The Mermaid_W.I.P.

Detail Shots:

My palette... am I getting organized? :O


Progress shots of my painting, working title: The Mermaid oil on canvas, 18x24"

New piece in OIL!!! The Mermaid

Well, I've finally done it! I've decided to paint in oil again.
The working title: The Mermaid oil on canvas, 18x24"
(Yeah, I know... where do I come up with these crazy titles?)

I have to give a nod of admiration, appreciation and thanks to Duffy Sheridan, whose personal advice and online guidance has been invaluable. His work is downright breathtaking. Ever since I saw his piece "Promise of Renewal" in the ARC Salon Catalog 2006, I realized that his work embodies everything I aspire to in my own artwork. Links to his website and videos are at the bottom of the post*.

[Please forgive the poor quality and inconsistent quality of the photos. Some are from my cel phone, and some are from the webcam on my laptop.]

Read my recent travails with this piece, in a separate post HERE.
Follow photographs of the Work-InProgress HERE.

*Check out Duffy Sheridan's phenomenal artwork on his website HERE.
Check out Duffy Sheridan's YouTube videos HERE.

Being an artist - an emotional roller-coaster ride.

03/26/12

Being an artist is such a roller-coaster ride.

On Sunday I spent the majority of the day drawing and painting, and nothing good came of it, except in the end I decided to do some prep work for today. I did some sketching and drawing on an idea that I ]had that seemed spectacular (the sea nymph emerging from the seaweed and floating to the surface.) It was frustrating – I just couldn't get the composition to work, and I realized that I would have to do a gratuitous amount of inventing on the seaweed, and it was just looking hokey.

I did start to clean and organize the studio area a bit, which was good. Actually, I made a clean spot, and that got me going...

Today, I started by taking the prep panel and testing out how I was going to paint in the mermaid's fish tail. It worked well, so I set up the painting and began work. It was up and down – it looked good, then it started looking crappy, and back and forth... In the end, I was satisfied with how it looked, so I decided to let it dry and move to something else.

I painted in the section of the hair that I overlapped when I was correcting the sky (again...) [Click HERE to see what I'm referring to.] I was very happy with the way it was looking, and starting to 'see' the finished painting coming together. The lighting is working well, it's lookin' pretty good.

I took the hair as far as was feasible at this stage, and took a breather. Next I decide to continue on the (correction of) the distant ocean and waves.

I didn't see that I dragged my hand through the (wet) hair, and next thing I know, I have a great big smear of super-saturated burnt sienna right over the beautiful fluffy white clouds and sky (that I had just corrected – again – two days ago.)

Now, not only am I panicking and wiping off the reddish brown blobs on the sky, but I see that the hair (which was looking really good) got all smeared when I dragged my hand through it.

* sigh *

LOL

Oh well, I did a bit of repair work, and I'll have to fix that bit of sky once it's dry – that burnt sienna is just too strong a color to paint over if it's even slightly wet; it'll totally screw up and over power any paint on my brush. So I'll wait until it's dry and fix the sky.

The good news is, in the process, the color in the hair got a bit more 'daylight-ish', and the edge where the hair meets the sky, and the turning form, may actually work out better in the long run.

I try not to get too caught up in the emotional highs and lows – I'm just along for the ride. I am constantly making decisions on what to do here and what to do there... it's just another decision to make.

:)

The Musketeer - WIP

Some progress shots of The Musketeer, Acrylic on Canvas, 16x20"


Check our my original compositional analysis HERE.