Busy Bee

Since my day out painting en plein air I have crashed.  I've been extremely fatigued again and have returned to sleeping the whole afternoon most days (and then sleeping 8 hours plus at night).  Funny how something different like a few hours out in the sun sends me backwards.  As I uploaded my photos though I was surprised to see just how much I had achieved with such limited energy.

So, here is a peak of what is going on in the studio to the complete neglect of all else in life....

Frangipani study in graphite (HB, 2B, 4B, 6B) on Arches watercolour paper (Smooth 300gsm).  For those of you new to my process I work up an image on bond paper first then transfer it to the watercolour paper. I then build up layers of graphite using the previously mentioned pencils.  Some parts of the image will have 4 or 5 layers.  Since taking this photograph I am very close to being finished so will have the completed piece up to share in the next day or so.

The underpainting for a commission.  'Flelvis'  = Floyd + Elvis.  This will be a painting of Floyd, obviously in his Elvis costume.  I have previously completed Floyd's portraits in charcoal.

A very quick underpainting for a landscape that was done in class.  I will be working on it again in class this week and will be building up the layers, adding detail and moving forward into the mid and foreground of the image.

Last weeks class effort which turned out to be a disaster and if it was knitting or crochet I would be frogging it.  We underpainted the canvas with fluro paint in yellow, orange and pink. This was sealed with clear painting medium.  We then used charcoal to sketch in the image and to establish our darks. This was sealed with a spray fixative.  We then started to put paint on and this is where the wheels fell off for two of us.  We had the same brand of fluro paint and as we painted the fluro just pulled off like a bad case of sunburn.  The other two ladies in our class didn't have this problem and their results were far more pleasing so at least we could see the technique and effect that Don (tutor) was going for.  Don also had an example where his rocks glowed beautifully with the slight fluro showing through the paint.  Oh well.  At least I know how to do it in the future if I want to give it another try....

Not much has been finished but at least I have been working steadily to produce art.  Hopefully this week will see me get the frangipani and 'Flelvis' finished and I'll be able to share them with you.  I'll keep you posted.