Featured Artists-Craig Burt Collection

Painting by Numbers

"Dooku DooDoo"

This one is one of the oldest of these Star Wars paintings - this was the second done after Naboo BooBoo - and Dooku DooDoo illustrates the more detailed style with which I started these paintings, which, I went away from because it was too time-consuming; that was probably a mistake.

1. I think is the start of the idea for the painting. I liked the pose and thought it would make a good stance for Padmé being tied to something. If you're wondering why she looks familiar, it is a photo of Carisma Carpenter (think that's her name) from the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

2. Is what I half-thought was the idea for the painting, but after confusing myself over it, I went back to my original instinct that number one is the where the idea came from. This is a photo of practice for the duel between Vader and Luke from The Empire strikes back by Mark Hamill and Bob Anderson.

3. Is the background chosen for the painting. I didn't feel too much like designing anything so I just looked for something to base it on. Again from The Empire strikes back, on Bespin. The photo has been reversed horizontally from the original.

4. Would be the first sketch of the composition. I think I actually did most of the composing on the computer; cutting and pasting the three figures onto the background and positioning them there.

4a. Are the more detailed sketches of the elements. I had to work out the lighting and look of the characters that the photos didn't give. You'll notice R2-D2 there who was left out of the final painting because he wasn't needed and wasn't likely to be there.

5 & 5a. Are the additional photos used for the characters. You'll notice the photo of Padmé is of her mini-bust, which might account for the stiff nature of her in the painting that I noticed when looking at it again.

6. We have the finished painting. The more detailed effort I put into this benefits the painting; that same effort that was dumped after this painting due to the time it took. It's not perfect but it's better than most of the following paintings, but still it's good enough after not picking up a brush in many years and essentially having no practiced skill doing paintings previously. But since doing this my diligence has slipped in painting. It is interesting how a couple of years later Padmé did appear chained to a pole and the color tone of the environment was in reddish-yellow. Don't think I had any idea of that at the time. I think Dooku's two sabers was a rumor of the time though. Another interesting thing I've noticed is on finding the printout used for the painting, is, that it has all the elements printed on it like the last painting done recently. I had gone away from composing the paintings in such detail and have now returned to it, except now the new drawing and painting technique is even more laborious than in these early days. Hopefully it will make better paintings.

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