the struggle at paint corner...progress report..

[takes_a_fairy]

Hi y'all. This is my promised update on the portrait of the baby.

Foraging unknown territory whilst in the throes of vertigo symptoms. This has been the struggle of trying to do creative painting when one cannot recall one’s own skill-set and/or knowledge of color mixing. You will see the pattern of wrong turns and forgotten “know-how” only to be triggered hours later after the bad paint has dried.

This is the photo I’m working from: This is the start of the portrait:





Began to apply paint here:






Here is where I started getting lost: I went too dark and gray on the skin and then washed it off with turpentine. Then I made the blue too rich for denim and washed it off, too. I have never washed oil paint off a canvas until this painting. *sigh*





This is a bad cell pic-but back on track:




And this is where I am with it currently. Much better. Just FYI-reflections on the wet paint are making the face look blotchy rather than blended. Better photo to come.




I have some tweaking to do with lights and shadows in the face and the rest of his skin. Plus finishing the overalls, the dog (You’re seeing shadows I had begun to block in on the dog. Those will show through from under the white fur once I get that painted on.)

Here is a photo of another dog I painted for someone else a few years ago, to give you an idea where I’m headed with the dog in the current painting.

The difference will be that I won’t be making the baby's dog as bright-white in this painting as he is in the photo because he will compete with the focus of this painting…the baby. I have snap shots of the dog with longer fur for referencing the right colors.

Well, now you’re all caught up with my slow progress. I am feeling better about this painting as I go along, which is a good thing. The knots in my stomach over this project are gone, too, thankfully . *grin*

Feel free to make any comments or observations. I’ve made enough progress now that starting over would really not be good for my morale. Hence, I will consider any comments as more eyes to help me ward off possible oversights and disasters. Thanks. =D

So, how are your recent projects going?