"Aloha, Waikiki" is going to be a story about a couple who has taken a cruise to the Hawaiian islands, docked in Honolulu, and shopped in Waikiki. This painting will show a vacationing couple on the deck of an ocean liner, with the husband delivering a tropical drink to his wife, who is reclining on her teak lounge chair. Are they on the deck of the ship or are they at home reenacting their trip...you tell me!

The cast metal 'boat clock' makes a great middle ground in the design of the painting. I only had one souvenir glass, so I will be painting it twice. The plain glass was photographed to help me with the lighting when I paint the 'souvenir' glass in it's place.

I've had this 'Shawnee' planter head for quite a few years. This is the perfect painting for it. The vacationing couple will be positioned just to the right of the planter, with the Polynesian goddess looking down on the two of them.

I concocted the background from a handful of old postcards, enlarging them, cutting them up and pasting them into one scene of the surf break at Waikiki. Notice the Matson Lines cruise ship on the horizon line on the far right.

The tablecloth is something I made from an old pillow case. The design is from an old piece of fabric, showing a woman doing the hula to the sound of a man playing the ukulele.

All the props are in place. All I need now is to find the right couple to pose...

These two aren't available anymore but they are just what I have in mind.

I'll begin the painting by putting color in my background postcard design.

Diamond Head and the shoreline join the sky.

I'm still looking for Mr. and Mrs. Right. The Captain found them pretty easily...

Got the outrigger canoe, surfers and cruise ship into the background.

Model update! Found the perfect couple for the painting yesterday... Photos coming soon...

Models are here! Thanks to Gail and Derek Duesler...

I think I like the "skipper's" hat on Derek... and the sunglasses on Gail! Don't they look great!

The orchid's flowers and stem are blocked in loosely.

The planter head is also done. Now, I'll tackle the two tropical drinks...

Drinks are in place and next I'll paint the lei that is wrapped around them.

There's the lei...

I'm putting in the various colors of the tablecloth...

...and applying variations of cool and warm grays in the 'shadow areas'.

I've blocked in the 'boat clock' and...

...painted the rest of the tablecloth, carefully working around the 'skipper and his wife'.

Derek and Gail are now in. Notice how I changed Gail's dress to a skirt, giving her lei a simpler background (the white blouse). It also allowed me to put another color in the painting that complemented the colors around her and Derek. I also painted the towel on the deck chair a little like the Matson liner towels of the 50's.

Now the entire painting is 'blocked in' with it's initial oil wash. I will study the results and come up with a plan to 'adjust' the values and the hues of each object and area. The background is way too light to convince the viewer that it is in the shade and not in 'direct' sunlight. In order for the plant, the boat, and the drink umbrellas to look like they are in the sunlight, the value (darkness) of the background needs to be corrected so that it's lightest areas are darker than similar 'light areas' in the foreground.

I've painted the background with it's final heavy coat of oil paint, making sure that there are no values in it that are lighter in comparison to similar colored objects/areas in the foreground.

The clock face and bezel are finished. If you look closely, you'll see a few 'chunks' of paint on this application, indicating the 'heavier' paint layer. The difference between this final layer of paint and the initial layer is that this oil pigment is the same thickness as it comes out of the tube, where the first layer was thinned out with turpentine.

The entire 'boat clock' is painted. Now on to the drink glasses...

Drinks are ready to be served...

The lei is done. Sorry about the reflections on the paint. It's still wet...

Again, a little light reflections on the wet paint, but nonetheless, the porcelain head vase is completed.

A detail of the orchid leaves and stem and...

The flowers.

Derek and Gail are completed except for their cast shadows. These will be taken care of when the final passage of paint goes on the tablecloth.

A closeup of the tablecloth design finished. And with that being complete...

"Aloha, Waikiki" is finished.