The more time I spent looking at the painting the more I realized how many things were not well finished, so I began repainting substantial portions of the work in white and brown to make it ready for glazing. The left photo shows the repainted chest and neck with a second layer of painting en [...]
I spent some time bringing white and grey to the neck, hair, shirt, jacket and pants to bring some substance to these areas of the painting, first noticing that Amelia’s neck was over-simplified and in need of re-modeling. Shaping the neck with hair on the left side, I’ve reworked the highlights to bring more complex [...]
I’ve returned to the studio after taking a few days break for rest and recuperation, returning to the unfinished work on Amelia Beheads the Alchemical King. A new layer of leaves is filling out the layer of birch leaves at the top of the painting, but painted so that they come towards us rather than [...]
We’ve stretched the canvas over the panel ready for the Priestess, now we need to give it a few coats of gesso before the drawing begins. Ally has drawings of the dress made and Veronica has been measured for the fit, so as soon as it’s stitched and the hat made we’ll be ready to [...]
I’m moving from Amelia’s verdant green springtime to winter leaves, blown to the feet of the angel of death. So far I’ve painted the base of a grey brown, and begun to render the richer orange browns in that delicious Iron Oxide Red that I like so much. The colour is a little intense at [...]
I’ve expanded the range of green leaves across to both sides of the canvas, and I’m surprised to find myself really enjoying the play of the green against the dark background, because I have used green so seldom in the past. I’m thoroughly enjoying this period of foliage painting that I’ve entered. I’ll darken the leaves [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
