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!

Making a Splash...

I've been working on a couple of different things lately.  I've stepped back into the chef panel, doing a little here and a little there.  I put in a layer of color on the architectural elements and started the grape leaves creeping across the top.  I added a couple of minor veggies and filled in the purple grape at the bottom. 

My challenge here was the splash.  I originally started using cerulean blue and was horrified - blech!  Switching to ultramarine was much better...but, wait a minute!  I didn't try pthalo.  Might have to try that tomorrow.

Another thing I started was a study of a tree - the type of tree that will go in panels 1 and 2.  This is especially challenging because it's a truck load of green, green, and more green.  I have 3 different greens in the hillside and another 3 (or more) greens that make up the tree.  I'm having to find ways to create contrast, even though in the reference pictures that I'm using, it does blend together at times.  I need to work on it a bit and work out the kinks.

Not very accurate color, but wanted to share
what I have so far

I think I have a studio guest at night.  I'm not sure, but I think it might be this guy:

I've heard him rustling around here and there.  I suppose we can share the space for now...so long as he doesn't start using my paints.

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).

Busy Day in the Kitchen

Today was a day of much progress in the kitchen...not MY kitchen, unfortunately.  I actually mixed several grays for the pot and the chef's pants.  But, one of the more time consuming things was mixing a batch of skin tone (probably should have done that a while ago, but I worked in small amounts on the palette before).  Now, I have a lot of a good base that can be tweaked a bit, depending on the figure.  I know I'll have some touch-up as I go back through the panels with detail. 

I'll definitely have to touch-up the chef as I need to rework the background around him.  There really isn't enough contrast between the background yellow and the fleshtone.  I'll probably mix the yellow with a touch of white to help create more contrast, but also because the yellow is so transparent, it doesn't cover anything!  So, sketchy pencil lines are still visible after several coats, not to mention painted lines that are no longer needed.  That's why you see patches of white around the figure - those are areas that needed to be covered (the big splotches of white, however, are future vegetables - and there'll be a lot more of them).

I always like seeing the panel in a photograph because "issues" are clearly visible (they're not as obvious when you're staring at the panel close-up).  My goal isn't necesarrily to have a completely anatomically correct figure - especially since the chef is quite a "character" - but there are often things that bother me and seeing a photo often helps me identify them.  Oh, and I know he only has half of a mustache.  No point in painting the other half until the background gets reworked.

Again, details will be adjusted and sharpened - but you get the idea.