Moving On...

Woohoo!  I think I've done enough grape leaves for now and I'm ready to move on.

I even worked on the giant leaves behind the figures, but I started to run out of the "highlight" mixture.  So, I may still go back to it...but probably on my last pass through of "final touches." 

Darn flash glare!  Notice that I added a couple of leaves to
overlap the grapes.

For now, I think I'll move on to the rest of the panel - giant grape touch up, the female figure's dress, the tabletop (remember, there's supposed to be a bottle of wine there), and I need to fill their glasses.  Then, on to the architecture around the chef, floor touch-up, a few more veggies and the splash.  It may seem like just a little bit left, but there's still a lot to do in the first couple panels - there are supposed to be trees, details on the pumpkins (more leaves, and stems), and crops growing on the rows under the wave - things like that.  But, after that, it's all touch up detailing.  There's light at the end of the tunnel.

Still toasting with empty glasses - hmmmm, white or red?

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.