A Maudlin Moment, plus roses

"A Maudlin Moment, plus roses"

16 x 16" oil/canvas

I have been busy in the studio this last two weeks. Maybe the determination to add a few more paintings to the previous year - or, better, maybe a precursor to an active year in 2009. Regardless, it feels good to be in the studio so much. I have started another series of paintings, this time figures and portraits. I do feel there is a big difference between to two, however I, for convenience have 'lumped' the two together.

I have posted the preliminary drawing along with the finished painting. I had intended to take more pictures of the progress, however that didn't happen. So, at least you can get an idea of how I start off a new piece. I used an over-all tone or wash  of cadmium red medium and then started drawing with asphaltum with  Liguin . I like the asphaltum as it is a warm color, I think gaining in popularity - certainly for me with figurative work. It is a very warm brown. The Liguin, is a dryer so that I can get on with the painting very quickly after finishing the drawing. I do a fairly detailed line drawing and fill in the principle shadow areas before I start with color. I decided early on that I wanted to have a purple based background, so I went ahead and blocked that in. From there it was a large mix of flesh color and off I went. For various parts of the body I use in combinations, some more, some less in order to adjust the tones and values with color: Titanium White, cad yellow lt, yellow ochre, cad red med., transparent brown, viridian. In order to create some of the indistinct edges I worked the flesh tones with the purple surrounding. I ended up dividing the 'large' flesh color into three main tones, light, medium, and dark, then further adjusted the values as needed.

The single rose pedal beside the figure was an afterthought. This is based on a life drawing session where in the painting I added the roses for interest. The single pedal gives the painting a certain emotional touch - don't you think?