Red Delicious

"Red Delicious" 12"x16". I have this set up next to a window. The tricky part is that the light on my easel is coming from the right and I'm right handed which means I'm often casting a shadow onto the place that I'm working. It won't be a problem once I start to paint because I use long handled brushes and a maulstick. I had this one all done and I was ready to transfer and I thought measure twice and cut once so I found some egregious errors and had to do dome major surgery.(I'm glad I caught it before the patient died. I fiddled with the idea of placing a mirror in the background, you can see a faint imprint, but I decided I liked the simplicity of the arrangement. I've been letting myself off too easy on the drawing part as of late and I've decided to really bear down and get the drawing absolutely right before I transfer. I chose the all red apples because for one thing, I like the deep reds, but most importantly, they're usually sprayed with something that causes them to last forever.(which is why I don't eat them!)

So Blue

"So Blue" oil on linen on panel, 11"x14", "Dome with Bottles" pencil on paper, 11"x14". I decided to get started on the painting, I'll try and finish the drawing and painting simultaneously. It was too cloudy for natural light and I wanted to paint so I roughed in my artificial light setup. I laid in the colors without thinner over an umber wipeout. I used bristle brushes and I kept the film fairly thin so That I can do a finishing pass over it. I'm really starting to love painting on New Tradition panels covered with Classens linen. I'm getting tired of having to restretch linen canvases and these are easier to store as well, and best of all they are great to paint on! I didn't really start out with a blue painting in mind, one thing led to another and there you have it. It's giving me a lot of room to play with chroma and a variety of blue hues.

"Still Life with Portrait" etc;

"Still Life with Portrait" 16"x20" oil on linen, is almost done. It's got that haze before oiling out for final touch-ups. I'm still not completely satisfied with the portrait placed the way it is. Last night I dreamed that I painted a frame around the portrait, so I think I'll give it a try. The grisaille is from my Tuesday night figure drawing group. We're doing one pose for the summer, about 8 weeks total. This is on a 16"x20" linen on gatorfoam. I wasn't completely happy with my drawing but the model was moving like crazy, so I locked him in, rather than chase the pose, and relied on my previous knowledge to finish the underpainting. I'll research the anatomy and make adjustments where needed. The self portrait is on an 8"x10" linen board. I'm following Speed's procedure of stating the basic planar divisions in the first pass, just trying to get that to feel right with very little detail. Yesterday, I went in and repainted it ading a bit more detail, but I may have lost the drawing, so I'll have to work that out before going in again. It's a challenging way of working and I'm really loving the whole process.

Lemons Lay-in

This is a lay-in for "Lemons" oil on linen, 9"x12", done over an umber rub-in on a toned canvas. As I stated in a previous post, I've been getting away from using thinned down washes in my underpaintings and using a frottis, rub-in, method instead. I just don't like the milky look of the wash-in and it doesn't motivate me for the overpainting. So after the rub-in I'm painting fairly directly, with large brushes and not too much paint to establish a good foundation for my next finishing pass. I'm really growing to love working with daylight setups and I'm going to have a hard time giving it up come September. I have my arrangement next to a north facing window and the same light shines on my easel. It's a little hard to see at first and it takes some getting used to, but what I've learned to do is to turn on my studio lights at the end of each session and to spend some time adjusting some of the things that look a little awkward with the lights on. It's a little bit like memory painting and it's giving the paintings a character that I didn't anticipate.

Lay-in For "Mask"

This is the lay-in, sometimes called "first painting" that was done over the simplified closed grisaille underpainting. I used the paint straight from the tube, no medium or thinner, and I painted it with the intention of establishing my basic forms, colors, and values, without too much fuss or detail (although I couldn't resist a flourish here and there). Now that I have pretty much the "idea" of the painting, I can take some time to look for drawing errors, things that might need to be changed. My goal is to be pretty fearless at this point and surgically remove and replace if needed. Although I'm pleased with the way this skin of paint looks, I know that I'm going to completely repaint it in the next skin, so I'm not falling in love with any particular detail etc; The figure in the background is from a portrait that I recently completed and it's kind of propped up beneath the curtain. It took me a long time to get it to sink into the background and yet still be distinguishable. In the next pass I'll try to push it down a little more and yet, somewhat illogically add a little more chroma.

Mask

This is the first stage in a new painting, "Mask" 16"x20" oil on canvas. I've been going back to my Speed and Parkhurst painting books and that's got me experimenting with some different procedures than I normally use. In this case I worked on a canvas that I stained with raw umber, using vine charcoal to draw out the main lines and shadow shapes. It was a little tricky because my stain wasn't completely dry from yesterday, but I didn't want to wait another day so I jumped in. Once the charcoal drawing was set I went over it with thinned umber and a fine brush. Next I rubbed in more umber over the shadow shapes. Lastly, I took some flake white to bring up some of the more extreme lights. The next session will consist of laying in the big tones and local colors with some rudimentary modeling to start the switch over from thinking flat to thinking 3d. I'll also be looking to get a variety of edges going from lost to sharp and everything in between. Well, that's my plan, so let's see what happens.

More Vickie

I'm pretty much done with the portrait on this one, except for a few touchups here and there. It's a little sunken in at this point. I oil out lightly before each session but by the time I take the photo the next day it's sunken back in. It'll all pop back nicely when I spray it with re-touch varnish. Some artists like to use retouch varnish to oil out. I tried it I didn't like it. It's too slick. I use refined linseed oil cut in half with oms. I brush it on and then lightly pat most of it away with a Viva towel. I'm glad I made the portrait life size on this one, it's allowing me to really dig in on the subtlety of the forms. My studio mates Carlos and Bob are into old hats, hence the 1920's looking specimen on top of the models head. I'm not even sure what to call it; is it a hat, a semi hat, an oversized barrett, I don't know but it does make a nice dark accent against the head.

More "Still Room"

I'm making good progress on "Still Room", 16"x20", oil on linen. Some parts are not oiled out yet so they appear lighter with that hazy sheen that paint gets because I don't like to use medium. I'm happy with the way it's going so far and I wish I had completed the little background interior but the lights only good in the morning so I'll have to wait until next week. Too bad, because I'm really excited to blast that background in and see how the whole thing holds together.

Progress Shots

"Study for Victoria" 5"x7", "Victoria" 16"x20", "The Still Room" 16"x20"

I painted the poster study of Victoria at my portrait group session. Then when I got home I transferred my drawing to a canvas and did a rub in. I feel like I've got a better handle on my flesh palette this time then my last portrait. The still life is coming along and some subtle changes are starting to happen in my work. I'm not sure what they mean but I'm digging them so I'm letting things progress naturally.

"Apples" and "Water Glass" Rub-In

Here's the finished painting "Apples and Jug", oil on linen, 9"x12", and the underpainting for "Water Glass and Mirror", 11"x14". The apple painting is not quite as dark as it looks here. I darkened it down in photoshop to get rid of some of the glare. I'm going to have to give it another go before I post it to my website. It's taking me a little bit of time to figure out the nuances of my new studio lighting arrangement. The "Water Glass.." on the other hand looks exactly right, go figure. My process on the water glass so far was to make an exact size, pencil drawing , using the straight line method of blocking-in. Then I traced it and transfered it using hard vine charcoal. Next I inked the drawing and did an open grisaille wipe out using burnt umber and black (the black keeps the paint from drying up too quickly). Today I managed to get a few hours in before the holiday guests arrive, and I rubbed in the basic color scheme. I find this technique to be working very well for me and I may stick with it for a while. I'm pleased with the way the frottis (rub-in) came out. It already has the feel that I want the finished piece to have, so I have to remember to keep the overall simplicity and the "big look" as I begin to windowshade in the form painting and details.