Sunday, December 29, 2019

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?

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