Today, I worked on shaping Skeepee's head. I think it looks better--it's more 3-D and less illustrative than the previous stage which was kind of cute. And, I realized that her body comes up higher next to her ear, so that gave her more weight. Her whiskers are drawn at the wrong angle,they need to be parallel with the bottom of the canvas so that she's resting on a cushion.

I used a medium matte glaze today which is new for me. I don't know if the paint + medium will run the way it does with water washes, so I'll be experimenting with that. Today, I put Titanium white and medium over much of the fabric. I read that I should use Zinc white instead.

I don't usually work one area of the painting a time, either, but for some reason, I felt I needed to get the cat right first. Many painters start with the whole background and then lay color all over the canvas, but some painters seems to work from the top down. If this were a landscape, then it would be sky, mountains, meadow, and grass.


The clock is ticking. Gotta finish this before school starts.

Riley and Skeepee portrait

After transferring my pencil drawing to canvas to preserve accuracy of the figures, I discovered that Skeepee was too far over to the right so if the painting were framed, her ear would be cut off.
So much for painstakingly transferring the drawing once and then a second time and still not getting it right. To make the correction, using my brush, I blocked in the cat, and now I wonder if the eyes are too big. Maybe someone else can tell me. Or, as usually happens, I'll figure out my answer after studying the images (photo and painting) side-by-side for a while. I think that the weight of the kitty's head creates a different shape as well. I'll have to fix that. And, I'll have to study how the arm would fall since there is less space between her head and Riley's. Should have used a ruler to check width of Skeepee's body when I decided to use a smaller canvas and consequently have to move closer to Riley.

Riley and Skeepee study

Checking to see if this composition will look nice on 8 x10" canvas. First try at drawing a cat. Bone structure very different from dogs and humans. Next time, when I shoot white paper, use the flash...

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David and Deborah 15th Anniversary

Palette: skin tone: Naples yellow, Titanium White, Cad Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red, Permanent Rose (David) and more Cad. Yellow Med (Deborah); fabric: Paine's Grey, Permanent Rose, T. White, and Alizarin Crimson (Davids' robe). Background: White, Cobalt Blue, Cad. Yellow Med. Payne's Grey.

David and Deborah 15th Anniversary

Am I finished?

Today, I worked on David's hands, the background, the shape of the top of his head, and clothing all the while thinking about color.

According to my research, hands convey a lot of personality and can be as important as any part of the person, so I was aware that I was in for a lot of work. Julia had said that Daid had "monster hands" before this version--I think that spurred me on as I painted. I didn't want the hands to be a focal point, yet they are the closest part of the portrait to the viewer. I think that I may have done a good job, even though no one would say, "Oh, you captured David's hands--I'd know them any where." Hands are as big as a face, fingers are divided into equal segments at the joints and are different lengths. Knowing all of this can help--but I'm certain that a live model for portraiture would make painting much easier than using a photograph exclusively.

Not a Portrait

A little break from portraits. A painting for Fran, Sheryl's mom, of Queeche after rain. Eric Sacon took a photo which I used as reference.

Here's Johnny--I mean David

Adjustment, adjustment. Today, I worked on layering flesh colors without any light on over the canvas.
I think that this technique helped me mute the shadows a lot. David's nose was a bit too wide so I had to move his eye, on the right as I view his face, over to the left.

My face is rounder in this new version, a nod to the Bernstein side.

I'm not sure about the yellow in the background.

I'm really happy with my painting session today especially since, at moments, I enjoyed using thick paint instead of delicate glazes. I love that. Something about David's head looks like Johnny Carson--but I'm not complaining!