Working towards an end to the Fishing Scene

Wow. I haven't posted an update to this painting for nearly three months! But I've been toiling away once a week on the final stage called "second painting", which for me is mostly about blending surfaces, creating textures, softening edges and applying tints and glazes. Over time, the dark areas sink in as the paint dries and the oils/mineral spirits evaporate. Then, when you reach an area that borders a dark area, you need to freshen up the border with some oil so you can see what colour the dark area was before it dried...

I just finished working the base of the cork lantern. I approached it much like I would a human face in the same lighting conditions. The darkest areas have warm shadows, the half-tones are cool, the front is warm again, and any ridges catching the direct light are cool. A layer of grey dust has settled on everything after months of sitting in the studio, so I went back and cooled things down a bit. The face of the cork was made with a burnt sienna to give it an orange glow but I had to dull that down by mixing it its complementary, green umber. The umber was more effective than the neutral grey I had been mixing months before.

Most of the big areas around the book are done. I just have to "second paint" the area below where the rope ends dangle, and then go back to the surface of the book. The red lure is fine except for an unintentional white halo around its top edge, which I'll make disappear.  The last bit will be the lettering, which I dread...

Just a few more weeks to go, I think. And just in time too. Gravity is taking its toll. In the setup the blanket has fall down and the red lure has jumped off the page and onto the floor more than once. I can't blame it really. 

Update on Holbein's Thomas More copy

"What I did on my summer vacation"  Never enough but in a few short words I started repainting the face, fur, gold chain and drapes...

I started on the drapes two days ago, working from right to left and stopping just above the cap. What I'm trying to do is in this pass is to get a better sense of the shape of folds on the cloth moving in and out of the light... At the same time, I'm taking out some of the chroma in the original sap green, dulling it down with gray.  Strangely, in the original, the "greenness" also varies considerably from one side to the other, as if the artist didn't quite get a consistent mix. Plus it looks as the he either used very thin washes of green (to save money?) or that the green was stripped away after multiple cleanings. In photos of Holbein's painting, I can see right through the green down to the gesso layer plastered on top of the oak panel.

The fur has been very easy to render but the golden letter "esses" and the pair of tiny chain linking them are torture for me. I've blocked them in quickly but need to resize each one so they're consistent, even as they twist and rotate around the neck. In the original, they're modelled like pieces of chiselled metal with bevelled edges. As they move into the darkness at the shoulders, the gold areas of the letters become smaller and the bevelled edges in burnt sienna become more prominent; the curves in the "esse" shift as well. There's so much care taken in Holbein's painting of these small details that he must have spent a considerable amount of timing getting it just right... Each letter "esse" is truly unique.

The hands will be treated next...