Day 269

Here's where I left off with "Red."























Skin is made of a lot of different colors. I make a palette of antique white, canyon orange, king's gold, white, red and even a bit of navy. I use a soft brush and stipple until I'm happy with the results, both color and texture.

Blocked in the mouth and tattoo.

Softening and cleaning up between lines where colors meet.

Gaining on it here. Still a bit of detailing and clean up, but she's starting to gain some life.

The first wash of Alazaran Crimson over the red. It's still transparent enough to let the texture and color show through, but adds a great deal of richness to the red.

Have to use some restraint here. Too many layers will make the color opaque and the depth could be lost. Live and learn.

Lots of clouds and changing lights today. Loved it, but not so good for photographing. Will get her finished portrait up tomorrow. But I'll miss the clouds, for sure.

Kitties in late afternoon sunlight.

It seeks Bilbo out and changes him into a storybook kitty.

At least, I see it that way. Then, my vision is affected by love for both cat and sunlight.





Hope your night is good and you wake up ready to go again, dear human.

Day 265

Painting "Red" today. (I'll be amazed if the captions line up with the photos. stoopid blogger.)

If not, I'll trust you to figure it out. I R sleepy.

After cleaning up the casting and sanding, a thin layer of black primer (spray) then a painted layer of acrylic after the primer's fully dried at least 24 hours.

First layer of drybrushing is very, very, very...dry. Drybrushing is a real discipline for me. It has to be done in layers to be done well. The first coat is a fine all over brushing. After that is a little less dry and, using a very flat brush, touching fewer hightlights. Easy to screw up. Lots of cussing.

Boys in the pool, me working outside. The poppet bird house is made by John Baucum. I'm hoping he'll make some for the Etsy store in the fall. It's held up wonderfully, even in this desert heat.

Full dry brush.

Back, fully dry-brushed.

Detail of drybrush. This is after several rounds of drybrushing, each lighter, touching fewer highlights than the previous. It's a subtle thing, but in the end, adds a luminosity that just isn't there without it.

I don't buy palettes or palette paper. I use old phone books for dry brushing and magazines for other painting. The pages are slicker and don't dry the paint. For dry brush, the newsprint leeching the water out is a benefit.

Red's a transparent color. I start with this bright red layer, undiluted but applied thinly so the lights and shadows of the drybrush show through.

Red dress. Stage the 1st. Sunlight is great for photographing such bright colors.

Self-snapshot of the artist, Saturday afternoon.
Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the events of 9/11/2001. I feel as I did on 9/11/2006:

I'm not a patriot. I'm a human being.

Tomorrow I'll finish up this piece and photo as I go. Please ask me anything about the painting process. Or anything else for that matter.

I hope you're sleeping well. I wish us all a good day.

g'night