Most of my recent works have been relatively small pieces. My mindset lately has kept me away from the easel and I’ve really been dragging my feet getting a new painting started. I’ve been filling page after page of my sketchbooks with pencil drawings, but have had no desire to paint. Wednesday, I made myself put some paint down. Now that I’ve got the ball rolling, I’m completely energized. This is a fairly large painting and will take a considerable amount of time to finish. I don’t think I’ll post “daily” progress on this one, but will attempt to do so periodically. The photo I’ve posted here is a small portion of the larger work.
To this point, I’ve washed the base colors on the primed board, roughed in the layout with a white charcoal pencil, and began the detail work over the base colors. This painting will be quite complicated and there are several challenges I’ve not tackled in the past, so it will be an adventure. My reference material is good, to that will be a big help.
Working in relatively small squares allows me to concentrate on each small detail without being distracted by the entirety of the painting. Hopefully, I’ve worked out all the compositional elements and how they relate to each other in my preliminary sketches. Of course, paintings sometimes take on a life of their own and don’t go according to plan. Those are the times when I feel my artistic metal is really being tested. Stay tuned…
