Drawing in Paint
It feels like these hands took forever to do today! I rough them in (see the hand on the right in the first photo), then I fudge the lines with a brush dipped in mineral spirits until I finally get it to where I want it.
Oil Study
I’m working on a little oil study of a friend’s daughter. I did a wash on the canvas earlier, and today I lightly sketched in the form, then painted the grisaille using black, white, and medium. Four hours work on this.
Placement
Balancing and placing objects/people in a painting is really important to its overall composition and cohesiveness. I am trying to place the heads of the figures in a manner that creates a balance between the two sides of the painting, while roughly staggering the heads and yet still maintaining a pyramidal structure with the apex at the top of the gravestone. Here I’ve created a little mock-up using a sharpie on a foam board and I am finding that not only is my center not centered, but my pyramid doesn’t hold together well and I’ve got a straggler figure on the right which I think I’ll have to cut out. I’m going to use the backside of this foam board and do it again until I am satisfied.
Sketch
I have to say that, like Caravaggio, I don’t sketch much, although I really should do more. I plan the images in my head and then work directly on the canvas, so I only sketch when I need to explain to someone what I’m going to paint. Last night my husband couldn’t picture the idea for my next painting ‘The Allegory of Coal,’ so here it is – took all but 30 seconds!
Studio Shrinking
Do you think that pictures of artists’ studios are fascinating? Because I do! I once saw a photo of Francis Bacon’s messy studio and I wondered how he could wade through all the mess to actually get anything done. My studio is organized, however, it seems to be getting smaller and smaller every day.
Best in Show!
‘The Allegory of Facebook’ won Best in Show at the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts last weekend. 500 artists entered more than 1100 works of art and many of them were excellent, so I’m feeling pretty lucky!
Demo Painting Ready
This is what I’m going to bring to the demo on Saturday. I’ve got the grisaille layer done, except for the bottom left corner. I’ll paint colour over the face during the demo, so that those watching will be able to see all three layers in one painting.
Sharp Line for Chiaroscuro
I’m about to start on the grisaille, but here’s how it looks now before I get going. I like how it already has a sharp contrast between light and dark – one way to accentuate that is to paint the line along the profile of the face, shoulder, and arm quite sharply, and the other side of the body in shadow with a soft, blurred line.
Demo Art Prep
Work in Process: I’m going to be a Demo Artist at the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts this Saturday at 3pm, so I’m prepping a portrait that will show the three layers I usually paint on one canvas. This is a portrait of my little guy whistling – I chose to do this because the contrast between light and dark is really strong.
