New Painting, Step Four: Fleshing It Out

A lot of progress today on the overall painting (though a lot of that is unseen here). I'm getting close. I expect the next update will be the finished piece. Today's focus was mostly the scene around her— the fruit, the hanging vines in the foreground, etc. I also did a little more work on her skin, though she's looking pretty chiseled right now... I may ratchet that back some. Tomorrow I'm back to work on The Creep, so I'll have to do a little painting here and there in my off time, but hopefully I'll get to post the completed work soon! Stay tuned.

New Painting, Step Three: Major Colors

I did get a couple hours to work on the painting yesterday. Not a lot, but enough to get started on the dress and the lounge upholstery. The definite highlight was getting to work again with baby Dorothy in tow. She went in the moby wrap and we bounced around to a record as I worked at the easel. It was a charmed life moment. A later afternoon session saw her a lot more grabby, so it didn't last long. No cadmium red for baby.

Right now I'm just blocking in the main areas of color. Some of this will have to be balanced as I progress. I'm feeling like things are getting a little too saturated vs. the skin tone (which almost always happens for me), so I'll probably go over the lounge with a transparent layer of ochre. I'll save that step for later on though, once more colors are blocked in.

More later on!

New Painting, Step Two: Start It Up

Day the second. Time to bring the PAINTING.

So, Sarah made it clear that she's after full color. Sorry, Leonardo. I like the unfinished look of that one thing (and your fabulous blue mask and katanas), but we'll keep your influence a little further away. She also reminded me that she wanted a feeling of 'abundance', with fruit, flowers, etc., as utilized to good effect by Mucha. Fair enough. She pays me in love, she gets what she likes (I like it too)!

Here's one of the images she responded to, particularly its color. She digs the turquoise, so I'll be incorporating that later on.

First off, some sketches. I usually vary from painting layouts pretty significantly as I work, but I did find a pose that I liked, and ran with it. Exhibit A.

I also scribbled this face. Vampy McVamperson, Exhibit B.

These images are taken with my cell phone for simplicity's sake, so ... forgive. Next up, I started drawing on that freshly gessoed masonite with my trusty red Derwent pencils. These are nice because they avoid the problems of dead-cold graphite showing through thin layers of paint. Everything gets covered over eventually, but it's nice to have a warmer feel to the lines while I'm balancing colors later on. I pretty much always get better results when painting from these. Maybe it's just psychological, but I'll take it. Exhibit C.

After I got the drawing where I wanted it (a lot of trips to the mirror to check it with the other side of my brain), I laid down a sealing layer of ochre acrylic, matte medium, and flow release (mixed together), let that dry well, and started in on blocking out flesh tones. Ghostly Exhibit D.

Then it's off to the races, laying down more colors and color variations to really carve out her features and frame them with SUPER-NOUVEAU-HAIR. Which brings us to the last image, Exhibit E. The flesh tones aren't completely done, but they're getting there.

Once again, my cell camera's bringing me down, but maybe that will help with the big reveal at the end (using a better camera). I hope to make some more progress on this tomorrow, and if so, I'll surely post an update.

Thanks for reading!