"Rose and Cast 2"

This is my second stab at combining these two objects. The first one was quite some time ago and painted thick and loose. I plan to take it a bit slower on this one. The drawing was made with pencil on paper. I traced it. did a charcoal transfer and then inked it in. I did the wipe out using Winsor and Newton Raw Umber-Greenish Shade, which makes a great ground because it's very transparent and dries a bit slower than regular Raw Umber. I always feel like I lose a little something in the transfer process so I'm thinking, on the next one, of trying Michael Klein's method of making a simply stated block in. squaring it up and transferring it to a canvas and then finalizing the block in with either ink or charcoal pencil directly on the canvas. Cutting out the middle man, so to speak.

"Little Book and Rose"

"Little Book and Rose" oil on linen, 8"x10"

I think I managed to get the effect that I was after, the rose bathed in light, and the remaining light gradually fading out to the bottom of the vase. The colored ebauche worked out pretty well and the only area that I repainted was the vase. It was a little tricky with the merging cast shadows and form shadows. I'm using a different lighting setup now, I have a huge spotlight that holds five compact flourescent bulbs, of which I only used three. With all five of them on it's like a blazing sun. I'm thinking of getting a diffuser cover which another artist recommended to me.

More "Lion" and "Poem"

Well today was about as good a day for an artist as it gets. Got up early and jumped into the studio, then around lunchtime my wife and I jetted into the city to check out the Michael Klein exhibit at Arcadia (awesome!), sped back home and snagged a few more hours in the studio. You know you've seen a good exhibit when it makes you want to run home and paint on what has to be one of the ten best days of the year, weather wise. About to throw a couple of turkey burgers on the barbie and call it a day.

Litle Book of Poems

Started a new 8"x10" painting, on oil primed linen. It's a great surface for doing a watercolor thin ebauche because the paint sits right on top and doesn't get dry and chalky like an acrylic primer. There's something really beautiful going on with the light, the way the white rose seems to smoulder within the pearlescent screen formed by the book, and then the light manages to escape to the edge of the bowl and barely drip down to the bottom before it runs out of steam. I really want to get the color's just the way that I see them so that's why I'm using the ebauche over a white canvas which usually results in a more intense color in the finished painting.