Nature Takes Its Course

Well, here is blogdom staring me in the face...here I come. Actually, today I think I'll just post some pictures to catch up on my present work. I've been home sick for a few days so no further progress, but I hope to get back to it very, very soon. I can hear it calling me from the studio..."Kiiimmmm, where are you? Why haven't you finished me? I'm only in my dead layer and I need some color in my life! " Well, don't worry, Chilli my dear, I think of you every day and the way I will fill you out and bring you to life. If I can just get out of this darn bed! In the meantime, I'm reading "Alla Prima" by Richard Schimd. The closest thing to a bible for me. Gombrich's "Art and Illusion" is also keeping me company for intellectual stimulation, with a little dash of "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche to remind me to keep calm and let nature take its course.

Chilli

This is the charcoal drawing of my dear Chilli after much pondering as to the arrangement for the compositon. As you will see, this was still not quite right...


This is what I did next, the beginning of the umber layer, using Raw Umber. As you can see I added that tobasco in there, but the spoon was bugging me as well as that upper right hand corner...

So...I took out the spoon, it was blocking the rest of the painting and it didn't feel like you could pick it up since it was facing the wrong way. Still have the corner and Tabasco though...


And here you go, hey, where did that Tabasco go?, and where did those matches come from?, and aren't there more beans and chillies? And, hey, someone has been messing with the towel! So this is the final composition and the very beginnings of the dead layer, adding Zinc White and Yellow Ochre. I've done lots more, but the pics are still in the camera...that's right, at the studio, so you'll have to wait to see more.