Another "Flora & Fauna"

[stlukesguild]

This painting is one of which I documented the most completely from start to finish. I began with the idea of two figures standing back to back... opposites... but without any clear theme at first. I began drawing directly on the working surface.

I have had several others suggest... and I quite agree... that there is something to these early stages with the underdrawings showing through. I have thought of stopping some works at this stage... thinking of Jenny Saville's big gestural drawings:

Once the figures were largely locked in I began working on the bigger shapes in the surrounding space and began priming the background with the usual reddish-brown/Burnt Sienna/Tuscan Red:

As I begin drawing the pattern I often need to draw right through the figures. This is the major reason I save drawing the figures for last.

As I began adding color I initially thought of continuing to work with those extreme neon/florescent colors similar to the last painting... but this time in Lime Green:

Green has never been a color that I have used as the dominant color in my paintings... thus I saw this as a challenge.

Again, you can see how the guidelines for the patterns go through the contours of the figures. You can also see how I am using the red variegated gold leaf... red contrasting the green:

I chose to match the dark-green and white checkerboard above with that below... as a visual rhyme.

continued...

 

[stlukesguild]

Here is a studio view of the work in progress flanked by the previous two paintings:

By now I thought of the Flora theme again... after all... there's all that green! I added flowers into the halo of the girl on the left.

And now begins the gold in the halos:

I usually block the hair in with black or a near-black at this time so that I can clearly see the shape of the hair against the reddish primer.

And then suddenly... I temporarily lost my mind. I thought let's make the top red and the bottom green... and then I even started adding red below...

Soon it was red everywhere... except for the checkerboards... and it looked like crap... that ugly stage every painting goes through...

I spent the next weekend returning the painting to the initial green... or rather a less brilliant green harmony...

continued...

 

[stlukesguild]

I actually quite liked the look of the brilliant red paint showing through the various green pastels layered on top:

At this point I began working on the figures. I notice that there is an unfinished section of gold leaf still. I suspect this was one of the instances in which my art supply store had run out of gold leaf.

I always begin priming the flesh areas with a color similar to that of the paper... a color called "Soft Suede". I use saturated colors for the bottom layers of the eyes and lips... and bounce some green and orangish-reds into the bottom layers of the flesh.

I selected green for the eyes and eye-shadow to pick up the green of the painting as a whole... along with the flashes of red.

Since the figure on the left was Flora with her flowers, I decided upon Bat Woman/Cat Woman mask for the figure on the right as Fauna:

I gave her green eyes (cat eyes?) as well... with a good amount of red bounced into her hair.

I often don't know how or if I am going to clothe the figures until I get to that stage in the painting. At this point I elected a black bikini for Cat/Bat Woman... or Fauna to contrast the reds of Flora.

I finished with red stockings to balance the black on the right and to help avoid the eye staying only at the top of the painting.

 

[Nufocus]

Exciting progress all the way to the nice finish. Thank you!

 

[stlukesguild]

Thanks!