Starting to work on the characters now...

The juggler is uncanny, the embodiment of physical acuity, a symbol for the precision of human secular constructs... especially this guy who can juggle while appearing to be in a gravity free situation.

Working on the "girl gone wild" 2nd version figure... I thought it interesting to compare her with the first version. 1st ver on left - 2nd ver on right.

For this style of painting, I rely on a maul stick to steady the hand. Being a large picture - 4' x 6' - I need a long maul stick. I found the perfect candidate with a 6' hollow aluminum tube which has just the perfect amount of flexibility. Even though it is lightweight, it still gets pretty heavy in the hand after hours of painting... so, since I use a 2" overshoot border on my panels, why not put some screws in there to use as resting points for the maul stick... why not! Works great...



Also starting to work on the landscape in the background...

Working on a large painting, I felt the need to be able to store mixed oil paint for long periods of time so I would be able to match exactly previously painted areas for touch ups, blending, etc. You may recall I experimented using weekly pill dispensers... wasn't a good idea. However, using small bottles to hold the paint with water on top of the paint seems to work quite well.

Below is the evidence. The paint in the bottle in the photo is about 6 weeks old.


A and B show my home made paint bottle rack and a close up of a bottle of water covered paint. C shows the bottle open with water still in it... and D shows the paint with water removed and a gob spread nicely on my palette, pretty much as fresh as the day I put it in the bottle.

When first put in the bottle, before adding water, I put the top on and tap the bottle hard on a table surface to knock the paint down flat to the bottom. I use a plastic tube with finger over the top to get water into the bottle. Works well... one of those plastic tubes that new size 1 sables come in...

Getting the water out is easy. I just dump it in my waste can which is generally filled with old paper towels from various clean ups. Then I gently shove a tissue (Kleenex type) into the bottle and vigorously shake it upside down. A little paint gets on the tissue, but not much and the excess water drops are removed.

The bottle in the photo is the 0.25 oz version from www.ebottles.com. The little bottles cost $0.19 ea. in quantity... they're cheap enough, so when done they can simply be thrown out...

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...