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This 42x64" oil on canvas painting went through a few changes on the wings, until the translucent look and color harmony I
was seeing in my head, reached the canvas. Sometimes it takes a little going backwards to move further forward and I have
certainly done my share of overpainting to get the effects that I want. It usually comes back to color and tone and balance,
but it always starts with an idea I like, then a composition that is intriguing enough to get me full into the painting process.
Like much of my more creative work now, I render out a fairly comprehesive digital image, usually color over a drawing, the
same one I use to project on canvas. At least, in this way, I have something to glance at from time to time if I need to redo
areas, especially in figure work. Most of the backgrounds in all of my work are made up or a combination of some reference
and my imagination based on physics of the real world, knowledge of color and 30 years of illustrating doesn't hurt. Its really
the only way I can come up with the lighting, as in this piece, that looks like it fits the scene and sets the figure on the
beach. I try to avoid any plein-aire look of naturalism, and especially that cut-out and pasted on look of using models (usually
from life) stuck into fake settings. If I can do one thing well, its placing figures in a real space that fits the look of
this imagined background.
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| Simple drawing on rough canvas-face area gesso sanded more |
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| Head blocked in using planes- note reference nearby if needed |
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| Smoothing out the head planes, moving the paint around |
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| Left side block in of the water area |
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| Nearing the mid-stage of painting- now ready for tweaking and additional layers |
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| Adding white first, before glazing yellow over for strongest glaze |
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| Yellows glazed over the white underpainting for maximum color effect |
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| Wings before tinting and toning them down |
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| Paper mask used to blot paint over wings to begin translucency |
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| Tinting over opaque wings to achieve transparent effect-base color |
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| Glaze with liquin and darker coloring, applied with large brush liberally |
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| Glaze smoothed out using mop brush to thin and even the oil |
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| WN mop brush, showing the tip full of color after buffing glaze |
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| Before glazing the ground area |
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| After glazing the ground area- staining it darker, essentially |
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| Wing color detail- note grayed back or toned down from initial coloring |
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| Comes the Dawn final 42x64" oil on canvas |
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| Head detail from final |
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