Julia 2

Such a challenge last week. Same model, but I had a lot more difficulty. Didn't plan my time, and rushed with the bottom third of the painting. Usually I work all over the canvas at the same time, but not this time. Why can't I just leave some of it unfinished?

Blue Sash Start

I enjoyed painting the sashes so much that I wanted to try one sash in a longer format; this canvas is 12x24. I mapped out the drawing with ultramarine, after spending a fair amount of time setting up the sash so that the folds would make the composition I was looking for.

Sash & Shovel

Working on a still life series of  familiar items; the sashes my mother collected when we lived in France and traveled to Greece, the beach toys my grandchildren played with last summer. This piece is 12x12.

A Start with Orange Shovel

I had previously toned this 12x12 canvas with a yellow, which I am now having to really fight with. Consider what goes down as a ground color, it does make a difference! I am enjoying the folds and stripes of this woven belt which my mother bought 50 years ago in Greece!

Julia

We started our figure session by doing six 5 minute drawings, then voting on our favorite pose. The pose with the most votes was it for the nights session. I used the palette knife exclusively for this one. I didn't see how much yellow was in the light side of her back until almost the end which tells me I need to look closer before I start putting paint on!

4 Ways

The assignment was to do hand studies. My idea was to use the classical palette of titanium white, yellow ochre, cadmium red light, and chromatic black (Gamblin). I also wanted the hands to radiate out from the center of the canvas, which involved rotating the canvas a couple of times. Each study took about an hour, I used natural light from the window in all cases, using both brush and palette knife.

Setting Up

Getting ready to play! Found a great wood shop while in Vermont for the weekend, gathered all our materials and we're almost ready to start. Patches of snow around, but they didn't have much of a winter.