"Promising Debut" - Acrylic Paint / 16x20 / 2003

I apologize beforehand for the poor pictures with some of these -- as it was before I had a digital camera.  But, they serve as a good way to document how I've painted all of my works.  I think it gives you, the viewer, a bit of an inside look at how I create some of this artwork.  I hope you enjoy it.  These 2 pictures are the first few I took of the painting, as I've already started to form the background behind Mr. Prior.  As you can see in the first picture, I've also already added the crowd in the horizon, and the pitching mound in the foreground.  The second picture is just a close-up of Prior, in his throwing motion.  This painting, as the finished product, is by far the pride of my private collection.

Here, I've started to "black" the background behind Mark, to bring the focus more towards him.  I've also started to add some detail to his uniform, putting in some shadows and highlights to give him separation from his background.  And, speaking of background (haha, awesome segway!) this picture is from Mark Prior's Major League Debut with the Chicago Cubs, against the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Again, as with the first set of pictures, the second picture is merely a close-up of the picture to it's left.  You can see Prior's really starting to stand out against the background -- giving it the desired effect I was hoping for. 

The two pictures, are reversed a bit here I guess -- as the close-up is at left and the picture a bit further away, is at right.  Sorry for the confusion, but it's just the way the pictures fell, my friends.  At this point, I've started to add the crowd, wishing to give the painting a great sense of detail, but at the same time, keeping Mark the focus of the painting.  I didn't want to distract the viewer by making the crowd stand out too much, but at the same time I also didn't want the crowd to just be a bunch of blurry faces in the background.  With the picture, at right, you can see the crowd in it's forming stages, as it helps to draw the eyes down from the top of the stadium.

Here, with the crowd finished, I've "blacked" the crowd over a bit to really bring out Prior in the foreground.  The huge contrast between his white uniform and the black background worked great, and I couldn't have been happier with how it came out.  On that subject, on to the final 2 pictures on this page -- the final product!

Well, here are the last two pictures.  As you might be able to tell, there is a signature in the top right of the painting -- yep, it's autographed by Mark Prior himself!  I arranged to have it signed by Mr. Prior down here in Cincinnati, at Great American Ballpark.  I can thank everyone enough with both the Cubs and Reds, with helping me to get this accomplished -- especially Lorrie with the Reds, she was an amazing help!  Enjoy!!!  This painting is proudly displayed in my private collection.  And, if you're wondering if this painting is for sale or not -- that's a negatory on that one.  Unless you're offering an insane amount of money, this painting is priceless in my eyes - as an enormous Cubs fan, that is!