still working

color correction

I am working on removing the yellow cast that this still life had by using the Munsell Color System to locate the true color of my objects. It's not that easy. I'll post an update when I've worked on it considerably more. Here are some of my problem areas:

Sadie Jernigan Valeri

Here is an artist who's footsteps I could only hope to follow. Also a RISD graduate, she has paved her own way into the classical realism art world, studying under Juliette Artistides, Ted Seth Jacobs, and the the Studio Escalier in France (*biting my hand because that is my dream school*), and Michael Grimaldi, amongst other amazing modern classical artists. Here is her blog. Beautiful work. Her blog is also very helpful, as it has many demos and videos of her process.

color layers

An update on my still life.  The bottom is of the first color pass, and the top is of the second.  I've worked on it a little more since this, and have corrected a few portions- namely the incorrect ellipse.  It still has a ways to go, and so do I.  Tomorrow I will begin the long drive back home to Massachusetts.  I had hoped to get more painting completed during my stay here in Wisconsin, but my two kiddies proved to be too difficult even for my own mother to watch, thus no time alone to concentrate on the painting.  It will have to continue at my own home, and of course- only at night, once all have gone to sleep.   I have however, composed a few more paintings, and albeit rather slow progress, I am eager to get cracking. 

soon...

Very soon I will post an update on my first still life. The camera I used to snap a few pics is currently *unavailable.* It's just about completed....just about...

first pass

After successfully correcting the warped miter joints on my panels, I began the first pass of the still life, or the "wipe-out" imprimatura. Notice the nice buckling on the right edge- the birch veneer lifted from the plywood during the application of the gesso. I decided to paint on it nonetheless. It's my first one- it's not going to be perfect.

The Absolute Artist

"Sane judgment abhors nothing so much as a picture perpetrated with no technical knowledge, although with plenty of care and diligence. Now the sole reason why painters of this sort are not aware of their own error is that they have not learned geometry, withoug which no one can either be or become and absolute artist." - Albrecht Durer (from The Art of Measurement)