Work in progress: "Honeyjar and Silver"

This clip shows work on one of the earlier stages; the underpainting. Basically, it's the entire painting done first in shades of thin gray paint (sometimes green). After it has thoroughly dried, the final layer of color is applied. This is an old technique; most of the classical dutch masters worked this way, for instance. It's also time-consuming, probably adding 30-40% to the execution time for each painting.

But for me, at least, I think it contributes to a stronger final result. A well-done underpainting provides a clear map of the values (degrees of lightness or darkness), essentially solving one big problem before color is involved (seeing and mixing accurate color may be the single biggest difficulty in painting). It also provides a good foundation for transparent colors. Some colors (most violets, for instance), are so transparent that it becomes quite difficult to establish a darker shade if applied directly on white canvas. With an underpainting, however, that problem disappears - the proper value is already there, and the pigment simply becomes a glaze to state the color. Less concretely, an underpainting can act as a dress rehersal for the final painting.


So... the time-lapse movie of the day's work:

Work in progress: "Two Ikura"

Today's work is on a painting of two ikura (it's a kind of sushi topped with large reddish caviar). Most of the work here was on the marble surface... this might be the first time I've painted a large area of marble, and it was a good challenge.

Here's where it's at now:




...and here's the movie:

Work in progress: "Glass, Sugarbowl, and Knife", part 1

Here's another short clip showing a day's work in the studio.




Slightly better image:

Painting and Sausage (works in progress)

Somebody once observed that legislation and sausages had something in common: you were better off not knowing how either one was made. In the back of my head, I've always figured the same was true for art. Not that anybody would be revolted to see how a painting was made, but probably nobody would be interested. This turns out not to be true. Last summer I made short movies from time-lapse photos showing the progress of several paintings. I got a lot of positive feedback, and have heard pretty often that I should make more.

OK.

Rather than trying to string together images showing the entire process, I thought I'd do some that simply showed about a day's worth of work. Since I work on a number of paintings simultaneously, there should be some variety.

This first one is the work done on the final layer of one of my smaller pieces (the drawing and underpainting were already completed).

Enjoy!

(Apologies for the sound problems - they're fixed now)




...and a slightly better picture of the current state (it is a work in progress):

Painting A Day: Green Glass and Silver Shaker

"Green Glass and Silver Shaker"
Oil on masonite, 6 x 5 inches
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