I decided to stop screwing around with the idea of painting the face in freehand and go back to my old tried-and-true grid system, carefully plotting the square inches with a white pastel pencil. And I drew upon the lessons learned from people who REALLY know how to paint skin. And the result is better than anything I've done so far.
There's still some refinement to do but I'm happy with today's work.
I've been avoiding this painting for weeks. It needed me to just sit down (or in this case, stand still) for a considerable amount of time in order to add a transparent glaze of turquoise over the otherwise undistinguished brown water. So today I finally took up the challenge, loaded my brush, and got to it. Fortunately, it worked out: the dullness has been banished and the water looks deeper, richer.
There's still a lot more to do with the surface of the water and some greenery on the lower part, but I begin to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
This morning went green. And yellow and blue and ochre, and with the second painting, an off-orange. I'm trying to pay attention to the structure of leafy tree boughs, and variations in terrain.
In the early phases of painting, all I want to do is get a basic color down in place; after it dries, I can go back and refine the forms or adjust the color or value. Here are two newish pieces I worked on today:
Multiple interruptions all day long have kept me from getting any further, but it's a respectable amount of work. Taking a break now and maybe I'll get back to something else later.
It was time to pay some attention to the background elements on this one; the window frames, whatever that is going on on the left, etc. Now it has to dry for a few days before I can get back to it.
This required the better part of an hour this morning: I needed to even out the curve of the plate (which is not entirely round, due to the fact that we're seeing it on an angle), darken the outer edge, and get the interior rim to work with the flat center of the plate. I still have to add the highlights.
Profiteroles, work in progress, (click on image for larger view)
Then, it was on to Mulberry Street! Most of the painting was done on and around the walker's leg and extended foot; also some on the space beneath the bench.
3:51; Mulberry Street, work in progress, (click on image for larger view)
And finally: I still strive toward a likeness.
Untitled Mulberry Street, work in progress, (click on image for larger view)
On the spur of the moment around 9:30 I decided to fill in some o the white gaps on the canvas that have been bothering me.
I just want to place a note here about the cost of art supplies; sometimes people don't understand how expensive a roll of canvas is, or even a tube of paint. Personally, I spend at least a hundred dollars on brushes alone each year— I need to be able to paint a crisp line, and after several sessions, brushes tend to splay out like the tails of angry cats.
Yesterday, after realizing that the 14" Fredrix stretcher bars I needed were no longer available online— ANYWHERE— I took a look at the number and size of stretcher bars I have, and then ordered a boatload of them in various sizes from my local art supply store. The problem is that ordering bars from a different manufacturer means they won't fit. I've been badly surprised before when I tried to pair a set of, say, 20" Blicks with 16" Fredrix. Further investigation into the matter reveals that the Fredrix brand was purchased by a company named MacPherson last April. I don't know what the future holds for the Fredrix brand of stretcher bars, so I figured better safe than sorry; thus the big and unexpected purchase.
I also noticed the price of linen canvas rolls was shockingly high. You can pay anywhere between $500 and $1600 for six yards of primed linen. This means those larger paintings you want to do, say a 30" x 40," will be very costly for you to produce, right out of the gate, before any paint actually hits the canvas. And the accompanying heavy-duty stretcher bars in that size will add another $50. So when you see a four-figure price tag on a finished work, consider what goes into it, besides the amount of time the artist spends making it.
Three paintings on the easel today.
