Steven Daily

1. Who were your teachers or influences?

Dayna mason, Karen Russo, and Michael Hussar.
So many influences. Old masters work (Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Van Eyck, Rembrandt, John Baptiste, etc). 20th century stuff,  Sargent, Adolf Hiermy Hershel, Andrew Loomis, Robert Mcginnis, Frank Frazetta, Norman Rockwell, Robert Williams, Gottfried Helnwein, John Currin, Luis Ricardo Falero, Sargent, Phil Hale, old 70's, 80's graffiti subway artist like ernie, quick, seen, dez, dondi, lee, etc. slick, risk, zodak, hex. The list goes on and on.

2. What techniques or tricks did you find most useful when learning to paint?

Underpainting, grisaille, wet on wet. Mixing in the work. Drawing. Fully planning out the piece.

3. What are 3 key principles of making good art, in your opinion?

Number them? How about I color them?

Blue: Solid foundation

Yellow: Meaning 
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Red: Emotional evocation, positive or negative. Some kind of connection emotionally. 

4. What are the most common mistakes that you see other artists make?

Copying other artists without adding anything of their own soul. Painting the same thing over and over. Not taking risks. Painting for audiences, not themselves. Not making a body of work. Painting for pay alone.

5. Can you break your painting process down into 10 steps, or less, for us?
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1. I start with a few sketches, then work out the composition and draftsmanship.

2. Then I use blue saral transfer paper to transfer the drawing onto panel.

3. Depending on what medium I'm going to use, I do a thin wash of raw umber to do a underpainting in 3 values: dark, middle, light. 

4. Once that is dry, I then start adding fat over lean,  building a strong foundation in grey values, shadow and light.

5. Once that is dry, I lay out a select pallet: Titanium buff, raw umber, vandyke brown, alizarin crimson, indian yellow, ultramarine blue, chromium oxide, yellow ochre 

6. I then start adding color over the grey tones; building up values, but still letting the underpainting come through.

7. Finally, I add glazes and frosting to finish the piece.