Day 5, M

Well, there just aren't enough hours in the day! I got up earlier than usual today, which isn't all that early, really, and after breakfast I got to work on the M painting. I wanted to get the Mask painted, a first pass. I love the expression on its face, and wanted to be accurate in the face's proportions. I know it really doesn't matter for the painting if I get the face exactly right, because it's not a real person that you would notice wrong proportions, but I'm an observational painter and I like to be accurate. I need to let go of that with this face! Also, my colors aren't right yet. I see so many colors in this bland, neutral mask, and I'm sometimes exaggerating them, and sometimes making them too mushy and chalky. (Sorry I forgot to take a progress picture at this point.) I stopped for lunch and decided to go for my walk.

We are having a major wind storm today, so even though the temperature was mild, it was so windy that walking was kind of challenging. After my 3 mile walk, I decided to cut the wood for a frame I have to make. My painting "Oatlands Mansion from the Garden" was accepted by the juror to The Art League's January show, and I have to deliver it this weekend. I cut the wood and glued it. I normally make floater frames, but this painting is pretty large (31" x 25") so I decided to do what I call a "flush" frame. The frame hugs the sides of the painting but doesn't cover any of the front. I normally buy my framing wood at Lowes, but this time I went to a lumberyard where they have better quality wood. It's also more expensive, but still cheaper than a framer would charge. Here's a picture of the frame after I glued it and put the web clamp around it until it dried:

And here is the painting that will go in it:

I will have to touch up the edges of the painting, because there are some areas that are white, and that won't look good in the frame. I'll do that tomorrow.

I painted the whole mask, but I'm not too happy with it. I'm going to leave it alone for now and continue to make a first pass over the remaining white areas of the canvas. My intention of painting each thing to completion as I go has not worked out! I'm not being overly careful in measuring out the features, but am sort of just "building" the face as I go. Painting the eyes reminded me of high school art class, when I first learned the structure of the eye, with the lids curving around the eyeball, and the thickness of the lower lid. Not happy with the colors or values yet, but the next time I get around to (re)painting the mask, maybe I'll be able to do a better job. I want to be sure that the face doesn't command too much attention, but stays in the background.

Click the images for a larger view