11-22-07: Going Home

Finishing touches.  Today I added holes for the cane beside the footprints, bottons and button holes for the coat.  After that I touched up the snow on one of the branches in the corner and signed the painting.  The painting is now complete.

11-21-07: Going Home

I'm in the finishing stages of the painting.  I worked on her coat and scarf, added more layers to the twigs in the corner, painted in her cane and added the foot prints.

11-19-07: Going Home

I worked more on the old woman's face, adding age lines and defining her eye sockets.  I added snow to her boots and a few dabs of snow around the front of the boots.  I wiped out the foot prints in the distance, added snow to above the windows and doors and a little banked up against the house.  After that I started adding snow to the bush in the lower right.

11-18-07: Going Home

I shaded/highlighted the landscape snow using gesso, a touch of yellow and a touch of orange.  I lightened the snow to the right of the old woman.  I then worked on the snow on the trees, highlighting and shaping it.  At the base of the trees I piled a little snow onto the lower branches, blending it into the ground.  For this I used a # 6 bristle filbert brush.  Using a scriptliner brush I painted in the twigs/bushes in the lower right corner.

Next I worked on shaping the old woman's coat and scarf.  I spent a lot of time on the woman's face.  It's really hard to make a tiny face old looking.  I'm having difficulty making her face look saggy enough.  I'm having a hard time with the eye sockets and the eyelids.  They just aren't right yet.  Sculpting her face I used a #2 round Ebony Splendor Creative Mark synthetic brush, a thin scriptliner brush, a #4 bright Ebony Splendor Creative Mark synthetic brush and a #1 round bristle brush.  This is all about experimenting.

11-16-07: Going Home

Using a #2 round Ebony Splendor Creative Mark synthetic brush I worked on the old lady's face.  I wiped out the eyes and started again.  I added teeth and widened her grin.  At least now she no longer looks like Don Rickles.  After that I shaded in the dress and added Payne's Grey in the inner sleeves and along the edge of the coat.

11-15-07: Going Home

Using a #2 round sable, pale lavender and pale blue I underpainted the snow on all three new trees.  After that, using a #2 and #8 flat synthetic sable, I changed the old woman's coat from reddish burgundy to a rich dark brown, using Payne's Grey for the darkest areas.  I used the leftover reddish color from the other day, added a bright yellow/green and some white to create the color for the woman's face, then underpainted her face.

One thing I think is important to say now and again is how I manage to keep the acrylic paints from drying up on the palette.  When I'm done for the day, I mist the paint that is mixed up on the pallette and the piles of pure color.  I cover them with clear plastic lids, the kind packages of cookies and other things come in.  My pallette is a plastic Tupperware type container made just for this purpose.  It too has a lid that seals.  These steps extend the usable life of the paint quite a bit.

11-14-07: Going Home

I started adding layers to resculpt the snow.  I added the small trees again and worked a little on the snow on the larger tree on the left.  Next I underpainted the old woman except for her face - that takes more careful work than I'm willing to do tonight.  I'm not sure what color I want her clothes to be, so I'm experimenting.

11-12-07: Going Home

I drew in the old woman.  The problem began when I started adding snow to the evergreen trees.  I messed them up - a bristle brush turned out to be the wrong brush to use.  With the tall evergreen on the back right, I tried to wipe off the snow, but it made the sky green.  So I carefully wiped off the green.  Using a #8 flat synthetic sable, I redaubed on the limbs.  The tall evergreen in the left foreground I may have salvaged by daubing in more green and Payne's Grey and wiping out only some of the snow.  The two little evergreens I wiped out altogether and painted in more ground snow.  I also wiped out the bushes in the corner.  I'll start over with them next time.

11-11-07: Going Home

I added layers to the trees, brushed in the corner and sculpted the snow a little more.  I also added snow to the roof of the house as well as adding windows, a door and a chimney.  In white charcoal pencil I outlined where the woman would be.

11-10-07: Going Home

The path looked too much like a road that had been scraped of snow.  So with blues and lavenders I took a number #6 bristle brush and painted in wide "U" sweeping motions back and forth up the bank on either side.  In the lower left corner I blocked in a bolder, but it didn't look right, so I wiped it off and repainted the snow.  After that I painted in evergreen trees using a # 10 bristle brush and a mixture of green, purple, blue and a little white gesso to create the undercoat for the trees.

11-09-07: Going Home

I worked for an hour shading the snow with shades of lavender.  To put the woman in the right place on the painting, I realized I needed to reshape the road.  I also created a tree well.

11-08-07: Going Home

I made a thin paint of white, blue, Burnt Sienna and purple.  With a small scriptliner brush, I pulled up the deciduous trees.  The consistency of the paint is important here.  I can get it just right, but as I apply it, some of it dries out.  So I have to add more water and then the consistency is wrong and it makes the trunks bleed outward and become too fat.  Next I used a hookers green, a touch of purple and a touch of Burnt Sienna and white with a #8 flat synthetic sable to add in the evergreen trees near the house.  I redrew the house.  After that, I blocked in the roof of the house with the same flat sable using a mixture of purple-grey.  For the sunny side of the house I used Burnt Sienna, orange and white.  For the shaded side of the house I used the purple grey mixture plus white and Burnt Sienna.  After that I started sculpting the snow with a mixture of white and a touch of yellow.  In Jerry's painting, the snow has melted off the road, leaving dirt.  My snow is not melted.  I didn't want any dirt showing because I don't want my old lady walking in the mud.  So I'm winging the coloring.

11-07-07: Going Home

Using a #10 bristle brush, I underpainted the road and the sloping hillsides with gesso, dioxizine purple, ultra marine blue, a touch of Payne's grey and a little burnt sienna.

11-05-07: Going home

I underpainted the sky and background hills and trees.  After lightly wetting the background I gessoed the entire sky area using the hake brush.  I added orange and yellow in horizontal streaks across the sky at the base of the sky.  I had to keep adding more because it kept getting washed out with the gesso.  Next I used purple, a touch of blue and cad red light.  With a number ten bristle brush I scumbled clouds while the gesso was still wet.  Periodically I had to add more of the various colors to achieve the desired effect.  With a touch of blue, purple and burnt sienna I smudged in the distant background to make it look like trees and mountains.  I tried to be careful to make sure there were no hard lines.  I want the colors to be bright.

11-04-07: Going home

I spent time searching for the subject of my next painting.  I found a snow scene that Jerry Yarnell painted in his book, Painting Basics - title: Winter Delight.  I will follow that one, modifying it and add an old woman all bundled up walking through the snow.  She's a cheerful looking soul.

Since I'm out of all but really small canvases, I decided to use one I had already painted.  It was my first painting of Jesus sitting on a rock.  At the time I was proud of it, but at this point I don't display it.  So I started out by wiping out Jesus with white gesso.  When it was dry I sketched in the scene, minus the old lady.