I knew I’d do it. I painted over the face for the 4th time.
Originally I thought I’d just paint over the face and start drawing, but as I sat and stared at it I’ve decided it would be best to center it and enlarge it a bit.
7/09/13 – I didn’t hesitate at all as I painted over the old face, but when I started sketching in the new face, the pencil didn’t grab the way it did to the gessoed canvas. I like the way the pencil looked and the way it felt when I drew it the first time, so I gessoed over the flesh color hoping I could have the same experience.
Luckily, the pencil grabbed on to the gesso and the drawing part has begun. I blocked in the white for the shirt and it will cover the mermaid tail so I’ve decided to paint over the whole mermaid and in fact, I’m painting the entire background blue. Who cares about that great sky from the photo? This is a portrait.
I covered my pencil work with more gesso to see it if preserves the under drawing and keeps it from smearing. I’ve never used gesso for anything beyond priming a canvas, but it makes sense that it would work that way. I think I’ll stop for the night.
7/15/13 – More drawing and working paint into it to lighten the dark areas, then a coat of gesso and more drawing over the gesso after it dries.
7/20 – It was a hot and steamy, stormy day in the studio, but very productive. I enjoyed watching the thunder storm when I stepped back from the painting, but the thunder was extremely loud. Like most afternoon showers in the summer, it was a pretty strong storm. I felt a heavy drip on my head and when I jumped out of the way I saw that I had 4 leaks directly in my path from where I stand in front of the canvas to where I go back to sit 10 feet away. I used a tin pot and 3 hub caps salvaged from the old bus to collect the water. Not sure why. It’s a concrete floor.
Here’s my award winning video footage captured that very day:
7/22 It’s getting real close to finished. I’m still working on the details in the eyes and the nose and I’ve added the pattern to the shirt. It was an unbelievable 92° last night at 9:30 when I left. I took the canvas off of the studio wall and tacked it to the wall at home so I can look at through the week.
8/8/13 – As soon as it dries, I’m ready to stretch this one and ship it to Miami!