After dinner, I applied a glaze of azure blue over the top half of this painting, and then worked the bottom foreground. I wiped the glaze off, but it seems to have dulled the detail in the far mountains.I'll take another look tomorrow.
This is the piece that was formerly known as A Poplar; I couldn't get it beyond looking stylized and cartoonish, so I started painting over it. I've been studying the breathtaking sunset paintings of many an artist recently, and picked this one up again this afternoon. It is either done or very close to it; I'll study it from a distance for the next few days and see what I think. But I like it right now.
Too much color. It's a rainy, gloomy day here, so maybe that was a factor. I wanted the tree to be golden, but then decided to add some red to give some of the boughs a sense of mass. Bad decision! Now I'll have to wait for it to dry and then go back in with some greenish gold to tone it down.
So many of these little dessert paintings have been dependent on lunches or dinners out with my sweetie or with friends. I haven't been able to take any new reference photos since the pandemic hit, so I look forward to getting out and about again; I only need two more images to complete the series.
This particular one is from a lovely lunch with friends in DC at a place called The Smith. The plate edges are as much of a problem on this one as they were on Hot Fudge I, but they're developing, and I can't wait to add the colors in the spoon that reflect the ceiling.
Time to dry now, though.
Hot Fudge I, © 2021, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
This is the companion piece to Hot Fudge I, which features the separate sauce bowl for the fudge. The idea was that the person eating the sundae could control the placement of the fudge sauce. Getting that plate to look round, and making its edges sharp, are a challenge. It's probably too subtle to see, but I lightened the bottom part of the plate and warmed it up a little with a grey/white combination.
Also did a little detail work on the spoon, but all my brushes have gone bad on me and now I need some new ones that will hold a point.
Hot Fudge II, © 2021, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
And with that, I will take the rest of the day off.
It's been a while since I did any new work on this, so I browsed through tree images over the last two weeks and finally settled on one. At one point, I thought I might place two trees in the opening, but decided it would look too weird. The plan is to make the tree golden, to match the autumn colors in the foreground, but the current silvery hue is kind of nice, too. Mysterious.
The buildings in the background are going to need a series of fine vertical lines to indicate the windows, and I'm not looking forward to that. What I did today felt very clumsy, like someone trying to paint in the dark. It's a slow process of refinement of line, shape, color, and value.
More people, more color today:
Much more to do on this; the line of the mouth is all wrong and I need to get the eyes to look like they're on the same face.
Added both white and more color. Too bad this won't be ready in time for the actual festival; I plan to put some people in the picture.
Multiple interruptions this morning while trying to finesse some very challenging shadow detail on the tablecloths on this one. I'll probably never be happy with the way it turned out.
Specials Of The Day, work in progress, © 2021 (click on image for larger view)
When I look at how much this piece has changed in the last week, I have second thoughts about what I've done, but I really hated the way it looked before. So I'm pushing forward with multiple glazes, having read the advice of other artists to trust your instincts and experiment. It is moving forward in a direction I like, it just looks hideous in the interim.
A Sunset For Karla, work in progress, © 2021 (click on image for larger view)
With the second dose of the vaccine in my arm (as of 3 weeks ago) and the arrival of Spring, things are changing fast. Tomorrow I will actually leave my house and visit my friend at her art gallery. It'll be the first time we've seen each other since January of 2020. And today is so spectacularly beautiful that I had to put the brushes down and go outside. The daffodils have burst into a kind of firestorm of yellow and orange, and the star magnolia's in bloom.
What work i did do today is almost invisible: I confined myself to the architectural elements and the curtains on the Mulberry Street piece, so it looks like nothing was done. And the rug in Baby doesn't look any closer to being finished. It'll be a battle between yard work and painting from here on in.
It's amazing how, after not working on a piece for a while, you see things that should have been obvious. The plate actually has a greenish cast, not grey, so I repainted it and also took out a line of chocolate sauce that didn't exist in the original photo. Now the question is: do I paint in the double green lines of decoration around the edge of the plate? They will be very hard to do, and also time-consuming.
Six Layer Indulgence, © 2021, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
This was a busy street corner, alright. I added most of the folks milling around on the right, and will start to fill in more of the color next week. Must allow for some drying time now.
Finally moved off the tiles onto another part of the picture plane, and worked on the details on the hanging lantern.
Worked on this late this afternoon in the Dungeon Studio.
Could not get into gear today, probably because of the rain. I did put a little time and effort into these:
Somerville Roses, © 2021, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
I felt like I was in a Bob Ross segment using the flat brush on the foliage here.
Resting Place, © 2021, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
This afternoon:
Last night I went over some saved information about how other artists solve their technical problems, and looked long and hard at some of their work. This morning I washed a glaze of Dioxazine Purple over the lily pads in the painting below; Dioxazine is a really strong, artificial looking color, but brushed over the insanely bright green of my lily pads it did the trick and knocked them back enough to be believable. They don't jump out at you now, and the whole effect is more relaxed and quiet.
Tranquil Pond, work in progress, © 2021 (click on image for larger view)
I also mixed some blues and complementary yellows together to use for some of the water reeds and their reflections, but will now have to wait for the purple glaze to dry before going back into that area.
Here's another repaint. Again, I've always been bothered by the lack of detail on the face— the lighting in the bar was dim, and the features were just too soft. It had a cartoonish look to it.
So I got someone to pose with direct lighting and the painting went well this afternoon. I need to get the hands to work with the color and tone of the face, but it looks much better.
Tending Bar, Mt. Washington, © 2021, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
Before:
I'm indulging myself with "easy" work today after spending so much time last week on more detailed pieces.
In my attempt to learn something about the subtleties of sunset color, I made some changes to this one. Originally, this was the Poplar painting. I think I'm going to go with something more deciduous after I get the sky and ground done. But the purple still doesn't look right; I've been studying some gorgeous paintings done by other artists and I just can't seem to replicate that sense of naturalism.
Here's where it was when I gave up on it as a poplar painting:
Every time I look at this piece, it drives me crazy. I just think the color's too vivid, too garish, so I'm attempting to calm it down with some washes and glazes. I also want to make the foliage smaller.
The original:
And here's where things are now:
A Sunset For Karla, work in progress, © 2021 (click on image for larger view)
It's a gorgeous day but I've spent the bulk of it working on this; time to put the brushes down and go outside.
I think I mentioned that I need to finish what I call The Big Four; four genre (slice-of-life) paintings that have been sitting around for a while. Things are starting to open up and I ought to have pieces to show when galleries open their doors again.
Worked on the left side of this one this morning. Tightened up the detail on those tedious poinsettias.
Specials Of The Day, work in progress, © 2021 (click on image for larger view)
Late afternoon work, adding reeds and leveling out the grassy area at op. Also struggling with the foliage at right.
Tranquil Pond, work in progress, © 2021 (click on image for larger view)
I used a Princeton Round Blender, a really useful little brush, to smear a mixture of Emerald and Sap Green onto the tiles to give them some dimension. All in all, this one is coming along in a satisfactory way.
Sometimes it seems like I'm never going to finish the Stress Eating series. The work's incredibly tedious, and I tend to let the unfinished pieces languish as a result. The going is very slow.
Hot Fudge Sundae I, © 2021, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
Spring usually comes in right on time around here, and I'm inspired by the weather reports that are forecasting the opening of the cherry blossoms in the next couple of weeks. So I got back to this, and made a little progress with the shape of the boughs, I think.
I spent an hour painting faint dark lines on (mostly) the bottom edge of each and every tile in this piece. And added some highlights. Next, I'm going to work on the figure; he shouldn't look like he's winking, for one thing.
I love these little scenes of people waiting on street corners. There's such a diverse mix.
The pattern of randomly scattered roses was just not right, so I've finally had to bite the bullet and make some big changes. I think I'll put a rose in that big open green area once it dries, but it'll be more carefully placed.
Not done with this yet; just tinkering with color right now. After the sky's done, I need to repaint the tree.
