Fewer and Farther Between...

Now that additions and changes being made are smaller, I won't be posting as frequently.  Perhaps you can spot some of the details that I've been working on lately.

Undoubtedly, you noticed the building of shadows on the cauliflower...

And, the development of the vine that runs along the bottom (still more to do there)...

I changed the stems to brown instead of green and have yet to develop the leaves

And the addition of the vines I'd always planned to be coming out from the plowed rows but couldn't be done until the end...

The biggest challenge for me now is finding the motivation to stay focused and finish before moving on to other things I'm tempted to get into.  I have to say, that I'm happy to have this problem.  I'd hear of illustrators being tired of working on a particular project but having to plow ahead to meet a deadline, and I'd always wished I had that problem.  So, here I am...

Vines travelling up the "wave"

Obviously, I want it done, but I've been working on it for about 3 months and I'm rather tired of painting leaves, etc.  Also, I know the site where it is going is not ready yet (the corner of Cook and Main outside of the old Gottschalks) - so I know the mural will be stored for a bit.  I'd like to work on some smaller painting explorations (thanks to my growth in understanding of paint and color from this project).  It's also summer and I'd love to wrap up some of last years school stuff - clean up the study area, plan things for next year (I love doing that).  Still, I'd like it to be done.

In the meantime, I'll continue on while Cinderella waits for the pumpkins to change into coaches.

A Very Productive Saturday!

For the first time in a long time, I had a free Saturday.  I must have painted for about 8 hours overall (not without interruption, of course). 

I feel like I've spent a lot of time in the first two panels - especially because there were so many complicated issues on the tractor, the figure in the tractor, and the plow that hadn't been resolved.  However, there are a lot of details on these panels that I have yet to do, and they won't happen until the very end.  One of the last things I'll have to do is to get some of these panels exactly side by side with no gaps to make sure things line up. But, for now, I just measure where I can and "eyeball" it when I can't.

I started today by working on the pumpkins again, adjusting some of the shadows and highlights a little.  Then, I moved on to the wave of soil - a larger area of color to troubleshoot and blend.  Once you start working on an area like that, you don't want to stop - gotta keep blending before the paint dries.  And, working on this part took me back into panel #3 again.

Then, I moved on to the cauliflower.  I didn't like the highlight color I had used for the vegetable's leaves in the first layer - too blue.  So, I mixed a bit more yellow in and that worked better.  I also worked on the cauliflower itself, stippling with and a light purple for shading.  There's still detailing to be done or adjusted there.

The last thing I did was to "plant some crops" in the far field.  That took a little extra time because I tried a few different greens before I found something I liked.

I love seeing how everything is starting to build, little by little.

A Strawberry Day...

This has certainly been a productive couple of days with many hours in the garage - looks like I'll have one more fairly full day tomorrow (with time out to teach an art class in the afternoon).  Then, it's off to the next round of State Cup games out of town followed by back-to-school Monday.  I have to say that it sure has been nice to just focus on this project for at least a little while.

I had a little help today - my daughter Joley really wanted to paint something.  There really isn't much for someone else to come in and do, but I let her lay down a base coat of yellow on the girl's dress and the strawberry blossoms.  

Much of today was spent working out the strawberry leaves - there was A LOT of overlapping shapes and values to work out - very time consuming (but, then again, I love detail work).

I'm still figuring out the greens.  I wasn't happy with the cauliflower and broccoli - much too blue once I got the warmer strawberry and grape leaves in there.  I always tell my students that color is relative - you may think it looks a certain way until you put more colors next to it.