Jose Bautista painting from our 3rd raffle...

[etsmith]

I hear a lot of talk about how great Jose Bautista is but I just don't get it. His stats are really horrible, and that's considering he plays in an extremely hitter friendly park.

[baseball tourist]

Originally Posted by etsmith

I hear a lot of talk about how great Jose Bautista is but I just don't get it. His stats are really horrible, and that's considering he plays in an extremely hitter friendly park.

He's no Mike Trout but for a team lacking a star for most of the '90's-2008 he'll do:

-6 x All Star
- 2 x Home Run Champ
- 3 x Silver Slugger
- Top 8 in MVP Voting 4 x
- 298 HR
- 34.5 career WAR - top 30 active
- .8640 career OPS - top 17 active

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by etsmith

I hear a lot of talk about how great Jose Bautista is but I just don't get it. His stats are really horrible, and that's considering he plays in an extremely hitter friendly park.

Look at his stats playing with the Blue Jays (2009-present)

He has batted 262 with a 536 SLG. He lead the league in HRs twice with 252 HRs in that time. His 2011 WAR was in the top 10 at 8.1. His WAR total since 2009 is 37.4, this is higher than his career WAR. He has been a star with the Jays and the fans needed a star. His stats prior to his time with the Blue Jays skew his career stats, but the Jays fans aren't looking at what he did with other teams, just what he has done for them.

[Dewey]

Etsmith is a windup merchant. Move along.

[etsmith]

What in the heck is a windup merchant? I was just curious about his popularity as compared to stats. No reason to get your panties in a twist.

[GKreindler]

Hey all,

So, I was finally able to get Jose down on canvas yesterday, in all of his squiggly glory:



As I might have mentioned before, all of the markings on the canvas mean something to me. In a way, they kind of work together to act like a contour map, delineating changes in color, value, temperature, or any other weird notes I might make to myself. I know that it probably just seems like a cacophony of weirdness, but trust me, it all makes sense in my head. I think.

After spray fixing the drawing, I added a colored ground to work off of:



I use this ground for a few reasons. For one, it kills the stark whiteness of the gesso, so I'm able to work on a medium valued color that doesn't completely drive me crazy when I'm trying to pay attention to a proper value scale. Also, I can create certain atmospheric effects with it, letting it show through more transparent areas, or keeping an overall tonality to the piece. In this case, I went with a warmish brown mixture, which will be nice to work from while trying to create the impression of a night game.

Anywho, from here, it's gotta dry for a few days and then I can start blocking the sucker in.

Stay tuned!! And of course, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to share 'em.

Graig

[bnorth]

That is awesome, thank you for sharing the process.

[irv]

Originally Posted by bnorth

That is awesome, thank you for sharing the process.

X2! Looking forward to watching it come together step by step!