I made one important change to this painting - I darkened the tree trunk on the right. I think this helps to create space between the viewer and the house.
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 cha...
Well, I overestimated being able to cover the whole canvas today! I started working this morning, got some piles of paint mixed up and the rest of the still life sketched in, and started working on the mirror tray and its shadows. Suddenly I felt exhausted. I had been working longer than I thought and realized I was hungry. So I had lunch and went for a walk. When I got back, it was around 3. I got back to work, and continued painting until after 6. Still didn't cover all the white, though. I had left milk in the Mr. Peanut cup for two days, and this morning, I was horrified to see that it had turned into what looked like yogurt! High and fluffy and mounded over the top of the cup! I dumped it down the drain and washed the cup. It was NOT yogurt, and I didn't taste it, don't worry. The white you see in the painting is just the canvas that I haven't gotten to. There was nothing in the cup today! Maybe tomorrow I'll manage to cover the rest of the canvas, and then I c...
Merry Christmas, to those who celebrate! For me, it's just a quiet Thursday. But after weeks of fiddling with my setup, I finally got to work painting my "M" still life, next in the alphabet in my series, "Still Life A-Z". I've been gathering the objects, all starting with the letter M: Maple syrup Mask of Poseidon Map of Mt. Desert Island, Maine Moss in a Mauve pot Milk in a Mr. Peanut cup Macarons Mammoth Mirror tray M&Ms Melissa’s Monopoly Money Magenta cloth I've also just ordered a greeting-card size reproduction of Matisse's "Dance", to go on the wall to the left of the Mask - I may or may not put it in. Here is a photo of my setup: I measured out and lightly painted the halves and quarters of my blank 24" x 24" canvas. Looking through my viewfinder (a very well-used and much-loved ViewCatcher ), I started sketching the composition with thin gray paint. But I was having a lot of trouble - holding the ViewCatcher up and l...
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