The ascending poodle...

Working on the masonry ... tedious but seriously worth the effort... After drying for a few days, I'll using some glazing to work up the shadows and highlights.

Started working on the final layers... This the upper left corner...

OK... this is a bit of a milestone. Didn't get to this point on the first version... All of the panel has been underpainted. There is no white! The values are kind'a crazy and not really close to being right, but the colors are generally indicative of what they will be in the final...

Woof! Now the work begins. Visualizing the composition is relatively easy for me. Visualizing how form takes shape and recreating it with paint is more difficult... That is the focus from this point on.

Medium in pill boxes... good idea. Oil paint in pill boxes... bad idea. (it doesn't prevent skinning over and drying)

However, I'm thinking about using slightly larger pill boxes for the oil paint and putting those little round felt pads on the underside of the pill box lids... then putting a tiny dab of clove oil on the pads.

Of course, could also simply put water in each box on top of the paint... but that's getting crazy and more work than screwing tops of tubes... though that would be a good idea to preserve small batches of mixed paint for further use. Those pill boxes are cheap enough to be throw aways when finished using.

More underpainting... hoping to get the underpainting more or less finished by the end of this weekend.

You know those little pill boxes you can get at your local pharmacy. They also make great little medium holders. Simply decant medium into the boxes... but if you're on your way to senility, try not to get 'em mixed up with your actual pill boxes... :)



Later in the day, I started thinking, why not put the oil paint in pill boxes as well. So I went out and purchased some small ones for $6. Now, I have a new system... stay tuned... will it work?

Moving ahead with the underpainting... It looks real ugly at this point. this is actually something that I have to get use to. Having come from a 15 year digital background, the underpainting is not something one has to put up with for very long, digitally... but with oils, it is of course a very different situation. You have to live with it and see the future in it... :)