Going with this

Well, I pretty much committed to these lines today. I think they are all right. I snuck a sliver of a little finger in so the guy's hand wouldn't look odd. I hope it works! Tomorrow I'll try to get the shadows on the fingers in and start replacing the chalk with a thin wash of color. 

   I so wish I could work faster. It takes me a long time to see what I should do next. That is exactly the reason I don't like a whole lot of the work I did in grad school; because a lot of the time, getting finished was more important than making the work right, or what I wanted it to be. I guess I should try to remember what a luxury it is that now I don't have to rush. 

It's Always Something

   Well, this is my struggle at the moment. There are lots of good reasons to keep this the way it is, both in terms of form and content. But I know it is a little jarring because of the hidden finger. I'm not really sure what to do about this. In every project, there is always something that isn't easy.

    Most of the color you see here is pastel. I don't know much about oil painting, but I am familiar with the direction of "fat over lean" meaning the under layers should remain very thin so that (in an oil painting) the upper layers won't crack as easily. But it also has an application in acrylic paint, because if the paint gets built up in only certain areas (like in trouble spots like this one) the surface becomes uneven because the texture of the canvas gets more filled in in those areas. It happened in the veil painting I finished a little while ago. I don't feel too badly when it does, because I've seen it many times in old master paintings. But still, I'd like to avoid it if I can. So, instead of trying to figure out the solution to this problem with paint, chalk pastels allow me to experiment with fewer risks.

     I guess tomorrow I'll move to a different spot on the canvas and let this sit for a while. 

     Who said working from photos was easy?

So far

I spent the last couple of sessions working on the hands on the left, and a little bit on the robe. In the photo, the father's little finger is covered by the mother's hand, and her thumb is covered by his. I like how they are sort of an invisible puzzle piece, locked together, but his hand looks odd (so far) with only three fingers. I've penciled in another finger. We'll see how it looks in the morning.

Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope you are all as lucky and blessed as I feel.

IF: Family

    Illustration Friday's new prompt is "Family". There are lots of people in my life who are family, and some have earned the title not by blood, but by being close to me. This is a portrait of those intertwined relationships, old and new.

Center of the Universe

    Here's what a few hours with everybody out of the house will do : ) I missed going to the new Star Wars movie, but it was totally worth it.

  Yesterday, I went down to start drawing and at the last second, held the canvas up to the light. And wouldn't you know it, I saw light coming through. So I hauled out the gesso again (why do I have to do everything twice?) and put on a another layer. I'm glad I had to, because I wasn't a fan of that heavy opaque blue/purple. I like the transparent layer that you can see here.

    Twice in my life, I've had the privilege to photograph pregnant women. Even though I rarely work from photos, when I ran across this one recently, the possibilities were really intriguing to me. At this point, it is pretty undeveloped, but I can see exactly how it I going to look. I'm kind of excited :)

The Eternal Return (to the studio and the holidays)

    It happens every year: I burn my candle at both ends to finish grading, and then, right after, it is time to make Christmas happen at my house. But, before shopping and putting up the tree, I decided to get myself back on track in my studio.

    It ended up taking me an hour just to get this blue undercoat done. The heavier canvas fooled me into thinking my first coat of gesso was enough. But, as soon as I brushed on the beautiful blue/purple I mixed as an undercoat, it soaked right through the canvas and faded before my eyes. That meant the gesso was too thin and was not creating enough of a barrier for the paint to sit on top of, so it is likely that all of my colors would soak in and be transparent. This was not a problem I was prepared to deal with for the whole duration of painting this piece. I'm no Helen Frankenthaler.

    Since I already had some color on the canvas, I decided to try to add some gesso to it rather than just putting on a new white layer. I've never tinted the gesso before, but lots of painters do it. Another solution would have been to use a coat of gel medium before the gesso, but it tends to smooth out the canvas and I like more of a heavy texture to drag my brush against. We'll hope this step takes care of the problem.

     It's probably not all that visible in this photo, but the basic structure of the painting is already there. Assuming the canvas is sealed enough now, the next step will be to draw the image in with chalk. Stay tuned!

A New Litho Buddy

    Well, there are 8 exams, 32 drawings, 23 lesson plans and an assortment of extra credit to grade between me and my studio.
    But, good news: I have another litho student. To make a long story short, she broke her leg (ei yi yi) in a rugby match and had to take an Incomplete for my class. Since she'll be working independently anyway, I offered her the option to do litho and she is interested in trying it. Yay for another graining partner.
     I've been waiting for the can of Senefelder's all this time, since November 12! I was just about ready to cancel the order, because I did another search and found the same ink at Takach, who would ship it in 1-2 days. I really wish I had shopped there before. But, it turns out that Graphic Chemical has been held up because they actually make the ink, and they have been waiting on a varnish they need to do it. So we've all been waiting on someone. I wonder how far back that goes.
    Anyway, here's the bright side: I know the ink will be fresh when I get it.
    And by the time I do, maybe I'll be re-charged and ready to tackle printing again. Only 63 things to go...

Something Completely Different

Well, I spent all day grading and writing an exam, so all I've been able to do art-wise is wish I could get into the studio. Pretty soon, I'll get my wish.
     On days like today, when I have to keep at the work of school, I sneak in little things like this video to re-energize myself.
     If you can, listen to this with headphones. The beautiful old tune, Over the Rainbow, arranged  and performed by Robert Oetomo is played on a five octave marimba, which means the low notes are deep and gorgeous. My marimba is only a 4.3 octave size, so this piece is out of my league. But maybe someday I'll have one. I'll have to sell a lot of paintings first :)
    Enjoy it:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnmXmi4fb-8