I’ve done a little sketching for the thirty footer, and decided to work with the seven virtues, Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence and Justice, with Faith, Hope and Charity. The wall I’m thinking of for the piece has a large chair and podium in the centre of it, so I think this might work well because of [...]
I’ve put a glaze of Sap Green with occasional dabs of Iron Oxide to the leaves, then added shadows of black to the edges of the leaves and around the rocks, which has made everything sit together much more effectively. A good solid days work so far, which I hope to continue this evening. I [...]
I’m laying down more green and white leaves and gradually filling the space around the rocks with foliage, including the first layer of some grass alongside the roses, seen in the second photo. The white leaves will soon be dry enough for a glaze of sap green, a little cobalt green, and an edging of [...]
Here’s a before and after shot of how the first layer of the foliage is going down onto the canvas. First I’ve painted the leaves in grey so that the green has a light surface to lay on, or the next layer of transparent Sap Green would simply disappear against the dark background. It’s reading [...]
It took a while to get warmed up, but once I got moving I managed to cover quite a lot of the canvas, adding a new and more useful layer to the trees which had little substance and needed detail. The patchy grey is broken by black scars in the birch trunks that gives the [...]
The Angel is taking a back seat now, following a black day for the skeleton and Amelia. My big easel looks almost comically small without a giant canvas on it. I’ve been deepening the shadows on both pieces, working the foreground skulls of the angel, then adding Cremnitz white to pop the highlights again.I wouldn’t [...]
I’ve returned from the mountains, where I enjoyed a little camping beneath forest pines with some good friends. There’s something incredibly refreshing about sleeping outside amongst trees. Much of the forest was burnt to a crisp a couple of years ago and simply hasn’t recovered. There are miles of mountains covered with blackened tree trunks [...]
Raw sienna makes a huge difference to the appearance of the work, making the surface of the skull and the shadows drop back and giving them some age. I’m particularly pleased with the appearance of the skull, although I think it could use a little more correction and observation to the interior surfaces of the [...]
I mentioned yesterday that I needed to darken the inside of the mouth to make the teeth jump a little, so today I got into using Raw Sienna to yellow the bones of the skull a little, and mixed with a little Van Dyke Brown to darken the shadows of the opening. Much better! Once [...]
Continuing with the work on the skull to improve the rendering has resulted in a much wider mouth and an increasingly savage appearance. I still need to work on the mouth to improve it, having moved his upper teeth higher and enlarging the lower set a little, but the inside of the mouth is proving [...]
