A few nights ago I began working on a couple of small canvases I'd prepared with oil ground a few days prior. Thought I'd try some more colour studies.
At 20x22 inches, these are a bit larger than the "Notes on Colour" series. You can see those on my website and at Bluerock Gallery
(happily they've already sold a few!)
My starting point was to use a severely limited palette of analagous(ish) colours.
First, blind drawing with Kama oil sticks.
Then oil paint: Burnt Sienna, Mineral Violet, Titanium White.
A little Cadmium Red Light to brighten things up a bit, then Payne's Grey toned with a touch of Pthalo Green Deep.
I sometimes apply little splothes of paint mixes to test the colour in concert, before painting in whole areas.
Greys can be a bit tricky to get right: warm or cool, dark or light?
The spectrum of so-called "mud colours" is broad.
After several hours, arriving here.
Finished for the night at 3am - Whew!!
This sometiems happens when I've not painted in some days.
I've been experiencing some shoulder, elbow and wrist issues, a repetetive stress injury caused mainly by painting alot and not taking breaks. (d-uh)
Then I have to rest - rest!! Truly, resting is an excercise in willpower.
Nice problem to have, in the larger scheme of world events, but still it sucks when I can't paint.
So, I will be starting an excersice/physio regime in an actual gym in a couple of weeks. Never thought I'd do that! But there you go: it's a case of "make art or die" and I'll do whatever it takes to fix things and prevent further injury... and I find myself looking forward to a general strengthening my body as well.
Different lighting and different orientation.
The two colour studies are very close, probably only the still-white areas will be chromatically toned a bit, with as little darkening as possible. A few days of other work, and hopefully early next week I can finish them. Wish me luck!
Thanks as always for reading, and I hope you're having a lovely day ...or night :)