Work in Progress

[stlukesguild]

My wife has questioned me... on more than one occasion... about the number of Redheads in my paintings (she's a Brunette) as being inspired by the last girlfriend (a Redhead) before her. My choice in hair color is made the same way as my choices in the colors employed in the rest of the painting. I select given colors for formal reasons and out of the desire to create a certain mood.

 

[P. Barrie]

I really like the images and design of this so far. I feel that the eye looking back towards the viewer is much more alluring. I made a crude digital sketch trying to show the spherical eyeball rolling a little in the socket by highlighting the roundness of the ball. Perhaps that’s what the eye drawing needed for that turn? I am hoping you are ok with this, I feel I’m being a little bold here.

 

[stlukesguild]

Yes... I am still thinking of the eye turned back looking at the viewer in contrast to the pose. I will definitely get around to fine-tuning the eye and the rest of the face one the "background" is complete. I always save rendering the figure/face in full color for last.

 

[Nufocus]

Very interesting! Great drawing. Feels like Klimt meets the old masters

 

[stlukesguild]

Today is the first day since we started back to school... "distance learning"... that I have been able to get into the studio. Distance learning... involving posting lessons online, checking on the work online, doing grading online... and holding weekly live class sessions may work for the classroom teachers who have one class and maybe 20-35 students at the outermost. It is insane for the teachers in Art, Music, PE, and other special courses. I teach 9 grade levels and 18 different classes including the Special Ed classes. We're expected to make live videos of ourselves demonstrating each lesson for each class for students who miss the live sessions (which is about 3/4ths of them) and then I have to post lessons on two different platforms for the younger kids: the main sight (Schoology) and one that is far more accessible for the younger kids (Seesaw). On top of this, I can't use the majority of the lessons I have employed over the years because some of the kids... a good many of them... don't have most of the materials that we might employ in class: glue, construction paper, watercolor, poster paints, pastels, etc... Cleveland has once again entered into the Red Zone for outbreaks of the virus and so we are going to be working this way until Christmas Break.

Nevertheless... I did get into the studio today. Now someone please remind me why I elected to go with blackberries... again!? A sudden instance of masochism?

Surely, I must have learned what a pain-in-the-ass these are from the last time I used them.

I still have 9 or 10 berries to do on this side alone.

 

[Artyczar]

Looking great!

 

[stlukesguild]

Thanks, Arty!

 

[stlukesguild]

It turns out there were 13 more blackberries in the "halo" behind the figure on the left. Today is only the second day I've had in the studio since school started so I tried to make the best of it. I finished the background on the left and then just started the bird. I realized that the weight of the black in the bird will need to be countered below. I'm thinking if the hair were black or near black the painting would look top-heavy with nothing to draw the eye downward. I have some ideas... but we'll see. When I finish the background above I'll raise the painting upward and then work out the torso before lowering it again to begin on the face. The photos are quite off color-wise due to the cool cloudy light coming in at a raking angle from the side. Next time I'll have to take photos at night using all artificial spotlights.

 

[laf.art]

I really enjoy the complexity of your work, the way the patterns bounce off of one another

 

[stlukesguild]

Thanks

 

[Trier]

Thanks for your efforts to keep us informed, I am learning a great deal.

I sort of get the feeling that what you have posted so far is a fragment of a beautiful ancient wall painting or mosaic.