Doesn't look like a lot has changed, but there has been a lot of work... lot more to go ... stll mostly underpainting...

Moving ahead...


Still mostly underpainting

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... :)

Have started the underpainting...

Picked up the print and got it adhered to the panel... just about ready to begin again...

This time, I'm not going to knock back the dark lines with a coat of semi-transparent white... going to start right in, knocking back the lines with the first underpainting rather than with white paint...

Saturday... went to Home Depot and got a 1/4" plywood panel, cut to 76 x 48, and some 1x3 oak strips. Put the thing together and am soaking some rabbit skin glue to heat up in my trusty double boiler. Going to put a few coats of RSG on the panel before using the Yes glue to adhere the 44 x 72 inch black and white print (which I'll have made next week). The RSG keeps the Yes glue from absorbing into the panel and setting up too quickly.

Once the print is adhered to the panel, I'll cover it, (being a paper print) with about 5 coats of a 50/50 watered down acrylic matte medium. Then, the oil painting will commence...

OK... This looks like the final second version layout...

The original girl gone wild and the new version... Getting very close to starting the new painting.

The new central rising guy... not too different from the first version, but more compliant with the new version style.

And here is the ascending poodle, which is in the lower left corner of the composition. Taken out of context, this must look pretty silly... ...but of course there is a large goofy side to this whole composition...

I've been working on the new fox hunter drawing...

Below is a snippet of the original drawing:


...and this is the new drawing:


... and a stages of development animated gif.

 

Finishing up on the new drawing for the characters on the right side. Below is an image with the original and the new version... Keep in mind these are layout drawings that will be completely covered with oil paint, so I'm primarily focused on composition rather than good drawing... :)

Just started to play around with Gamblin's medium, Neo Megilp (pronounced "NEE-oh muh-GILP"). I'm quite surprised by it. Like an astronaut's Marogers - high tech medium. I fooled around a bit using it as a glaze over parts of my test paintings. As a glaze, the tech notes say you can use 90% Neo Megilp to 10% oil paint. Yeah! And it works...



Each of the above is small, about 1 1/4 inches in height... hence a rather rough appearance. Not sure there is really anything apparent, regarding glazing... but I see it...