Sunday, April 15, 2007

Life Painting 4-15-07 (Part 2)

Here is the final stage of today's session. The
painting isn't finished, but I have repositioned
her right foot and refined the forms, color and
tone over most of the figure. The group is meeting
again for the same pose next Sunday, but I may add
a few final touches to the above painting in my
own studio, choose a different viewpoint next
week and start a new painting.




I worked on her left leg, right arm and face
for about three quarters of the session today
and then remembered to take a snapshot
of the progression.

We met this morning at Whisky Row Artist's Trio for another three hour painting session of this beautiful figure pose. I was a little slow hitting my stride at the outset but after 30 minutes or so I began to feel engaged, and am pleased with the results. It always difficult to return to a painting in progress--your mood, focus and energy have shifted and you must decide if you will attempt to preserve the feeling and attitude of what you've already put on the canvas or follow your fresh mood and discover what direction the painting will take. I usually choose the second path and did so today.
I did quite a bit of work with the palette knife, though I applied the paint thinly, creating a syrup-like consistency by dipping the knife in walnut oil and stirring it into the paint on the palette. By using knives of various sizes it's possible to paint a very smooth finish and create soft edges this way, dragging the paint along the canvas and pressing it into the surface to obtain a flat application.

4 comments:

Mike Manley said...

Love that left leg! So Pyle!

william wray said...

Interesting pose, great drawing and painting. Do you really see shadows as being that black or is it shooting dark? I find myself drawn to the early stage becsue the general lighter tones and the free and chunky paint.

Bret Blevins said...

Thanks Mike and Bill!
Bill, the photo is darker than the actual painting, but the shadows on the original are very low in tone--especially against the black drape behind the chair on the painting's left side. She had one spotlight on her, which threw her into strong relief.
I think my recent visits to the Dutch School and Rembrandt show at the Phoenix museum nudged me toward a chiaroscuro effect!

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