On Deck...

I've tucked away the porcelain creamer, little orange flowers and cascading drapery, replacing the objects with photo references for a project I'm really excited about doing.  The inspiration was a photograph of my oldest daughter taken about a year ago at El Capitan State Beach.  However, I'm changing the location from a rocky beach to a rocky riverbed with some trees in the background.

I'm looking forward to playing with some colors that have not been on the palette for other projects - mainly Phthalo blue and green.  I'm also excited about exploring colors and patterns of stones in water - I've always been drawn to that in nature.  But, most of all, I'm delighted to be working with a specific concept - trying to capture the moment of quiet contemplation or listening in prayer.

I have flashes of what I think the end product might look like, but I've learned not to get hung up in those fleeting visions.  They give me a direction, but the journey will likely take me down any number of possible paths.  But, this is merely a study for the sake of exploration.  Ultimately, I see this as a fairly large painting - large for my space, anyway, requiring more than a little tabletop.  By the time I'm ready to move on to canvas, the weather should be comfortable enough to work in the garage again.

Entering the Home Stretch...

It's kind of hard to believe, but now that I've put in the trees, I feel like I'm nearing the end.  I still have work to do in each panel, but at this point, it's details, fine tuning, and fairly minor adjustments.  If all goes well, I'd say that I have about a week of additions and "fixings".   I'll have to move the panels around in order to finish some parts - to make sure that the continuity from one panel to the next is accurate. Then, I'd give myself another week of obsessively staring, analyzing, and more fixing.  After that, I guess it will be time to put the protective top varnish on and seal it.

Yesterday, I put in several more trees and shrubs and extended some of the yellow flowers.  I may add a few more in, but probably not much.

I also started to put in the pumpkin stems, although I think I'll switch them to the browner side.  But, as you can see, this panel has really come together!

Them Thar Hills...

Finally got to spend a larger chunk of time on the mural again today.  I've started building up the landscape in the first couple panels, particularly the hills.  As you can see, I started by laying in some yellow to capture the flowers that come around every spring (and have gone at this point).

I'm so glad that I spent the time to work out the tree colors - it soooooo helped.  And, as expected, I'm reworking the hill colors, or at least the brushwork.  I'm using a more textured approach in the areas closer to the viewer.  I still have a lot to do on them thar hills, but I like how it's started.  Some I like, some needs to be adjusted.  Our hills have such variety - many are bare, some have the occassional shrub or tree, while others seem to have a blanket of shrubbery.

Back to the Boards...

Well, I'm back.  It's been a very busy week with the end of school (summer vacation - here we come), registration for my homeschool co-op next fall, a broken down car to repair, my turn to sit at the gallery, a birthday (mine), unexpected doctor appointment...you get it.  Also, I've been suffering from tennis elbow symptoms that have been around since before I started the mural, so a little break seemed like a good idea.

My very own art critic

I did head out to the garage this evening to add some details to the strawberries - softening the shading around the seeds, adding dark shadows under the leafy tops, etc.  Also, I detailed some of the flowers a little more - mainly the centers, adding a little red/orange in.

I wasn't out for too long, though.  I'm at the point where I'm going to be moving on to the next panel - the grapes and all of those leaves.  It's going to require me to mix up a little more of some paint colors and, once I get going, it's one of those areas that I'll probably obsessively continue until I have them all done.  So, tonight was not the night to go there.  Maybe tomorrow.

Working Out the Kinks...

Well, lots to tell today.  First of all, I did a phone interview with the Santa Maria Sun last week (a local weekly paper) and it is in this week's issue!  Exciting stuff for me - you can check it out here.

Secondly, I was pretty frustrated with yesterday's progress - or lack thereof.  I didn't really have the time that's needed to spend on the strawberry girl, so I had to leave her in a pretty poor state - I hate to walk away from something without some degree of resolution.  Then, this morning we ended our history study of the Renaissance for the school year with a biography DVD on Michelangelo.  To see his amazing work and then go out to the garage to my mural was rather humbling as an artist.

Anyway, I am happy to say that I was able to solve - or at least improve - several issues on the strawberry panel today.  I fixed skin tones, proportions, and adjusted contrast (particularly the background wave vs. figure's skin tone).  I spent a lot of time trying to get her arms and hands in believable positions - grrrrrr. I worked on the flowers and strawberries, but there is work to be done there still - in this case, I need to tone down the contrast and have the seeds blend in a bit more.

One of my favorite details today is the hair - I gave her some curls and I like the color (I thought the strawberry girl should have red hair).