Figure Painting of Chol -- Finished, Framed but not yet Varnished

Over the summer of 2012, I reworked my figure painting of Chol.

In our original setting over the winter, Chol was posing on our piano bench in front of a black screen, with a single light source on his left and our gas fireplace on his right.

I decided to give the background more atmosphere by brightening one side and suggesting planks on the floor receding into the distance in the direction of the sitter. I made the figure warmer and the background cooler.

Below are two views of the painting on my easel finished but not varnished.

And here is the picture framed and hung under the track lights in our hallway.  It has a temporary varnish on it called Retouching Varnish. I will be giving it the final, proper varnish next summer once it is completely dry.

Figure Painting of Chol -- March 3 update

By the end of today's session, everything looked quite fresh, which has made photographing the painting rather difficult -- so many reflections. Below is my best shot.  Before we began, I "oiled in" the panel,  applying a thin layer of linseed oil to bring some of the areas I've worked on in previous weeks back to life. As darker colours dry, they tend to fade and turn grey and it's hard to tell how dark something really is without oiling it back in. Today's focus was on the head, chest, and stomach areas.  Even though it's hard to tell in this photo, the dark areas of the figure (head, rib cage, and right calf) are now more in sync in terms of value. The hands and feet still need more modelling--they're quite rough.

Figure Painting of Chol -- updated

This painting is evolving each week, as it should. Previously, I added a running shoe on the bottom right side to add a bit more balance to the composition. To keep the viewer's eye in the painting, I decided to point the shoe towards Chol's right foot, rather the outwards towards the painting's edge.  Colour continues to be a bit of a struggle. In the setup, much of what I see is a cool grey, with only shades of warmth appearing to me in the deepest shadows, especially on the left side, closest to a gas fireplace I keep going.  This week, I brightened up the background in the top left, which seems to help the figure pop forward more. I also concentrated on modelling the hands and feet for the first time and when those areas are dry next week, I'll continue until they're done.


From Saturday Feb 18:

From the previous week,  Feb 11:

A different Figure Painting

At home, I have another figure painting underway.  Our friend Chol is posing for me on Saturday mornings in our living room in front of a black backdrop. Below is my progress after the 3rd session yesterday.  There are still some drawing issues to correct, but overall I'm pleased at how it's going.  The basic palette I'm working with is ivory black, flake white, burnt umber, burnt sienna and raw sienna.  I'll be adding some green to the white for highlights, but I still have to figure out the best mix for his skin in the shadows. The classic pattern of cool highlights, warm skin tone, cool half-tones, and warm shadows doesn't seem to apply to the same degree here.  In this last session I was concentrating more on getting the values right than the colour.