I enlisted my kids to help put the first coat of gesso onto the big canvas. They’re really good at helping me in the studio, seldom complaining and usually cheerful, especially when there are donuts and lunch offered as tasty treats. After lunch I shot photos of Hayley, one of my drawing students, who modeled [...]
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 [...]
By painting a glaze of very light grey over the sky and taking most of it off with a rag I’ve brought solidity to the bottom of the clouds, then put on some pure titanium white on the top edges, picking up the highlighted bright sunlit cotton wool of the cumulus masses. That’s one of [...]
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying myself in the studio, helping Rich cut panels in the new woodshop, setting up the skeleton for the Angel of Death painting and making the landscape for the Fortitude piece. First the woodshop, which is completely wonderful. Rich has a week to go and paint seascapes on the California coast, so [...]
Now Fortitude’s sky has clouds and my model has legs and the bruin is becoming more defined. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s work, when I hope to get another layer of sky down, and to develop some mountains in the distance. There’s almost enough information down to move into the colour stages of painting the [...]
After my morning class I got started preparing the angels and devils sketches, moving toward decisions on what these big pieces are going to be. I’m particularly enjoying the scorpion-like people in the desert, and the hermit with the three figures in the distance. The two angels are more obvious, lacking subtlety, so they might [...]
Short on cobalt blue paint, I used pigment mixed with a little oil, then added walnut alkyd to produce the lovely rich colour seen here. There’s something very satisfying about making your own paint, but it takes a lot longer and I’m very grateful that i can get such good colours in pre-mixed tubes. I [...]
…waiting for the canvas to arrive so I can get started preparing the big panels! I’m hoping that it will come in the next couple of days. The panels are leaning against the wall patiently, although sometimes I have the strange paranoid sensation that they’re chuckling quietly to themselves, “yeah right… have a good time, [...]
I’ve laid down the first layer of the bear’s head, but will wait until I get it more established before deciding on the arrangement of the hands over his muzzle. He’ll need a lot more definition in his fur to make this painting work properly, but I’m confident that with careful treatment he’ll turn out [...]
The face is much improved, benefitting from a bit of attention this morning and afternoon. She’ll need some hands next. I moved her eye up a little, her eyebrow up quite a lot, extended the nose and chin out a little and softened the transitions between lighter and darker areas of value. The bear looks [...]
