3-13 & 3-14-08: The Return

Total hours for painting - 29.65 hours.

Finishing touches.  I redid the snow under the foreground trees, making it darker.  That necessitated making changes in the snow around them.  I tried varying things, but was dissatisfied.  I then realized that I was trying to paint the picture as if Jerry Yarnell might be judging it, thinking of his instructions about negative space and such.  The background in this picture is just an excuse, a setting for the portrait.  So I satisfied myself, not what I thought he might want.  I had trouble with the baby's fingers and had to do them again and again.  Finally they seemed good.  With the model picture, the fingers were a bit vague.  When I signed the picture this time, I used the #2 Creative Mark synthetic round brush that I mentioned earlier.  It's such an excellent brush for detail.  It worked much better than the scriptliner brush.

I'm done. Yea!!!!

3-12-08: The Return

I worked on the woman's hand and fingers and the baby's fingers.  I added a fringe to the baby's sleeve.  I redid the left side of the baby's blanket, covering it over with thick paint and had to let it dry a while.  Later I added more color to it.  I highlighted all the clothes and worked on the shadows under the trees.  That still needs more work.  I thought I might be done today, but there are still things that aren't quite right.

3-11-08: The Return

I realized today I'm in the final stages of the painting.  I cleaned up the edges, making sure the shapes of things are okay and did some highlighting, all with the brushes I've used the last few times.

3-09-08: The Return

This time I used a #2 round synthetic sable, a #1 round bristle and a #2 filbert bristle brush.  I added a side edge to the baby's blanket and more rounding to the shape of it.  I also added layers and definition to the baby's fingers and the woman's hand and fingers.  I realized she needed one more finger.

3-08-08: The Return

Today I painted layers into the fur fringe on the baby's and the woman's hoods.  To do this I used the ½ inch foliage bristle brush like I did for the underpainting.  I mixed ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and gesso initially for the first couple of layers.  As it became lighter and lighter, I used more blue, Payne's grey and gesso.  I drew the bristle across the fur area like before, away from the faces and the baby's shoes.  It now has depth.  I will add another layer or two for highlights.  I worked more on shading the baby's blanket, and the woman's coat.  I also added in the baby's fingers and more of the clothes and blanket on the baby's chest.  I painted in some shadows on the woman's abdomen.  The shadows need to be more uniform in color.  For the woman's arm and the part of the baby's blanket, I think I need to shade them more like they are cylinders.  The brushes I used were a #1 round bristle, a #8 flat synthetic, and a #2 round bristle.

3-06-08: The Return

Today's brushes were a #6 flat bristle brush and a #8 flat synthetic sable.  I used both for adding layers of snow to the trees.  The coloring was tricky here.  If there was too much white in the purplish blue, it blended to much into the hillside.  I also added a little shadow.  I still have some work to do on them, but I'm not sure what it needs exactly.  Then I worked on the woman's coat and the baby's blanket, using the colors from before for her coat.  The baby's blanket I made a little brighter burnt sienna color for the second layer of color.

3-02-08: The Return

This time I used the purple I created for underpainting the fur around the hoods and to darken the underpainting of the trees in the foreground.  I used a number # 6 bristle brush.  I then started painting using gentle strokes to make the woman's cheek rounder.  With a #4 flat synthetic sable I dabbed on some the rosy-colored paint in the dark area below the cheek.  When I tried to blend it with my finger, I accidently removed some layers, leaving a dark round space.  I tried to cover it again, but I couldn't do it properly.  I decided to let it dry overnight.  I think my paint was too thin and wiped off rather than blended.  At that point I worked on shading and adding more color to her coat, including the white splotches that were part of the animal hide.  I used a liner brush, #2 and #4 round synthetic sables and the #6 bristle for this task.

2-28-08: The Return

I worked more on the woman's face.  I think it is better.

2-27-08: The Return

My goal for painting today was to make my baby not ugly.  I believe I've succeeded.  Using the skin colors I created before, I worked on its face.  Then I worked on the mother's face, but was less successful.  I added some paint, wiped it out, made the chin larger and then smaller, rounded the cheeks, made them less round.  Mom's teeth protruded too much so I wiped them out.  I'm still trying to figure out how to make it look like my model.  I used the following brushes: a #2 round synthetic brush, a #4 flat synthetic brush, a #1 round bristlette synthetic brush and a #1 round bristle brush.  I used short dabbing strokes.

2-26-08: The Return

Today I began by blocking in the fur fringes on the woman's and the baby's clothes.  I used a ½ inch foliage brush which is cut at an angle and pulled it out to the edge of the fringe in quick movements.  I used a combination of ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, a dab of diox. purple and white to create a purplish grey tone for this underpainting.  Next, I tackled the baby's face and then the woman's, using the same colors as before.  I used #2 round, a #2 and #8 flat Creative Mark synthetic brushes.  I also used a #2 bristle brush to help shape and highlight the faces.  Both faces look better, but the woman does not look Native American and the baby is still ugly.  After that I dry-brushed burnt sienna onto the woman's clothes to start shaping them.

2-24-08: The Return

I finished underpainting both the baby and the woman, except for the fur on the parkas around their faces.  I must say that this is a very ugly little pig baby at this point.  Poor thing.  The brushes I used were the #2 and #6 bristle brush, the Creative Marx #2 synthetic flat and 2# round brushes.  The color of skin is normally a combination of some kind of red, some kind of green and white.  I sometimes add Paynes Grey to grey it a bit.  The underpainting lip color is usually a combination of alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue and white.  I sometimes temper this base with other colors.

2-22-08: The Return

Using a #6 flat bristle brush and a little ultramarine blue, diox. purple and white I redid the background trees to make them stand out a little more.  Then I used cad. red and white to highlight some of the snow to match the sky.  After that I mixed a touch of diox. purple and ultramarine blue to burnt sienna and white to create a background brown.  With that brown, using the #6 bristle brush I began painting the undercoating for the woman's parka.

2-21-08: The Return

I realized my sky wasn't big enough.  So I brought the horizon line down some.  I repainted the sky and put the next layer on the snow, toning it down a lot and blending everything while the paint was still wet.  I added some trees at two different distances for depth.  I think I may have greyed it too much.  Using a white charcoal pencil I started drawing in the woman and her baby.  I decided not the add the tee pee.  Since I want the woman and baby to be the focal point, it just seemed like the tee pee would put things out of balance.

2-20-08: The Return

Using a # 6 bristle brush, plus a mixture of white gesso with a touch of cad red and cad yellow I painted in the first layer of snow highlights, essentially identifying the lay of the snow, although at this point it looks more like white on purple water.  On the horizon, using a #8 flat synthetic sable and a mixture of hookers green, burnt sienna and a touch of purple, I dabbed in the distant evergreen trees.  At that point I decided I'd better determine where the teepee and the Native American woman would be standing.  I created her in a couple sizes, so I can test that out tomorrow.

2-19-08: The Return

It's been several years since I've done a Native American painting.  Based on some recent interest in my Native American art, I decided it's time I painted a new one.  I spent a lot of time going through reference material and composing a scene in my head.  When I finally found something I liked, I assembled a new stretcher frame and stretched a canvas, then searched through Jerry Yarnell's books and found a snow scene.

Using a hake brush I started by gessoing the sky.  At the horizon line, I then applied cad. red, blending upward.  With ultramarine blue I started at the top of the sky and blended down until the colors met.  From the horizon on down, using a #10 bristle brush, I used a mix of white gesso, ultramarine blue and some dioxizine purple to create the underpainting for the snow.