Second Pass

Second Pass

This is the second pass on 'Jim's Family'. All looking very pale still as I am putting the under-painting into place. I am adjusting structure and I am unsure how to deal with the shirring on Sarah's top. Painting is all about problem solving.

The Beginning

Jim's Family

Whilst I wait for the cat painting to dry enough to do more painting I have made a start on 'Jim's Family'.  It's on a 40 z 60 cm extra fine grained, oil primed canvas. I have transfer the drawing on to the canvas with graphite and you can now see the start of the underpainting.

Gothic Jim

Gothic Jim

  I am guessing that this portrait is for his partner so was channeling the smoldering eyes of Antonio Banderas. I am drawing this using Procreate on the iPad. I have a way to go before it is finished.

 Drawing in tones of grey allows me to develop the painting in careful stages. Here I am looking at acurate drawing and values (light to shadow relationship). I will then paint this onto the the black and red on the canvas then overpaint it in mainly transparent colour resulting in a glowing colour.

'The Marmalde House', 23 Queen's Street-process 1

I started with taking a few photos and this was my favorite.
Slapped it into photoshop, cropped it and played with the levels.
Surprised myself when drawing the scene in my sketch book when I changed the focus.

So the sketch was traced, holes punched on the drawing lines and charcoal was pounced through the holes onto the canvas. Then join the dots.

'The Queen's Gate',

The under-painting on this canvas is a rich indigo for the shadows. I drew using the usual charcoal and pastel for the pink and green. I needed to see the colour balanced against the deep shadows. I am very pleased with the mark making of the lane and I hope I can keep it going.

'Bartholomew Rooms'

I painted this canvas with acrylic gold because the open doors remind me of a medieval icon. It is also the same colour as the oak doors.

'The Old Forge Pottery Studio'-1

This one is going to be fun coming from the deep darkness of the Forge to the bright sunlight on the chair with the drying green pots.

'27 Newlands' -process 1

Another small canvas of a door around the corner from me. I do not know who the owner is but I like it because they have taken care to set the stage for their cottage.

'Babes in the Woods' - process 5

Starting to get some where with the Babes but as always very slowly. The test here will be how much I will paint out again to get some where towards my original vision?

'Babes in the Woods' - process 4

Why am I trying to get the building structures right when I know that most of their details will be lost later in the painting? I have taken some liberties with the structures already but I think I need a better understanding in order to 'reduce' them whilst still giving a sense of place ... Cornmarket, Oxford.

'Babes in the Woods' - process 3

The under painting is finished ... I think? What I do know is that it feels tired and not exciting so time to turn it to the wall for a week. Then with fresh eyes, having put all the photos away, will work solely from my previous drawings and added imagination. I have always kept the photos around so this will be scary but may be liberating?

Still feeling in the dark ...

Guess the body part?

The close up of the arm shows the beginnings of getting the painting right. Trouble is that I got here by accident and not by design.



The photographs do not show the colours well. I think for the final photo it will need to be out with the tripod ...

Room size matters!

SueC's left arm and hand has not been right. I think I am on the way to solving this now ... bad drawing. I have a small house and am not able to move far enough away in the room to see the painting as a whole. So the lesson is ... get perspective of the whole picture when working on a large painting.

Still underpainting

The under-paint paint colours are drying quickly but I am worried that I have let the blacks get to dark. I am finding Elliott's book confusing and am irritated by the preaching tone at times

Underpainting or grisaille

I have used Winsor and Newton Artisan water mixable oil colours of Burnt Umber and Coeruleum well, diluted with water, resulting in a transparent warm brown. Hopefully this will balance the high oil absorption of the paint which makes them unsuitable for under layers. Budget constraints means that I can not buy more paint. The canvas was covered in a layer of this paint and it was wiped from the areas that will be light. Then I painted the lights more opaquely using Titanium White, Burnt Umber, Coeruleum and a tiny bit of Indian Red. Elliott recommends using flake white but this colour is not in the Artisan range. The next step when the paint is dry is to paint transparent glazes for the shadows and dark areas.

Under-painting

I have been using water soluble crayons for the under painting. When I start painting over it using water mixable oil paint it will become fixed.