Commission Piece In-Progress
Jan 16, 2008
This image shows the current progress of the painting I’ve been working on, a commissioned piece. I know it’s a little flat looking right now, but a few of the darker areas, especially on the wings, are going to be layered over with white, which I think will make it glow a little better. At least I’m optimistic about that.
I think this in-progress state works pretty well as an example of my general working method. If you look at the wings, you can get a decent view of how the understructure is built up first, usually beginning with the darkest values, gradually getting lighter with each additional layer of paint. The dress is the closest to being complete, the face the farthest. Generally the layers are fairly thin and somewhat transparent, allowing whatever has been painted previously to sort of glow from within, which gives it more depth than a layer of opaque flat color. As the painting progresses, my focus moves gradually from work on the painting as a whole, large areas at a time, to smaller and more specific refinements. Once I get to a certain point, I go back and forth between dark and light values and multiple colors; sometimes I literally trade between a brush with light paint and one with dark paint. This method of working works well for atmospheric effects; if you get lucky with your layering, you can get a pretty cool sky that looks/feels deeper than the 2d plane of the painting surface. Anyway, that’s the method in brief, I really don’t have any idea what I’m doing, so if you have any technique advice let me know.