too much glass

Since glass blasting beads under gesso worked so well, naturally I had to try mixing glass into the gesso. I quickly found I was painting on sparkling sandpaper, which isn't so wonderful. Actually, it probably helped the painting since I had to scrub in about twice as much paint as usual. 17.5" x 13.5" - 3 hours.

glass beads

I added 40/70 grit glass abrasive blasting beads to the primer I used on this panel. Even through two topcoats of gesso, this made a huge improvement in the way the surface holds paint. It is much closer to good oil-primed linen. The extra surface area from the slight additional texture completely changes the 'grab' of the surface.

The painting was a bit of a challenge because the model made two pose changes after I started. 16.5" x 14" - 3 hours.

more free

The drawing is still too tentative, but at least some of the paint handling was more bold. 17.5" x 13.5" - 3 hours.

strong light

There was a bright single light on the model,  so I made that the theme. Also finally got a couple of props in one of these portrait sessions! Since I didn't have a lot of time for them, the flowers and table were just flung on unconsciously. The face and hair looked ok after just two values, so I quit them while I was ahead. 14" x 16.5" - 3 hours.

rotisserie chicken

The studio had blazing lights everywhere and was incredibly hot, so I just tried to do the minimum to survive and get this done. Also I realized that backgrounds can and should be telling their own story. So just chasing around lights in the background, somehow seems to make an emotive commentary on the subject. 16.5" x 14.5" - 3 hrs.