One of the obvious challenges of this piece is going to be the rigging. I got a decent start on it today. I dare say I will be able to paint rope by the time I finish this painting. And in painting all of these details, I have the opportunity to seriously study what is there and ponder the complexity of it all. My admiration for sailors increases with every painting session.
Peek - A - Boo
HIs face is beginning to emerge. He has skin tones, though not enough yet. Some of his features are coming through. My problem is that whenever I stand back and look at him, I see my son. Am I seeing what isn't really there? Am I painting what I see subconsciously? Or am I just verifiably insane? We may never know.
Soft Sleeper
She's getting close. Lots of layering. She seems to be sleeping peacefully, but there are areas that need some more work. This is the stage that can go either way. I have had painting sessions where there is just one little thing that needs to be done and I can't get it to save me. Other times I feel like there is so much to do and it comes together so quickly that I can't believe it. So we'll let her get some rest and see what tomorrow brings...
Paint By Number
I had a friend ask what my process looks like. I was thinking that I was sharing that since I post at each stopping point along the way. But today I realized that I've only been sharing the stopping points, and not the points in between. So here is what I call the paint-by-number stage. I spent years watching Bob Ross paint happy little trees that just magically appeared on the canvas. When I started painting I thought it would be like that. While I still have fond memories of watching those happy little trees, there is a big disservice to the art business in those shows. It just doesn't happen like that. I could spend an entire post explain all the reasons why, but I'll move on. Every artist has their own approach. For me, I find the lights and the darks and lay them in all around the figure. Sometimes it's only in a single area, like the lips. Other times it's a bigger area like here, the entire face. And then I blend it to a soft stage like this...
And then I do it again and again. I call this layering. Each time I repeat the process I see lights I didn't see before. I see darks that are darker. I see shapes that are not quite right. So I paint by number again and soften again until suddenly, there she is. So tune in again tomorrow and we'll see if we got there!