The November 2014 raffle painting!

Spectacular.

[T20Brew]

Awesome. Your talent really amazes me Graig. I'm so excited that I will have this hanging on my wall in a short time. This will certainly be the centerpiece of my collection. 😃

[yanksfan09]

Congrats to the owner and to Graig for another amazing piece.

[Scott Garner]

Graig,
You've really outdone yourself with this Ruth painting. There are so many things I like about it, I can't even begin to comment.

Nice job!!

[GKreindler]

Hey all,

Hope this message finds everyone well.

I'm so glad that you all have been so patient and lovely throughout this whole process, it's meant the world to me. I'm happy to say that we've come to the end of the road for this one.

I just got the scans back from my photographers, and I'm glad that they did such a great job. I'll be picking up the actual painting on Wednesday or so and then get it out to our winner, Eric.

Here's what we got for the whole piece:



I tried to push the warmth in the painting, as I wanted it to be kind of like a moment when you have an overcast/cloudy day, and just for a second or two, the cast breaks and you get that warm sun, which seems to bathe everything in yellow casts. From what I've read and scene in other photographs, the first game of the 1932 World Series (which occurred moments after this photograph was taken) was pretty sunny for the most part, but newspapers spoke of silver skies beforehand.

Ruth's face was drenched in some of that warmth, but I also wanted to make sure that what was in the shade was equally as cool and vibrant, hence the blues and purples (especially where the bones of his skull signify the turning of the plains):



His hands also got similar treatment with that golden light, as did those bats. It was important to make sure that although those lit plains would appear to be bright, they couldn't be washed out and devoid of color. So, I had to make sure that there was a lot of varying temperatures in there to keep the surface interesting



The same applied for the other bats as well. I also tried to keep the bat rack looking pretty weathered, as I imagined that it was something that was painted before the beginning of the season, and after six months of baking in the sun, being drenched in the rain, and having dirty bats smacked on it, it wasn't going to look too pretty.



So, in the end, this piece was a lot of fun, though it posed a bunch of challenges that weren't necessarily there in the Hank Aaron piece. I was dealing with similar light, but the difference in the architecture, skin tones, bats and uniforms made each one its own beast. After all, there were things about the Aaron painting that were really hard that I didn't have to consider here, so I guess it's all a crap shoot.

Now, I would definitely love to do another raffle, though I think we're going to wait until the end of the year. I have a buttload of commissions that I need to finish, most of which are for Net54ers (Phil, Ben, Brian, and Jason especially) - they've been waiting SUPER long for their pieces, and that ain't cool. But yeah, the next one will have a similar format, but I believe we'll be going back down to the $20 an entry price tag. And of course, if there's anything you'd like to suggest regarding how it's run or whatever, I'm VERY willing to hear it.

Either way, I hope that you all have enjoyed these two raffle events, because they were definitely treats for me.

If you have any questions, critiques, or comments, just chime in or drop me a message.

Thanks again, everybody.

Graig