I’ve been sketching a design for the traveler’s water bottle, doing this prep work not least because it’s partly covered by his jacket. It would be very difficult to render a partially covered interlace that felt right directly onto the painting without figuring it out first.
This is fun work to do, if a little confusing on occasion, and I think the detail work is completely worth it for this painting. I borrowed a book of Celtic interlace from Rich Brimer and I’ve enjoyed looking at some of those patterns, although this one is my own design, made while lying back on my couch with a nice cup of tea with Mark Knopfler playing in the background and my roses beside me outside the window.
I hope to get to the studio to put the pattern into the piece today, fingers crossed. You can see the bottle peeking out from the traveler’s jacket beside his dagger in the previous post.
Finally, yes, I changed the format of the blog. It’s been the same for a year and a half, so I thought it was time for a change. This new look feels more businesslike and tidy; I like it.
