Susan Painting

Monday, February 18, 2019

Monday Morning Blues

I added some more water detail to the left and lower left sides, but this is an extremely tedious piece to work on, and I want to enter it in a competition next month.

And there's the usual frustration with this one, though the painting on the yellow feathers seems to have worked pretty well this morning. Break time now, hopefully on to some more fun stuff later today.

Friday, February 15, 2019

Reconsidering The Aluminum

I took off the rest of the plastic film, and now I'm wondering how much of the aluminum in the foreground I should keep unpainted. It looks like water with highlights on it.

Meanwhile, more work on the wigs painting. I continue to plod on, but it just doesn't look photorealistic to me.

A Quick Trip To The Country

I'm planning to get back to painting in a little while; in the meantime here are two views of our trip out in the Virginia hills.

Tree branches frosted with ice, Appalachian Trail and Rt. 7 (click on image for larger view)

Bucolic farm scene, State Rd 340 (click on image for larger view)

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

So Very Green

Added a glazing layer to the green tile wall; next time I'll differentiate between the lighter and darker hues and add some of the light that comes in through the skylights. Still bothered by the flatness of the facial planes.

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Hands And Hair

While hands are by no means easy to work on, at least the ones in this painting didn't require quite the level of concentration as in the fire extinguisher one. And hair is always a pleasure to paint.

The proportions on the fingers was wrong, so I redrew them. They do look better to me now.

A Morning Of Work And Not Much To Show For It

There have been constant interruptions this morning, and we are currently waiting for the plumber to show up.

I realized the left side of the fire extinguisher was not correct; the top was further away from the side than the bottom, so I taped it all off and redrew it. Then I tried to get the contour shading right on the bottom label, but it's been a disaster. You can see how ragged the bottom of the label is— I'll have to wait for it to dry and then sharpen it up. This is not the sort of thing to be doing on a day when it's hard to focus. I'll pick up on something that doesn't need so much intense concentration.

Monday, February 11, 2019

Glazing The Wall

Glazing is fun, and the blue wash that I floated over the right side wall looks like it's doing its job, making it a bit darker and adding some atmosphere. Sorry for the glare in the upper right hand corner.

I also added some more tree branches in the background.

Red To Raspberry

The right side of this painting has been crying out for me to work on it for months, so today I squeezed out several red pigments onto the palette and gave it a go. The deep reds that I have tend to go purplish, as you can probably see here; not sure whether it's a good idea or not. I also brushed some transparent black up at the very top, should probably do more of that to create convincing shadows.

The clothes still look flat, will have to do something about that, especially the mannequin on the far right.

The Sunday Paintings

I forgot to post these last night! Plugging along on both of them, but much to catch up on with all the other paintings sitting around in the studio.

Worked mostly on the orange wig (it's nearly done now) and getting the skin color right on the mannequin at lower left.None of the mouths are quite full and pouty yet.

Painted a very thin, brushy foundation color on this. It will look awful for a while until I do the next layer.

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Scuffing Up The Stones

The stones that were used to build the old inn are actually quite a warm beige color. But the colors that are bouncing around from the sunset reds, corals, and yellows, and the sky blue, are tinting them. I'm putting a lot of effort into the blank wall at right, but wonder if it's wasted energy; there will be a large tree covering most of it.

Bar Scene

This morning's work was on the little Tuesday painting. I did some refinement on the waitress's face and added some more background color. Some of my original window frames turned out to be in the wrong place, so I redrew them.

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

The Disappearing Plastic Film

I'm looking forward to getting that plastic film off the lower part of the panel. The panel itself is 16"h x 20" wide, and I've worked the film down to the last few inches. I'm not as worried as I was at the beginning about scratching the surface.

Grudgingly Back To Work

I just needed some time off, so I spent last week doing crafty things. There's enough accumulated art and craft stuff around here for me to open my own store, and I often feel guilty about not using it. So far I've crocheted a cowl, a shawl, and a dressy metallic-and-black scarf. I've been looking at the beading materials, the polymer clay, and the resin, and have been flirting with the idea of designing fabric. There are just not enough hours in the day.

Anyway— Here's today's work so far:

The wigs painting is driving me mad. Every time I look at it, I see something else that needs to be refined.

The sheep painting is, however, done; I even signed it.