Lights and darks are finding themselves. The paint is still very thin.

The underpainting a little further along. What looks purple is basically white canvas.

The painting has started. First I strengthened the drawing lines with thinned out Veronese green then started blocking in the darks with cobalt blue turquoise, also thinned with turpentine.

Jars

Pastel pencil on Fabriano Roma

Onion/Flea

Oil on canvas

This is the drawing I did for a painting I am going to start. Pastel pencil on Fabriano Roma.

Inside-Outside #1

Inside-Outside#2

Inside -Outside #3

Inside-Outside #4

These are all pastel pencil on Fabriano Roma paper.

This is the final painting. Since the last entry I let the whole painting dry thoroughly. Then I went over it with a very thin wash of white and cobalt blue. This has the effect of unifying the painting and bringing out some nice optical greys. Then I worked more neutrals, darks and color into places where they were needed. I also put in some more details and corrected the drawing in a few areas. Finally I put in the faint background where the white canvas had been.

As you can see since the last post, I've worked mostly on Nathan and a few other places. This was done mostly with neutrals and some local color.

More adding of neutrals and adjusting the values, i.e. the lights and darks.

Just neutrals have been added. The drawing is starting to be a little more definite.

Now I've started to add the neutrals and to define Nathans portrait a little better. The form is carried by these neutrals.

More color has been added and I'm aiming at balancing the warms and cools before I start to put the neutrals in.

The colors are getting more vivid as I keep adding to what is already there trying to build up the paint surface. This is somewhat slow as the colors take a while to dry and I like working on dried or almost dry paint.

Well a lot has happened since the last post. I've been putting in color, not necessarily color seen but felt. The local color and the neutrals will be put in later. The forms seem stronger now which points up the fact that a change of color is always stronger than a change of tone.

Here is a final shot of the under painting. You can probably see I've started to add some color around the edges of the shapes.

This is the painting a little further along. This was taken around the middle of December 2007.

Here I've started the under painting using a mix of cobalt blue and cadmium red medium mixed with some Cremnitz white and thinned out with turpentine. The shapes are more distinct and its now clear how I've changed the design. The drawing that I did was more of a vertical and now the painting will be more of a horizontal.

On a 36"x42" linen canvas, I have put the drawing down with a pastel pencil and started to go over the main shapes with Veronese green oil color thinned with turpentine. I use the green color because it will still be visible even when I start putting in the underpainting.

I started this next painting in October of 2007. Its of my friend Nathan, aka Andy, whom I felt would be an excellent subject. And he didn't disappoint! After taking many photos of him, I chose two to combine for the painting. This is the pastel drawing that I did from the photos. I did the drawing to get a better idea of the composition and the color. As you will see in the next few posts I changed the composition quite a bit.