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WORK IN PROGRESS:
I usually post a quick snap of my current work in progress to generate advance interest. Drawings take several days and a painting takes about two weeks. Once the work is completed it will either go for auction on ebay or be hung at the Petersburg gallery where I work.
This is my new project! It's oil on canvas and measures 20" x 24". I'll try to post pictures in progress as it moves along. Hopefully not more than three weeks to finish.
Day 1 |
The towel is finished. I hated it (the way it looked) the whole time I was painting it. I would have preferred it to not be in the picture. But, it's done, and it looks acceptable.
I was also pissed off by the way the background dried - it shifted value in one section. I guess I couldn't see it while it was wet - the variation in white and gray was so close, but I will have to repaint it all over again. (expletive)!
I tried color correcting the right buttock, but the dark transition line still showed through my new layer of paint. Hmm. I think the only way to get rid of it is to paint white over it and let it dry before repainting. I will do the right arm next where there is another bad transition line. I hate that I could be done now if I had just blended soft edges on all my sections.
Day 12 |
Day 6 |
Day 2 |
Day 7 |
Day 3 |
Day 8 |
Day 4 |
Day 9 |
Day 5 |
Day 10 |
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Day 11 |
This painting started with alot of preparation work that's not shown here. I spent several hours using a photo-editing program on the computer to get the image to the right size, crop, and color. Then I had to split it into a 4x4 grid to make it easier to transfer to the canvas. But before transferring the image, I put about eight coats of gesso (primer) on the canvas. It's just a store-bought canvas and has a pretty rough texture for my style of painting.
Ideally the canvas would have received enough primer for me to sand it and create a pefectly smooth surface; but the primer process was taking too long, and I grew impatient to start painting. So no sanding was done this time.
After transferring the image to the canvas, I traced the lines with colored pencil, which you should be able to see faintly in the unpainted portion. I put another coat of gesso on the colored pencil so the pigment wouldn't blend in with the oils as I was painting. I don't know if that will keep the pencil from bleeding through over time, but I hope so.
The last bit of preparation was to produce a color print of the original photo (which I use to work from when painting). I usually keep the reference photo hanging right next to the part of the painting I am working on. The printing took several hours because the computer printer is only capable of reproducing a certain color range, and I wanted to match my monitor's rendering of the image as closely as possible. Normally I don't have the luxury of using my own printer to create my reference photos, and I end up taking my digital file to a copy shop. The problem with using a copy shop is that I am at the mercy of their color-handling software, and I have to take what they give me. Usually the colors do not match my source photo.
Day 2: This might sound strange, but I love painting ears. They are neat!
Day 4: I find that I am almost always mixing color on the canvas instead of the palette. Also, it's been so long since I painted, I find I have forgotten many of the techniques I used previously.
Day 5: I had a weird moment while painting: I had the brush in my hand and was working on a new area (but looking at the shoulders which were finished) and had a mini freak-out. I thought, "Did I just paint that? How did I do that? I don't know how to paint." Thankfully, the moment passed. But later when I was watching a show on Emile Norman and his partner Clement Brooks, I heard the artist, Emile, say the same thing when looking at the enormous window work he had done for the Masonic Temple in Frisco. He couldn't remember the process involved in the piece and just seemed staggered that he had somehow done it. It's interesting that artists can be stunned by their own work.
Day 8: I finally figured out something that will make my work easier: since I am working in sections (top to bottom and left to right), I can blend out my edges of each section into white to match the canvas. You can see in day 8 where I blended the unfiinished wrist into white for a softer transition. That will be an enormous help.
Up until now, I have been leaving my section edges hard and not even the correct color or value. So when I pick back up at the edges to start a subsequent section, I have trouble creating a seamless blend (the previous work is usually dry so I can't blend into it). That's mostly because the paints are not opaque, and they allow the color underneath to show through a little. I am excited about leaving soft edges and finding out if it makes it easier for me to create seamless transitions.
Day 10: I have two working days before the show at Petersburg, so I am in a rush to finish. Thank heaven for deadlines because otherwise I would loose focus and take a break. The painting probably won't be dry when I take it to the gallery, but it should be mostly dry... I would like to get a coat of re-touch varnish on it before I take it to the show, but that takes even longer to dry than the paint does, so it probably won't get varnish for the show. After that, I need to photograph it someplace swank so it looks good enough to sell, and I might make a quick frame for it, too. The background is going to require a great deal of paint. I decided to repaint the whole background because my color is all over the place and pretty inconsistent right now. Painting it all at once would help out with that.
Day 11: I did half the background over - it looks much nicer because it is more consistent than before. Still, it was difficult to see how good a job I did blending it because everything was shades of white. My eye kept getting fatigued, and I had to lean to either side to avoid seing glare/shine on the paint.
There are several parts on the body I will repaint. I will probably repaint the transitional space on the right arm because the shift is very noticeable, and also on the right buttock. I was angry about the right leg because I didn't finish it in one day - I got tired and left it unfinished, so when I came back to it the next morning, the paint from the day before was sticky and didn't want to mix with the new paint I put on it. My friend, Everett Butler, told me of a technique were you use transparent medium and put paint in it to get an overlay effect. I may try that to correct some of the orange spots in the painting which are too vibrant and stand out. I think putting on a new overlay of medium would be easier than repainting those areas and having to redo the shading and blending.
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This is Brittany's Fortune, an oil on canvas. Measures 24" x 30".
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For more information or to contact me, write me at my Yahoo address: kongpl8@yahoo.com |
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