A Good Start

Today I finally felt like I was making some progress. The logistics of the stretchers, the canvas and the studio setup took much longer than I thought it would. I've always said "you're first trip to Home Depot is just that, your first trip!" Anyway, I think artists believe that the only time they're productive is when they're painting. Often I have rushed into paintings only to find myself doomed from the beginning because of lack of preparation. I was able to grid the painting surface and using my sketches and photos lightly charcoal the composition in. This stage is shown below:

I then wiped off the excess charcoal and began my wash drawing. This took most of the afternoon and you can see the results below:

With a little cleaning up I think I have a good start to the painting. I'm using a stepladder to reach the upper parts of the canvas and, because there's a lot of sky, this stage shouldn't take too long. I'm mixing paint on a large kidney-shaped palette and this too seems to be working OK. I suspect that I'll have to mix large quantities of paint on a large palette and transfer it to the smaller palette as I paint. I suspect the toughest painting will be at the bottom. The bottom is only about six inches off the floor. I'm building up the Ibuprophen in my bloodstream thinking that might help. Tomorrow is a big day as the color work begins in earnest.



After being told numerous times, Liam has to find out for himself if the paint is wet.