Back to the Grapes

Leaves, leaves, and more leaves.  I tried working on the mural this afternoon, but it was a bit hot up on the step ladder - heat rises and it is definitely warmer working on the upper part of the mural.  So, I waited until it was evening to continue.  The downside of that is dealing with the glare of the lights in certain spots while painting.  Oh well...

Anyway, I started detailing the grape leaves.  Part of me was dreading it (just a little) - there are so many.  I still have many more to go, but I'd say I'm about two-thirds done.

This is how it looked before - leaves just loosely "sketched" in

As many as there are to do, it is nice to see them being defined more.

With more detail built up

Lots coming together.  It took a couple days to detail the sky.  Last time, I had used a combo of Cerulean and white for the clouds (see photo in last post).  But, the clouds were too "blue." Afterwards, I went in with a fairly dry brush and added white on it's own to poof the clouds.

Doing the sky in the last couple panels took a while because I had already brought the figures and grape clusters to a greater degree of completion.  Since I really don't want to rework them, I needed to be extra careful going around them.

I also opted to not put clouds behind the figures themselves.  There's already a lot going on in that panel and it would be too busy overall.

After the sky, I went back over the mountains.  It's time for the camera to do it's talking - to make clear any problems (as it always does).  Of course, they are not "done."  There will be layers of shrubbery, trees, and flowers that are so common to the Santa Maria hillsides.  But, those are a top layer and will happen after the lower layers are completed.

Roll Out the Barrel...

Yes, that's right.  Today, the barrel table and stray grape were the focus of my attention.

If you looking close, there's one of those annoying crane flies sitting
on the table near the man's sleeve - the joys of painting in a garage at night.

There's so much to do in this panel and a lot of it required some changes - I knew that going in.  I'm down to the figures and I fully expect to get thoroughly wrapped up in those details for a while.  I did adjust the woman's arm this evening (which I noticed was freakishly long).  I've also moved the man's leg back (not shown in picture) - it seemed to be uncomfortably tucked under the table and the overlap of the pants and the barrel seemed awkward.

99 Clusters of Grapes on the Wall..

99 clusters of grapes,

You take one down, pass it around...

Guess I'll be painting more grapes on the wall!

(oh the things you think of when doing repetitious work)

The red and purple grapes are more developed at the moment, but the green grape clusters and the grape leaves have to be addressed still.

I've actually been taking some time to work out more detail at the moment and, honestly, my jury is still out on Dionysus - I go back and forth between liking him and not liking him.  I actually had something a bit different envisioned originally - something more sculpture-like and not "fleshy."  But this is what came forward in the study and I liked it. I'll have to get more of the panel done and see it as a whole - guess that's why I've been compelled to do a bit more detail beyond just the underpainting.  Plus, there's just a lot of little things in this panel and I want to make a good dent in it.