Michael 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 great deal of difference to the landscape. Notwithstanding that the Magician still has no feet, I’m pretty happy with the way the foreground works, although I’d like to add some subtle blues into some of the deep shadows and perhaps a touch of purple here and there, particularly beside where the greens lie in the middle ground on the left, just to add a little vibrance to the surface.

This painting has gone outrageously quickly compared to the previous three: The Traveler, The Angel of Death, and The Empress, which all took at least three months each, probably a lot more for the Angel. I’m going to have to get to work getting the frame built and some canvas stretched for the Hanged Man and the Priestess as soon as possible.

Adding a little Lead White to the patches of mud prepares them for another layer that will make the surface feel more solid. The little pebbles that I did first have all taken a glaze of Raw Sienna that makes them appear like little lumps of gold. I’ll need to define and reglaze these to make them work properly, but it’s a good start.

I really must get to the Magician’s feet so that I can produce the surface that she’s standing on. Because she’s only had one layer of paint she’s feeling a little cut out, standing above the surface of the painting. I’ll add a shadow on the ground beside her, then when she’s had a few layers of work she’ll set back into the piece properly.

I’ve posted two almost identical pictures today to show the difference a bit of subtle work makes to a painting – the first picture is the end result of this afternoon’s work, the second you already saw on Saturday evening. I enjoy comparing the result of a day’s work with the previous day to see what I’ve achieved.

Adding shadows to the flags makes the landscape feel more consistent and solid, with variations in the line of the cast shadow revealing an uneven surface to the ground that otherwise wouldn’t be apparent. I particularly enjoyed adding the shadow of a flag that is off the canvas on the left side of the composition, because it increases the sense that we are framing out a larger world that continues outside the picture frame. Getting the shadows of the flags that stand in the water right was interesting because the reflections have to come in front of the shadow and the shadow has to run over the surface of the bottom of the water.

Drop shadows on the little pebbles increases their solidity, although they will need further work before I move onto the ground’s surface. It’s too flat at the moment, and I’m not satisfied. The other paintings in the series have all had a great deal of detail in the landscape, regardless of their location, and I feel the need to be just as detail oriented in this one, even if it’s just a dirt floor it deserves to be a very well detailed dirt floor.

The rocks were glazed with Raw Umber, which I either scraped off again with a knife or wiped with a rag. I dry-brushed a little of the brown back into the surface here and there, mostly to emphasize shadows. I’ve yet to give the Magician herself a shadow.

I repainted the clouds with a glaze of Iron Oxide Orange because it so nicely thins to a yellow tint and adds a convincing layer of colour to the cotton balls. Titanium White brought highlights to the top left of the clouds, then I blended the white down into the mass.

At last I got a full day in the studio, getting a lot of painting done. It was so exciting to be able to develop ideas as the day passed, imagining new steps to take to drive the painting forward.

There being no students in sight to help me I turned the painting over again, no mean feat considering its scale, and one that I don’t particularly want to do again. I worked almost entirely on the landscape, building reflections of flags, clouds and rocks in the surface of the pool, then adding some little stones that just break the surface of the water, helping to create the illusion of reflection.

Putting down a base onto the rocks, then using a palette knife to scrape white onto their left sides has given them some substance that will work well with a glaze over it.

There are many more flags than there were yesterday, and I’m far happier with them now that the landscape is far more clearly divided by the shape of a cross meeting at the top corner of the pond. Getting their reflections in the pool was very interesting because the physics of reflection isn’t particularly simple. It seems that when an object is actually touching the water the reflection starts right there at its base, while objects above the horizon should be measured to their height above the horizon line, then dropped down to the reflective surface in mirror image. Stuff resting on the ground in between the horizon and the reflective surface is harder to figure out because the angle of reflection from the surface to the top of the object isn’t immediately obvious when inventing a landscape!

Finally, I’ve added a string of little pebbles on the ground corresponding to those that are in the water, making the land and the pond feel unified in the same place. These white blobby shapes will require definition and colour before they look like the golden stones I imagine.

Turning the painting upside down was really great because it made it so much easier to paint the sky, which now is turning into a substantial and striking feature. I’ve flipped the photo to make it easier to see the painting. I’ve glazed the lower reaches of the sky as it descends to the horizon with a Ceramic White (nice bright white which is somewhat transparent, enabling delicate glazes) and a second glaze of Iron Oxide Red at the height.

While driving to the sign-painters’ store in Chatsworth yesterday with Joseph the sky turned dramatic as we ascended the Santa Suzannah Pass, which is an impressive mountainside of broken and deeply eroded stone, and we observed that the clouds grew harder edged as they receded to the horizon, which is the opposite effect to the way landscapes soften and become grayer and bluer as they get further away. Clouds that are closer to you are more wispy and less well defined.

With the the sky painted orange I turned my attention to the reflecting pool of water, popping in mirror images of the clouds above it and hinting at the mountainside. When I paint the rocks bordering the pool I must drop reflections below them onto the water.

I’ve finished painting the legs with the exception of the shoes, which I will do later. I’ve limited myself to simpler tasks today because I’m just too tired to do the more detailed work. It’s been a productive but mostly administrative week, and although the work will bear fruit later, it’s still frustrating to know that my studio is sitting quietly, with paintings that need attention. I can’t wait to get back into the studio for some really substantial painting time.

Joseph helped me turn the Magician upside down so that working on the sky would be easier, and I’ve glazed it with an Iron Oxide Red which I ragged off, then used a Flake White for the clouds. I’ve painted the clouds with a denser, impasto white towards where the light source originates, leaving them to become softer and more blended on the side facing away from the light.

I’m interested in how this orange sky will work. It’s fun to bring a strong colour into play instead of the blue we usually see.