What's on the Easel?

I let the painting sit for a few days and showed it to some people. One artist friend recommended that I darken the area around the maple syrup bottle, because your eye entered the painting and moved back, but didn't have anything to settle on back there. So today I worked a little on the maple syrup bottle, darkening some of the darks and the shadow beside it, and brightening the lights.  I also tackled fixing the eyes of the mask. I felt that the eye on the right was a little higher than the other eye. Another artist friend said she thought I needed to add some darks around the eyes, because that area looked a little flat. So I worked on the eyes. But then they called too much attention to themselves, so I lightened the pupils and tried to make sure the eyes weren't looking directly at the viewer, but a tiny bit to the side. I hope it comes across. I also worked on the nose and mouth and brightened the cheeks a little. I scumbled a little color over the mask's reflection ...

Today the Loudoun Sketch Club hired a model and invited us to draw him in a library meeting room in Leesburg. The model started with some short poses to warm us up (30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes), then longer, culminating in two 45-minute poses. He brought a couple of costumes for the long poses.  I love to draw people, and seize the chance whenever I can. Today I used charcoal. For the short poses, I used one sheet of paper (gray Canson pastel paper, the smoother side) and vine charcoal, and wiped the drawing out after each pose with a chamois cloth. For the first 45-minute pose, the model wore a top hat and formal coat. I did a portrait study. (I took photos so you can see his costume.) I drew on the original piece of paper with multiple drawings wiped out on it. This gave a nice base of mid-tone charcoal to work on. I used the chamois and a kneaded eraser to pull lighter areas out of the darks and mid-tones. I enjoyed "carving" out the drawing this...

Today I painted most of the day. (I skipped my National Gallery copying day.) I reworked the mask's eye on the left and refined other areas of the face. Then I turned my attention to the mirror tray, which I had been avoiding! I left the reflection of the mask alone, because I thought it worked. I painted the detailed metal work on the back side of the tray and in its reflection. I spent a long time on the m&ms, and worked on the m&m bag. I may tweak things here and there a little bit, but this is mostly resolved. I'm going to let it sit for a few days and then look at it with fresh eyes. A funny thing occurred to me - the Mask looks like my dad! It was one of his collection of masks from his travels - I think this was from a trip to Greece. It suddenly struck me that this mask actually LOOKS like him! He didn't have a beard or mustache, but the features do resemble him. He died in 2005, which is when this mask came into my possession. It gives me a nice feeling to ...

I painted in the morning and evening today. Worked a lot on the moss, and on the mask's curls on the right. Some on the eyes. The eye on the left got a little too big, I'll have to address that. I still want to work on the mouth a little. That pink macaron in the back was kind of disappearing, so I darkened the magenta cloth around it a little. Then back to the moss. I still haven't finished the tray or made a second pass on the m&ms. I am having fun with this, trying not to rush it. I'm learning a lot as I go, especially about mixing grays in painting the mask. (By the way, when I first bought the moss and put it in that pot, it barely reached across the diameter of the pot. Now it's getting very big and bushy! I have a grow light on it all day, since my studio shades are down.) Thanks for reading! Click the picture for a larger view.

I didn't paint yesterday because, busy day. Today was a nice soaking rain, so, accompanied by episodes of This American Life on my podcast app, I repainted much of "M". I didn't feel up to tackling the remaining metal work on the tray, so I started by repainting some of the piles of money. I adjusted the color and value of the 50s, 100s and 500s. Then I decided to add another macaron to the right side, which had needed something to balance the left side of the painting, which has so much more going on. Using a yellow macaron and placing it halfway into the shadow of the cup created some high contrast and helped it assert itself. Between that and the bright white milk in the cup, I now feel that the painting is more balanced. I also gave the Mammoth a second pass, and refined the shapes and details of the macarons. Worked on the pot a little bit, making the color richer and evening up the angle of the left and right sides. I still want to pay better attention to the Mo...

Yesterday, I painted over much of the face, correcting the color. I redid the eyes and made the mouth a little wider, and worked on the curls. It looks less angry now!  Today I repainted the wall and its shadow, and fixed the lid of the maple syrup bottle. I also started putting in the metal work on the sides of the tray. I had to paint out and repaint this three times, because I wasn't really understanding the structure. I finally figured out that I needed to paint the little diamonds where the wires crossed first, so they would be evenly spaced and all on the same horizontal line. Once I did that, the pattern fell into place, and I'm pretty happy with it now. I still need to do the back side of the tray and its reflection. I also still need to finish painting the moss and give the macarons another pass. I'm thinking of adding another macaron to the right of the Mr. Peanut cup, because the left side of the painting has so much more going on, and the right side is so much e...

I worked on "M" for the past couple of days, but didn't feel good enough about it to post anything. Today I finally succeeded in covering all the white canvas. When was it that I thought I could get it covered with a first pass in one day??? What was I thinking? A little overoptimistic. But now it's covered, and I can go back in to different areas and do a second pass. Here's where it stands now: I had repainted the face yesterday, and that is what I'm not happy with. I moved the eyes down a little and softened edges, but I overworked the eyes and his expression is too angry. I like to work wet-into-wet, but once it starts getting tacky, I like to wait until it's dry and then paint over it. So I'm leaving the eyes alone for now. I painted the m&m bag today and placed the m&ms on the mirror tray (I don't think I put the red ones in yet.) I also painted the upside-down reflection of the mask. I also spent some time on the money and finally pa...

This morning I tackled the maple syrup bottle. It's a complicated shape, but it's symmetrical. However, it's standing at an angle to me, and so looks pretty chaotic and abstract. I painted it shape by shape, color by color. Then I stopped to double-check the drawing and made adjustments. I also repainted the wall around the bottle, but I'm still not sure if it's the correct color. I still need to move the lid of the bottle up - its neck is too short, but I ran out of time. We had to take my painting, "Oatlands Mansion from the Garden" to the Torpedo Factory Art Center for the January show in The Art League gallery.  When we got home, and after eating lunch and taking my walk, I got back to work on the "M" painting. I painted the remaining Monopoly money on the right. Not happy yet, but it's the first pass. I still need to paint the Ones.  Here is how the painting looks now:   Thanks for reading! Click the image for a larger view.

I'm going to stop putting the day number at the top of these progress posts, because I actually worked on the painting a tiny bit for a couple of days and didn't post. But today I put in a solid two hours before lunch. One of my New Years "Intentions", which I feel is a better term than Resolutions, is to stop wasting the whole morning. I am in the habit of doing all the New York Times puzzles on my phone before leaving the breakfast table. So... The Crossword, the Mini, Wordle, Strands, and Spelling Bee (I stopped doing Connections out of frustration and disgust.) After finishing Spelling Bee (which I have to keep at until I reach Genius - I'm not bragging, just admitting how stubborn and compulsive I am) I move on to several other puzzle apps on my phone. So I'm changing my behavior by not allowing myself to do any of these puzzles until after I paint.  After painting for two hours, I stopped and had lunch, and then our daughter Emily came over and we worked...