Work Diary : Project 4 Elephants, 2 Snakes and Six Days of Black Magic
Finished
Day 20
Date January 6, 2013
Day 20: Done….. well sort of at least. Now is the time to step back from it an decide what parts need revision. At this stage I am liking 90%, only question I have is concerning some areas of the negative space. A lot more than I originally intended went away to create more fluid movement.
Hopefully in a few weeks I will have the next painting in this series finished and I can do all the final white space draw in.
Day 19
Date January 6, 2013
Day 19: I’m moving around the painting too quickly in some cases. I have had multiple instances of smudging spots with my mahl stick because previous areas are not setting quickly enough.
I cant even imagine doing this kind of work without drying mediums. I remember having problems of never getting my cadmium reds to dry in a reasonable amount of time. I have used Liquin, Japan and cobalt along with a untold amount of specialty blends. But I keep coming back to Daniel Smiths painting medium as the most usable.
Day 18
Date January 6, 2013
Day 18: Trying to get this done ASAP so that I can start painting 3 and finish before the upcoming show. Lot of minutiae work making the ever smaller fractures go away. Got alot done during this
Day 17
Date January 6, 2013
Day 17: It is amazing how little I get done when my normal schedule is upset by daytime appts. If I need to be awake during daylight hours all the muse is withered on the vine.
Day 16
Date January 6, 2013
Day 16: Lackluster day of progress. Too many projects need finishing before the show and less than 30 days to go.
Day 15
Date January 6, 2013
Day 15: So close yet so far it seems that so much work shows such small gains. End of each painting feels this way overwhelmed at the task, but fearful of starting anew. I just need to decide if the next painting will be the twin of this one or the next true successor in the series. Laziness comes down on the side of the twin since all the images are ready and available.
Day 14
Date January 6, 2013
Day 14: It seems like this piece is finally coming into its own. Edges are closing in and the white space is starting to have definition.
Now is the time to start readying the next set of images so I can start the 3rd in this series and hopefully finish before the upcoming show on the 27-28th. If im lucky a forth will be on the easel during the show so I can work on it as an alternative to sitting with a walmart
Day 12
Date January 6, 2013
Day 13 ish: I was so intent on making progress that I worked through 2 days without imaging when I normally would. Definitely shows more significant changes than the past few days have shown.
Only problem with working at this speed besides exhaustion is Im going through far more supplies than I have in a long time. Specifically my Utrecht 230 brushes. 1/8″ brushes lettering brushes are really not that hardy.
Day 11
Date January 6, 2013
Day 11: The edges are getting some attention. Once the framing of the white starts going away it forces the attention into areas I choose vs indiscriminate sampling.
Day 10
Date January 6, 2013
Day 10: I am really out of sync with my daily upload regiment. But, the shapes are finally starting to take some shape. My decisions are having smaller impacts as the color blocks become more set in the their color temperature and tone.
Day 09
Date January 6, 2013
Day 9: The shapes of negative space are really starting to appear. As with all the paintings in this series, large slash areas of white(neg) space will section the images. Sometimes it is hard to see where those sections are going to live until the colors start coalescing.
Day 08
Date January 6, 2013
Day 8: Life has intruded on the consistency of my postings… Damn Life.
Day 07
Date December 11, 2013
Day 7: Red Rum Red Rum….A bit of a crime scene splatter pattern is starting to happen.
Day 06
Date January 6, 2013
Day 6: Orange you glad I didn’t say banana. I really need to stop writing these when I am in an exhausted haze. Next it will be all work and no fun makes jack a dull boy……and a snowy winter at the Outlook Hotel.
I am impressed so far at how well the fixative has locked down the pencil lines. I have always struggled with translucent colors being muddied when the solvents ate through the fixative layer with a minimum of brush scrub. So big thumbs up for Utrecht Workable fixative… and its cheaper than the brands I previously used.
Day 05
Date January 6, 2012
Day 5: Spread of the bluebells. We now have blues in dark, medium an light. Tomorrow non blue colors come to the dance for a rumble……Sharks and Jets .ohhh
Day 04
Date January 6, 2013
Day 4: First spot of color. Sometimes it feels like a trite comparison to spring flowers adding color to the winter gloom. But, it only has impact from a outside observer. Much more akin to Einstein equations of time passing at a differing rates depending on the observer or observee.
Day 03
Date January 6, 2013
Day 3: Composition takes focus.
As soon as I start adding the blacks, decisions that shape the finished painting are in place. The negative space helps define what movement I can impose on the final image. Although no decision is ever final ( only inconvenient to change)
Tech Note. I am using a new workable fixative. Hopefully this one will lock the sketch down better than the last product.
Day 02
Date January 6, 2013
This the accumulation of a few weeks of gathering research material and images. Then Several frustrating hours trying to draw on canvas with a 2b pencil and not smudge each subsequent layer.
We end up with aprox. half the intended images that were earmarked for this particular painting. This is where you learn how invested you are in the chosen images and data and how precious your original intent was.
Since this is only half the original data, I will be doing a 2 paintings with the same base image but all new images above so I can see the differences in the choices vs final vision. Thus the original set of 4 becomes 5.
Day 01
Date January 6, 2013
Day 1: Start of a new painting. This will be the second in an intended set of 4. This is the daunting sight of a blank wall and a cluttered studio.
