Crucifixion ii

 

A productive day today. I restretched the Crucifixion painting onto its stretcher bars, spraying the back of the canvas with water to make the inevitable creases drop out, then mixed some black and refreshed the dark areas of the front. The area of the moon I retouched is no longer visible and the painting has become brighter and cleaner as a result of the work. I deepened the shadows on a few figures on the right after I had taken this picture, so there is more of a sense of a spotlight hitting them, like a prison searchlight.

 

I’m really happy to see this painting coming back to life again. Now I’ll paint a tattoo on the arm of the dark haired woman on the right side, and get to work adding details into the piece. 

 

I’ve made plans for taking photos next Friday of one of my students who’s willing to pose for the Falling painting, so things are moving in the right direction. For this painting I’m going to take a leaf out of my former student Chris Marshall’s book and simply stretch canvas onto a flat board, prime it and allow the painting to find its own scale, then build a frame to its size when it’s complete. Painting on a pre-made canvas limits the painter to that previously made size, so I think it will be quite liberating to work it the other way round.