Category Archives: Making work

A Deeper Darker Pool, Scattered Gold, and a Raised Hand

Posted on March 16, 2011 by pearce

The Prussian Blue I mentioned yesterday has deepened and darkened the water in the pool closest to us, increasing the illusion of reflection in the water a little more. The colour of a reflected sky is deeper hued that the … Continue reading →

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Blue Waters, Layers on Feet

Posted on March 15, 2011 by pearce

I’ve retouched the feet, using Iron Oxide Red and a little Foundation White to make them much more effective, adding shadows around them to ground them onto the dirt of the painting. The exposed stomach had a touch of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Hanged Man, Magician, Making work, Priestess | Leave a comment

Wet White Feet

Posted on March 14, 2011 by pearce

Working with wet white again, I’ve blended some Burnt Sienna into the feet for shadows, with a touch of Cadmium Red to give them a little warmth. I’m thinking that they should get dirtier because the Magician must have walked … Continue reading →

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Bare Feet

Posted on March 11, 2011 by pearce

I’ve put down the first rough layer of Foundation White that will become the Magician’s bare feet. Pretty plain right now, they’ll be re-drawn and get a couple of layers more before they’re complete. I’m quite pleased to get them … Continue reading →

Posted in Alchemical work, Magician, Making work, The Cardinal Virtues | Leave a comment

Silver and Lead

Posted on March 9, 2011 by pearce

I’ve continued with the work of glazing the sky so that the blue and orange layers now sit behind a transparent layer of white mixed with a little Cobalt Blue. This makes the sky vibrate over areas of warmer and … Continue reading →

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Silver White sky

Posted on March 8, 2011 by pearce

The Silver White is working nicely as a very transparent, milky glaze over the orange and blue sky. It’s making the sky recede a lot more than it did when it was all orange, and is picking up some very … Continue reading →

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Magic Sam

Posted on March 7, 2011 by pearce

To my great pleasure today my model for the Magician came to the studio to visit. Sam did a great job posing for the painting, so it was a real treat to see her enjoying it, although I had to leave … Continue reading →

Posted in Magician, Making work, Other people's work, Sources | Leave a comment

Shadows over Stripes

Posted on March 6, 2011 by pearce

Putting a little Van Dyke Brown over the stripy suit has made it feel far more solidly within the painting, while a drop shadow at her feet and additional work over the foreground on the left side has made a … Continue reading →

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A Wet White Magician

Posted on March 5, 2011 by pearce

The Pre-Raphaelites were famous for their use of a technique called “wet-white” painting, in which the artist first paints the flesh areas of a figure white, then blends into and over the layer of white with transparent flesh tones. I’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in Magician, Making work, Pre-raphaelite | 2 Comments

Whiter than White Stripes, Alchemical Salts

Posted on March 3, 2011 by pearce

I’ve spent a short time working with re-rendering the whites of the Magician’s clothing in order to build some substance to the paint and simply to clean up the glazes that had stained the figure while painting the background. The … Continue reading →

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