Underpainting II

I couldn't paint much today - started very late. But this is the underpainting from yesterday's post with color layers added. It is still in progress, but I put it aside for a while because it was bugging me.

I changed some things from the original after getting feedback from Abby and removed some of the folds in the lower left. Among many things to be done - the background needs to be toned back to a more neutral color and I want to work on the cloth. (Also the drip of paint on the yellow bowl :) ).

It's been at least a month since I've touched it. Here's a pic of what's on my easel now and you can see this still life sitting there in the background waiting for me to finish it. I think I might start working on it again tomorrow. I love 3 day weekends!

One of the greatest things about having a studio is that you can leave things up - like still life setups or paint or whatever - and not worry about it. Can't do that at home.

Tip for those family members (Mum, Dad?) and friends who are new to blogs, etc - you can click on the pictures themselves and they will open in a larger window so you can see them better.

To overwork a painting or not, that is the question

I just found this blog post by a local artist, David Rourke, on the whole concept of "overworking" a painting. He makes some really valid points, especially how the fear of overworking impacts a new painter's progress. His advice really hit home for me because I think about that a lot and I am most definitely a new painter. One of my all time favorite artists is Lucien Freud who sometimes takes months to do a painting and there is clearly nothing overworked about his masterpieces.

As an aside, did you know that he broke the record for the highest price paid for a living artist's painting? $33,600,000.

I don't think they bought it to go with the drapes.

Underpainting

This is an underpainting - I talked about underpaintings in an earlier post. I did this underpainting in acrylic - it is just burnt sienna and white and I tried to capture all the value changes in the color. I don't have a picture of this painting after I started applying color - I guess I forgot. I will try to remember to bring my camera tomorrow.

I took this with my iPhone - not bad for a cell phone :)

Man with the Hand

First figure painting. We had a model early in the semester, but I don't have a photo of it. Actually I think it would be a good thing to post because there's a huge difference between that painting (2nd class I think) and this one.

This photo doesn't show the shadows accurately - too light.

Ok - self critique time - what I like - I captured the pose and his relaxed hand, I like his left jean leg and the folds, also his boot, curve of the chair arm. I overworked this because I finished it in the studio without the model. I did it because I wanted to try different things with the skin tones and I learned a lot doing that.

Dislike - it's overworked :). I think it would be fine as an illustration, but that isn't what I am shooting for - the overall feel is too stiff.

But I just signed up for a summer Life Painting class at the MFA - this isn't through the school, but through the museum. The artist who's teaching it does some great work - Samuel Gareginyan - and I am looking forward to it. I hope the studio is air-conditioned because the last few classes at the SMFA were uncomfortably warm.

The Lonely Shaker

I tried to follow Carol Marine here - didn't really do it, beyond the small format (6x8) but this is probably one of the better paintings I've done. The shaker top is a bit warped looking, but other than that it worked well. This was one of those times that I pushed through the doubt and left it alone for about a week. I came back and added just few things - the red bits of color, the shimmer in the shadow, and a few other things.

A big challenge on this painting was the silver shaker top against the black background. My brain told me that the black background was much darker than the silver top, but if I really looked I realized that, in reality, this wasn't true. This happens a lot in painting - the battle between your intellect telling you how things are supposed to be, and your eyes seeing what really is.