Sunlight

Woke up to brilliant sunshine. It's amazing how much of an effect strong sunlight can have on one's attitude. I feel much more positive and energetic, and though I'm not quite ready to give up my wintery cocooning habits, Spring will be welcome.

The podcast I watched yesterday had a few good tips revolving around color issues (I feel like a fool for not knowing how useful quicker-drying Mars Black is for base layers— did they not tell us that in art school or was I just looking out the window?) and composition. I spent a while in the basement dungeon studio searching for a tube of Mars Black, but it turned out I'd brought it to the upstairs studio weeks ago. Am experimenting with it on the painting below, which will either turn out well or be a disaster.

Coming Of Age In The Year 2018, © 2019, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

I am going to leave more areas unpainted than originally planned, since the silvery color of the aluminum works perfectly as sunlit water. And in my search for the Mars Black I found a tube of Phthalo Turquoise, but so far it's not producing that Caribbean Blue that I'm looking for. The Manganese is better.