Had a day off this Monday and that means an extra studio day. It was supposed to mean taking the family to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, but mother nature decided that it needed to snow at the zoo on this particular day — so studio day it is then. Hopefully we’ll get to the zoo again soon though.
I still haven’t managed of finish off the other paintings sitting around my studio staring at me like so many puppies in the store window. But I really wanted to get started on this one. I’m not sure why, but these smaller format paintings really appeal to me. Going from 12″x16″ (192 square inches) to 18″x24″ (432 square inches) feels like much more than twice the work for some reason.
Here’s the first chromatic layer for this portrait of Todd; really just a thin wash or color. There’s still a very long way to go obviously but I’m really pleased with the start – this is going to be a great foundation to build the next paint layers upon.
I also worked this weekend on the painting of Nelson and Theo. I actually worked on it a bit more after I took this photo but the light is poor for photography in the studio today so I’ll have to post another image later on.
Now I need to restate the clothing and maybe glaze the leathery bits a bit warmer. Once that’s done I think it’ll just be one more finishing pass to get everything to the level it needs to be. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish it off this coming weekend.
