Below is my painting broken down into a few snapshots.
The painting is oil on acrylic base on linen canvas 50 x 70 cm.
The painting as it stands this evening
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4 stages of the painting
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A few words on the process:
In the first snap I have put down two layers of acrylic, first red and then green. Why did I choose those colors? Difficult to give a very rational reason. The original subject in the photograph was outside with trees in the background - that gives green, and red is a complement to green and so vibrates with it. When putting on the green I painted loosely leaving large spaces to let the red show through. I don't know how much of the under coat will be left visible at the end, but at the least it serves to stimulate me with the color interaction and the texture.
In the second snap, after transferring my drawing to the canvas, I painted the broad outlines, still in acrylic. Those two snaps are from the first day.
The third and fourth snaps, on the second day, show the colors beginning to block in and the light and shade beginning to show up, this time in alkyd oil - it will be dry by tomorrow.
As ever I will exert myself to try and retain the freshness which comes easily with the first coats of paint, but gets more difficult as the painting comes closer to the finish.
A painting is a moving target.
