the beads. I paint a light brown outline around each bead. I then take another brush that slightly larger the the hole for the bead, as I lay in the stroke of color for the actual bead, the “wet” brown blends around the outer edge of the bead. This gives each bead a slight rounded effect. The last steps are painting in his rainbow-colored shirt and put the finishing touches to the background.

The final!

Here are two close-ups, one of the bead work area and the his chrome beaded, bone necklace.

Thanks for looking! Stay tuned, there are many more of my works in progress to come.

Denny