There are two portions of the painting’s image that I’ve adjusted digitally. This was necessary in transferring a painting from something I’d have in my home to a flexible design I could use commercially. I see this process as somewhat similar to translating a novel to screenplay. Things have to be altered to fit the medium.
What you see here (above) is a photo of the original painting. It’s narrower than the final design you see in my catalogues. For this project, I knew that I’d need to digitally add a portion of space to the right side of the main figure, Padalecki. Otherwise, he would be chopped out of most designs entirely.
I think perhaps the most noticeable difference is the tone of the black area. I’ve made the final design a more flat black, essentially removing the texture of the canvas. Looking at a painting, you expect to see that. But you don’t want it showing up on a dress. It would just look strange.
The width of the revised project meant that I had to do some tweaking to the left side as well, though that now is seamless. You can’t even tell I had any difficulties with this process!
What’s curious for me to see is how various people from my past, and even characters I’ve created – and Jared Padalecki! -have ended up in this painting. It was quite unintentional, but people I happened to think about wound up on the canvas. I wonder if perhaps it’s because I was painting with my left hand. (To read more about that, Go HERE.)
The most obvious character in the painting is the main figure – real life actor, Jared Padalecki. He’s I think most famous for playing Sam Winchester in the show Supernatural (and yes, I’m a fan). Once I realized that I’d painted his image, the title just was THERE in my head. It made me smile, and I knew I had to go with it.
The two women who stand furthest away, chatting with each other (and who do not yet notice Padalecki), are two women who live in my town. The gal with the hat moonlights as a tour guide here.
The guy in the yellow vest is someone I very briefly knew in college. The girl with reddish hair is a former coworker, as is the young man with green shoes.
The young man with the baseball cap is a guy I went to school with and I was thinking about him as I painted this. I remembered how we would sit in Spanish class and he would just slaughter the language with his Texan accent and crack me up. He’d make me laugh so hard, tears would run down my face.
The girl in flip-flops is a character I’ve created in my mind. Her name is Gillian. She’s part of a story I haven’t yet written, but it’s one that has become very pervasive in my life and in my imagination. I’ve filled many blank books with dialogue and ideas for Gillian and Fabien (sitting next to her, with the backpack).
This was a fun painting for me and preparing it for a design was a fun challenge. I hope you love it too!
