Over the last week, I've spent probably 7 hours trying to resolve a tech issue with my email account. An hour and a half today on the phone and online with tech support ultimately ended up being fruitless; I had worked on the piece below before calling tech support so I was calm talking with them but now I'm pretty much brain dead.
This morning's work:
Thank the gods for painting. It keeps me sane.
After an extended work session devoted exclusively to the foliage in the upper left, I took a break. It's exhausting to try to catch the curvature of a leaf, or the way they pucker or point. Equally tedious is the need to capture the way the limbs, branches and twig turn in space.
So after a break I decided to get back to the hair, which is luminous, flowing, and colorful. So much fun! But now time to move on to something else.
Played with color today; added a lot of flowers to the right side.
Back to some smaller details on Dolcezza:
I think, finally, the grassy area is beginning to look the way I want it to. And I've changed the color of the umbrella on the left for the last time. This one is coming to the finish line very soon.
All of a sudden I realized the roof line was on too much of an angle, so I brought it up higher on the picture plane. Now it doesn't look like it's being viewed by someone who's had too much to drink.
Only small changes today, mostly on the hands; also tried some oiling out on one area that looked spotty.
Closer and closer.
Made many value changes to try to achieve a little more drama.
And, since I had a lot of red on my palette:
I haven't worked on this in months; there have been other priorities. But it's time I got back to it. Worked on the sidewalk today and tried to get a sense of atmosphere into the storefront. Remembered which pigments I had used on it, which is a bonus.
When I was in this restaurant, I was struck by the contrast between light and dark. I tried to bring a sense of that to the painting this afternoon.
So, a friend of mine talked me into joining NOAPS over the weekend; NOAPS is the acronym for National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society, and they are putting on a show at the Principle Gallery in August. Principle is local to me, so if I have a painting accepted, I won't have to pay a shipping fee, and it is a very well respected gallery.
As a result, I've had to scramble — again— to get a piece finished in time for the show deadline, which turns out to be nine days from now. I put all of my work time today (and tonight) into this painting:
And it is actually even further along right now than in the image above, which I photographed this afternoon. Wish me luck.
I should have just painted in the entire blue sky area at the top— but then I was worried that painting the leaves and branches over the blue would take too many coats of paint. Instead I've got a messy foliage area, though some of that is caused by the texture of the canvas. Anyway, I will plug along and get it to make sense eventually.
Oh, and I changed to skin color over the weekend. Not sure it's working, but the redraw on the profile is a bit better. I think I have to move that left shoulder back.
Covering the unpainted canvas with color is really important in establishing the basic idea of the work. I want to create a dramatic mood here, and the next sessions will make this painting more refined. Right now it's kind of raw. But I love the playoff of the warm and cool colors.
It takes a long time and a small brush to make gradual changes on an area, like the door in the photos below. This is what the casual observer doesn't see or understand; mine is a very slow process, not like other flashier, quick styles. I don't put out that many paintings in a year, but I am happy with the ones I create.
A door, about to be painted:
After taking a break, I wanted to put the statue in place—
Looks like I got carried away with that red, though; will have to tone it down.
Can't keep away from this one for long; this is what I did last night.
Taking out some of that white space:
Mostly brick work today; a little on the window framing, and I made the figure behind the counter larger.
This needs one, maybe two more sessions to finish. I say two because I'm bound to screw up on something and I'll need to give it time to dry before I can fix it; but right now all it needs is a little work on the Washington Monument, some attention to the deeper blues in the water, and repainting the edges of the trees on the left side. I'll be very happy when it's done.
Tidal Basin at Dawn, work in progress, (click on image for larger view)
The background area, especially on the right side, is such a deep, intense black that I'm not sure how to paint it. Meanwhile, I'm coloring some of the glasses and the reflections on the glass shelves.
There's still so much to be done on this. I had to redraw the support structures on the left; the distance between them was off, and next time around I've got to correct the line edges. The color generally needs to be a little less intense. I still have to make the foreground parking lot more textured.
I love working on this.
Tried to get a sense of form on the standing figure; easing my way into the very complicated lace curtain behind her. Also darkened the shirt on the man in the center.
It's hard to tell what I worked on today; basically, it was the blossoms, upper left.
I keep experimenting with the colors on the umbrellas. I think the yellow— though it needs to be toned back with a little blue— is working pretty well right now, after a flirtation with tomato red— but the two on either side of it need to be brought out.
Worked on the faces for a little while today.
The brick walls that edge the sides of the painting were begging to be painted; I've made the distance between the individual bricks 1 centimeter, to make things easier. So far, so good; I've eyeballed the perspective but I think it works.
Meanwhile, it made me happy to show the hanging wires for the lights, thus breaking up the monotony of the ceiling.
Painting is so much better when there's no deadline hanging over my head.
Despite the fact that I don't have to finish this one and the three other DC-oriented paintings anytime soon, I want to keep them near the top of the priorities list.
Tamara is not wearing sunglasses; I have to wait for last night's paint application to dry AND for the new brushes I ordered to show up before going any further. I felt like I was painting with a toothbrush. That fine detail, and especially on the smaller paintings, needs a really fine brush tip.
America series now stands at 21.
Though the model was really very fair, I thought she looked too pasty in the painting. So I tried warming her up a little, and also redrawing the head, which I think is still a bit too small.
I really like the yellow areas in the distance behind the vines, branches and green leaves... Now I have to wait for the yellow I applied to dry so I can go back and break it up a little with some sky blue.
This is coming along astonishingly quickly. And it's fun to work on!
So, it now appears I don't have to finish the four DC paintings anytime soon. I am breathing a sigh of relief. And this means I can get back to the pieces I love, and most want to work with: The DC pieces will of course be of value in the future but I don't need to concentrate on them alone.
It's a rare day when I walk into the studio and the piece I was working on the night before actually makes me smile. But this is one of those days. The color is coming along quickly, and I'm using a combination of opaque and transparent paint applications. Sometimes I use a dry brush and let a little of the grisaille show through. I'm working with a limited palette so far, so there's a sense of harmony.
Though I worked on these two this morning, I really wanted to get back to Persephone. It is Spring, after all... and if I were going to find a buyer, now's the time. So I pulled it out of the stack and lo and behold, the color palette was so different from the two I worked on this morning that I don't know how I'm going to approach it. It's very pastel in comparison.
Anyway, here's today's work:
I like it when I can get a lot of use out of a single palette. Worked on these last night.
Eric F, America Series, work in progress, (click on image for larger view)
