Started painting at 8:45am and finally cleaned my brushes at 7:30pm. Good day in the studio. I spent most of the time painting on the skin tones  for a 2nd time. I was trying to work on all of the edges and start developing more dimension.

The girl is a very pale blond, Yukio is Japanese, and Jose is Mexican, so their skin tones are very different. I used a mixture of naples yellow and cadmium red light for the girl’s main skin color – it’s a very warm peachy mixture.

Because the photo that I have of the girl doesn’t show the  structure of her hands very well, I had Tom take photos of my hands in the right positions so that I had a better reference.

I started adding dimension by using a cerulean blue in the shadow areas. Also notice how I started adding cut and dimension to her hair.  Because her hair is layered, I’ll have to create different  lengths by using darker colors for shadow and lighter color for the hair on top.  I used a script liner to start creating the look of layers.

I used mostly a mixture of burnt sienna and naples yellow for Yukio’s skin tones with permanent blue violet in the shadows. Decided to make his shirt red, but haven’t quite figured out what the design on the front of his shirt is. It looks very Japanese, but who knows? I started filling in his hair. He has it standing up so that the scalp shows, but I may give him thicker hair.

Worked on Jose’s face and hands, but I’m leaving his hair and beard until the skin tones have dried. I also painted in his pants. And now for the fun part……..I got up the nerve to start blocking in the painting in the background………what was I thinking? I’m planning on painting the background in neutral grayed out tones, but I hope the large abstract painting doesn’t distract too much. Although I think the realism of the people and the darkness of their clothing will make them stand out. If I leave the background a little less defined, then the sharp definition of the figures will bring them forward.

I love the size of this painting. It’s strange, but it’s developing more quickly than the last 24×36″ I painted.

Today I worked on painting in all of the clothing. Since most of the clothes are either black or dark blue….the challenge is to paint them in different mixtures of black and blue. If I just mixed values of black and white, then the painting would be boring. It’s  unexpected colors, glimpses of colors that liven things up.

For the girl’s black dress I mixed a black of forest green and alizarin crimson – I’ve been told that it’s the darkest black that’s  possible to mix. What I really like is that when adding white it yields a great purplish grey. Since the Yes! canvas is ultra smooth, I was able to  thin the paints with medium, use a sable brush, and completely cover the canvas without leaving brush strokes. I try to leave any visible brushwork until the end – otherwise if I want to make any changes, then I’m fighting to cover up brush strokes inevitably going in the wrong direction. Trust me, I’ve learned that from experience…lots and lots of experience.

The jacket is one that I’m inventing from my imagination with a little help from a photo I found online. I want it to be an iridescent white with a pattern woven in black. I should be able to glaze in lots of different colors to create the iridescent fabric. That should be fun. The collar is one that I’ve been wanting to paint for awhile – I think that it looks dressy and suitable for an elegant evening at an art opening.

I worked really hard to create dimensions and folds in the clothing fabric by using lots of different values of color. I wanted the black jacket to be a different color black from the girl’s dress. I painted the jacket in values of 1) prussian blue mixed with ivory black  2) alizarin crimson mixed with prussian blue and ivory black, and 3) alizarin crimson, prussian blue, forest green and  ivory black – that one made a really dark black. By adding white to these mixtures I was able to work with about 6 different values of black; I could have created more by continuing to add white in increasing amounts.

Darks dry lighter and lights dry darker. I’m hoping that when the paint on the clothing dries that it doesn’t look like just one shade of black. That’s why as you paint each day you have to re-instate the darks and lights.

The blue jacket was painted with mixtures of 1) indigo blue and black and 2) indigo blue and alizarin crimson. The blue jeans aren’t nearly the right color – the photo makes them look like very well worn black jeans. I searched my closet and found a pair of very dark indigo jeans to use as a reference tomorrow. Jeans are fun to paint – most of the texture and shape is done by dry brushing.

Note: I got a teeny tiny  bit of paint on my new easel today. Did I mention that I’m inordinately fond of my new easel? Okay, I’ll try not to keep raving about it…but it’s a joy to work with compared to my old one. This one is so easy to adjust and beautiful to look at and I do so love painting on a larger canvas. 36×48″ feels just about right to me. I have painted several 48×60″ canvases, but I doubt that I’ll go back to painting that large again. When I started painting my first one I had to laugh – I hadn’t realized that I’d have to stand on a step ladder to paint the top and sit on the floor to paint the bottom.

Actually got to put paint to canvas today. I really like working with the 36×48″ canvas on the beautiful new easel. Hm-mm…..I think my love of new shoes has been replaced by my love of new art supplies. I still get excited about new purses, but nothing that I’ve bought recently has excited me as much as the new easel. I just keep marveling at it.

I always use lots of reference photos when I paint. If possible, I enlarge them to the exact size that I’m painting. That way I can always take measurements to make certain that I’m keeping the features in the right place. I photographed this girl last summer when I did the Arts Beats and Eats Festival in Pontiac, Michigan. And now I can’t find her contact info, so I may never be able to tell her that I’m painting her. I do remember that she said her father was an artist, too.

I’ve decided to develop the figures in this painting before adding the background. I want the background to play off the characters and not the other way around. The background is a secondary player in this story.

I worked on the two men and could tell I was getting tired because they ended up less developed. The man on the far right is starting to look like Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Hope the resemblance fades when I paint in the dark mustache.

My paintings first start from an idea. Sometimes I get the idea and start searching faces in a crowd to find models to flesh out the idea. Sometimes I see a face which gives me an idea. And sometimes I see interesting faces that I photograph in different poses, then I hang the photographs in my studio until an idea strikes. Like lightening, eh?

My next step is to draw out the idea on paper – life sized. I use butcher paper from Sam’s Club which comes in a huge roll of 1000 (?) feet for around $20. It’s white, it’s cheap, and a roll lasts a really really long time.  It’s only 18 inches wide, so I tape together pieces to get the size  canvas I’m going to use. Center of Attention is going to be 36×48″, so I taped that size paper to my drawing board which is mounted on the 2x4s in my basement studio. I have cardboard over the windows so that when I turn off the lights I can use an enlarger to project the little 4×6″ photogrpahs onto the paper and draw them life sized.

Some people call that cheating….and I say that they’ve never tried it. When you enlarge a photo that much and then trace the projection…all you end up with is chicken scratches. You have a vague outline of the figure and know approximately where the features go. You still have to use your drawing skills to complete the drawing. And when you transfer it onto the canvas it gets covered up with paint and you still have to “draw” with paint to get the features in the right place.

This time I drew the figures and realized that I hadn’t left enough blank canvas space to include any story telling details in the background. I was going to scale down the figures and redraw them, when Tom suggested for the millionth time, “Why don’t you draw it in Photoshop?” And finally, after years and years I decided to give it a try.

So here is Version #1 with my three main characters standing in front of a graffiti painting I found online.

This is the actual photo that I’d downloaded from online. I’m going to find some Picasso paintings and use the two as a reference for the background painting I want to do. The idea is that the girl is The Center of Attention.”

In Version #2 I changed the background and the faces on two of the models. Since I’d already painted all three of the original people, I decided to use the faces of different models. It adds a completely slant on the story the painting is telling. The girl looks more amused than challenging. I’m working with 9 different layers in Photoshop. A little confusing at first, but once again pratice makes perfect.

I went back to the original idea of having them standing in front of a painting in a museum. I think the background colors are competing too much with the figures.

I desaturated the painting in the background. It would be interesting to do a very graphic background in black and white. I’ve also transformed the painting size by using Transform and Scale in Photoshop.

I only meant to rotate the girl’s head in this version, put clicking on Rotate Canvas rotated the entire picture. This was unplanned, but it gives a different focus to the painting. Americans read left-to-right so they first see the girl’s grin, then the men looking at her.

I’ve already done a painting with two men on the left looking at a girl on the right, so this is a nice variation.

Shifted the background painting to the right side behind the men, so that all eyes are looking left towards the girl. Added a little more color back into the painting. I like this version – it’s unlike anything I’ve painted before. Obviously the large eyes between the men is very distracting, so I’ll really have to work on designing a painting that will serve as background, not be too distracting, and still divert attention back to the girl.

All in all this has been a very worthwhile exercise. I’ve ended up with an idea that I never would have arrived at by doing the drawings on paper. I would have never drawn this many life sized variations. Now I just have to work up a drawing where the heads actually fit onto the bodies and the background painting is legitimately my artwork.

This is what Anthony’s hands looked like at the end of day one. I blocked in the lights and darks to give some form without much detail. Beginner painters always avoid painting hands because they’re considered the hardest part of the body to rend accurately. But I started to find that all the ways I drew the figures so as to avoid painting hands, well, after a while the poses started looking more unnatural than if I just painted in bad hands instead. The only way to get better at something is through practice, so now most of my paintings show at least one set of hands – usually more.

You can tell that I’ve added a lot more detail to the hands. I like to use alizarin crimson mixed with permanent blue violet for the shadows between the fingers. I think it’s a natural color that reflects the blood flow under the skin. Once again the critic/husband expressed an opinion – he thought the hands looked too wrinkled. I guess that’s because I’m always holding up my own hands and saying, “Now, what does a knuckle look like?”

I like to show the folds and creases in hands, but usually not the blue/green blood vessels. The exception was when I painted an 87 year old woman. Even then, Tom thought she looked too wrinkly…but really, who isn’t at 87?

I glazed thin layers of burnt sienna, cadmium red light, and transparent orange to give dimension.

After comparing the painting with the original photographs, I realized that I wasn’t developing the shape of the coat correctly. When using photos as reference, it’s a constant balancing act between following the photo exactly and putting the photo aside and painting by instinct. Photos flatten features and distort coloring, so you have to rely on your own instincts to make corrections. In this case the princess seam and folding on the right hand side of the coat hadn’t been developed correctly.

I dry brushed over with naples yellow to cover over the mistakes and add texture.

I felt that the coat was becoming too yellowish, so I dry brushed again using white.

I let the dry brushing dry for several days, then glazed over the coat with sap green. By glazing color over a light dry brushing you can achieve truer and brighter colors. When you just mix white with a color to get a lighter tone, then sometimes you dilute the color too much. The left side has been glazed over and the right shows the plain dry brushing.It will take several coats of glazing to get the right color. I can also glaze in blues and purples for shadows.

Notice how I am also starting to rework the buttons. They actually matched the coat, but I decide to make them a gold color. I found some great buttons I’d cut off an old coat to use as a reference. So, I’m standing there holding a button with my left hand and trying to paint it with my right hand. At least I can hold the button in different angles, so they don’t all look alike. And who says I don’t paint from life?

This is what the painting looks like as of today. It still isn’t finished, but I’m going to set it aside for a few days so that I can come back to it with fresh eyes.#1) I need to look at it in a mirror – that helps me see any drawing mistakes I may have made. It helps me make sure all the features are in the right place. #2) I need to look at it upside down. That helps you with composition problems and just simply gives you a different perspective.

One of your eyes is always stronger than the other, so looking at a painting from a different angle lets you see any mistakes that the dominate eye may have caused you to make.

lol…I guess I’ll have to quit referring to Adam as Anthony. I called him today to let him know that I’m using him in a painting. A 12 year old boy answered the phone and said , “Why is everybody always calling for Anthony at this number? I’m a 12 year old boy and this is my phone I don’t know anyone named Anthony.” So, I Googled “Anthony Smith” and it turns out that he’s a Cincinnati Bengal football player. And that name doesn’t show up anywhere associated with the address he gave me. So……did he fill out the Model Release Form with false information? And if so, why would he let me take several photographs of him and then fill out the release form with false info? Weird. Henceforth the man in this painting will simply be refereed to as Adam.

I have continued to develop the painting – filling in the background, showing marks on the concrete wall, and making the street look more realistic. My art critic/husband said the street looked like cobbles stones. I think it’s too much detail and will work to make it look more like blacktop. The lines on the wall are the joints where the concrete was poured, but I think they may stand out too much and the holes/dents in the walls look too much like waves on the lake.

It’s going to be a challenge to make the painted wall look like a graffiti painting and not too realistic. I tend to paint with a lot of detail, but in this case I need to leave the background looking a little less finished.

This detail shows how I’ve been developing the background. I’m outlining all of the details with black paint which will give it definition, but also make it look like a more amateurish painting on a concrete wall. I changed the color of the snake from green to black, made the shape of the snake conform to the tree to give it a more sinister twisty look, and have started adding some definition to the water.

Notice how I’ve painted over the holes/dents in the concrete wall and changed the street to look more like blacktop. The waves on the lake are more defined, but I’ve noticed that they aren’t in any sort of realistic wavy pattern. Is there a realistic wavy pattern in nature?

Also glazed white over the black snake so that later I can glaze blues and greens to make it look glistening…and more sinister. Just all together more “snaky.” And yes, “snaky” is a word.