Ed Bright Painting

oil Painting of Ed Bright by John Dyess

During 1977 I painted  Ed Bright, when He modeled for a group of St.Louis Illustrators. Ed would have been 85 years young when he Posed for this group at Washington University. At this time there was an article about Ed in the Lafayette Press-Journal. which was dated Wednesday,Oct. 19,1977. This is from the article about Ed, “To satisfy his addiction to riding, Bright signed up with the Missouri National Guard calvary unit. Because the unit was one of the few remains cavalry units, it was called up to help the Pesky Pancho Villa. But instead of hunting the bandit ,Ed spent time on maneuvers and patrolling.”

Unfinished portrait of a state trooper

unfinished painting of State Patrol Trooper

About ten years ago I started a portrait in oil on canvas of a state patrol trooper that is a friend  of my oldest daughter and her husband. I don’t want to mention his name at this time but will share that he is a brave and decent man. This is another unfinished canvas that I recently found in a storage closet. I did complete a smaller portrait of him in a different technique. This unfinished painting does show part of my process painting in oil on canvas.

Step one in this process is to have the subject pose for photographs which will be used for reference. In this photo shoot I used slide film and print film taken with a film camera. I selected a pose for the trooper and selected a difference photo for the patrol car. The second step is to project the image with a slide projector on the canvas and draw an out line of the subject in graphite pencil. I than begin to establish light an dark areas in acrylic paint. This is as far as this painting progressed. Had I completed this painting I would have covered the canvas with a thin wash of acrylic paint and then begun applying glazes of oil paint  completely covering the pencil drawing.The size of this unfinished canvas is 24″wide by 30″ high.  Below are details of this painting and a finished oil painting of my youngest daughter when she was ten that was painted using this same process.

detail of hat and head

shirt

Audrey at Ten

Unfinished portrait of Audrey

unfinished portrait of my daughter Audrey early 1980's- John Dyess

I was looking at some past paintings of mine recently and found this unfinished portrait of my daughter Audrey. I will give it to her the next time I see her. This was painted in Gouache on illustration board and the size is 11″ wide x14″ high.

Sophia – photographs by Herb Rose

Photograph of Sophia by Herb Rose

These photographs of my granddaughter Sophia were taken by my friend Herb Rose at  the Custard Station in Kirkwood Missouri. My wife and I  met Herb and his wife Emily to eat custard and for us to show off Sophia. They brought along their grandson and son. Herb shot many photos of Sophia with his Nikon camera. He enhanced these photos on his computer and made us many wonderful prints of Sophia.

Photo of Sophia by Herb Rose.

I will show several more photos of Sophia by Herb on my next post.

Oil paintings of my grandchildren – Claire

oil painting of Claire by John Dyess

This painting is of Claire ,Delanie’s younger sister, which is  the second oil portrait I am showing of the six portraits I have painted of my  grandchildren.  I took the photo reference of Claire the same day that I took photos of Delanie. I started this painting of Claire about three years after I shot the reference photos. The painting is oil on canvas and the size of the painting is about 16″wide  x 20″ high. I borrowed the dress she is wearing and placed it next to my easel to look at while I painted.

America – It’s People and Values, part 2

Portrait of Irving Berlin by John Dyess

Four Portraits from America It's People and Values

Five additional portraits from “America It’s People and Values”. I created a total of 21 portraits for this book.

America – It’s People and Values

Illustration of Edward R. Murrow by John Dyess

This illustration of Edward R Murrow was one of over thirty illustrations I created for a text book titled “America It’s People and Values” published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,Publishers, in 1984.I got this assignment through my New York City representative,  Mulvey and Associates. The samples that HBJ liked were the mountain climbers I did for Aetna Life & Casualty.

Buhl and Hillary

The illustration of Edward R. Murrow was the first illustration shown to HBJ. They approved this sample and I proceeded to create the remaining portraits.

 

 

MARITZ MOTIVATION COMPANY – peak Performance – 1980 part 2

Hermann Buhl

This is another illustration of  a mountain climber I created for Aetna  Life & Casualty  “Peak Performance” incentive campaign in 1980 while working at Maritz. Five mountain climbers were featured. Below is a description of the campaign and a brief bio on Hermann Buhl.

Bio of Hermann Buhl

 

MARITZ MOTIVATION COMPANY – Peak performance – 1980

Portrait of Sir Edmund Hillary by John Dyess

This was one of the last campaigns I worked on at Maritz. I started my own business,John Dyess Illustration, in September of 1980. This campaign was called Peak Performance and was created for Aetna Life & Casualty. The print mailers were geared around famous mountain climbers. This portrait of Sir Edmund Hillary was on the first mailer. The trips promoted were to Germany and the Bahamas.

Detail from original illustration

This illustration of Edmund hillary was created using graphite pencil on Crescent Illustration Board, cold press surface, No. 100 heavy weight. A thin coat of gesso was painted on the surface of the illustration board before the pencil was applied. Color was added using Dr. PH Martin Radiant Concentrated Water Color ,applied with round sable brushes. I was primarily interested in drawing the shapes in Hillary face and hair and the  shapes of Mount everest. This illustration was more about shapes and color than Edmund Hillary and the mountain. I used this sample to promote My work when I began John Dyess illustrtion. This sample helped me get an assignment illustrating about 30 Americans for a text book.

MARITZ MOTIVATION COMPANY – The trip that wasn’t cancelled.

A taste of the Bahamas 1979

Maritz in 1979 was promoting two trips for GE,one was cancelled, the trip to the Moscow Olympic games and one trip wasn’t, a trip to the Bahamas. This is some of the illustrations I created for the direct mail campaign to the Bahamas. graphite pencil on mat board colored with Dr. Martin’s Dyes.

illustration by John Dyess for Bahamas mailer 1979

This is a black and white drawing used for a Bahamas mailer. Pencil on mat board. I still like this drawing.

Sights to See GE 1979