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I'm not too sure about this one at all.  The light and shade seems to be wrong but I will attack it again in a couple of weeks because I'm off on my holidays tomorrow.  Nothing will be put on here again until 30 June 2010.  I hope you all have a good couple of weeks too, will try to support England in the World Cup from France but I think they are playing too so might have to be a bit discreet.


 
 
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I have added another two layers of red and one of green today.  In the background you can see the peppar that I am using for the painting and, yes, it is orange.  I decided that I preferred the red one so have just changed the colour.  I will put on another 2 or 3 layers of colour until I get the depth that I need and will then start adding white for the highlights, which is my favourite part of any painting.  I have now found an image that I would like to use in my next one so will be starting that later today.  I have also got to add some more to that portrait that I started as most of that is now dry.  If I do any to that I will update again later.  Hope you all had a good day today.

 
 
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I am between paintings at the moment so I thought that I would do a still life to tide me over.  Also I'm away on holiday at the end of this week so I dont really want to start anything too big as I will have forgotten what I was doing by the time I get back.  This is just a red pepper and it has only got 3 layers of paint on at the moment.  The first layer was raw umber and titanium white to mark it out and to put depth where it needed to be.  The second layer was deep cadium red hue and sap green and the same for the third layer.  I will continue to build up the colour in this way until I think that it is finished.  When using these strong colours I have found that it better to build in layers rather than put one thick one on because of the drying time.  I have also used the medium light drying oil mixed with the colours so that it dries even quicker.

 
 
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I have started to add colour and hair to this portrait, I dont think that this will be the final flesh tone.  Colours I have used are burnt umber, yellow ochre, flesh tone and white.  For the hair I am using raw umber on white.  I haven't been able to work on the eyes yet as they are still tacky, I have found that if I start to go on top of it when it is at that stage it tends to "polish" the area and further paint will not sit on top at all.  So far I have lost 2 brushes doing this which is becoming the norm, I will have to try to figure out a way of painting that spares my brushes.  By the way she doesn't have any eyelashes yet either so her eyes do look a little bald.

I am now just about to start another, I dont know whether that will be on another update later or not just depends on how it goes.  This one is going to be a Dahlia, a little different to the usual portraits.

 
 
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This is the new portrait that I started yesterday.  I didn't put it on here because I couldn't really show you the start of it, it looked really rediculous, I think it's getting better although it still has a long way to go.  This is the underpainting where I am painting in all of the high and lowlights.  The colours that I am using at the moment are raw umber and titanium white and a little bit of burnt umber to mark out where the hair is going to go.  I had to start the hair because it added more balance to the face and helped with marking out where everything goes.  I like that little highlight at the back of the neck and hair and will probably be leaving that even though it was a bit of an accident.

 
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I think Samuel is now finished, I was having a problem with getting the background evened up.  I'll put that down to using black which I really dont like using because it always ends up looking streaky.  It's now had 3 coats and I think that has done it just need to varnish it now, so waiting for it to dry off again.  I have also been putting some more paint on the Ostrich but I'm not liking it enough to put another picture up here just yet.  I have to say that this picture fascinates me a bit, if you look at it side on it looks like he is looking out of the picture, really strange.  Also, it doesn't matter where you stand he is looking at you it's really odd. 

 
 
 
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What no painting?  I did a bit but all I did was to paint a canvas raw umber and, although I have uploaded a picture of that once before, I thought I would spare you another.  This picture is of me with the crew on Sunday at Art on the Railings, Newbold Comyn Arms, Leamington.  I really enjoyed that because I chatted with people looking at the pictures and with other artists that were displaying their work. 

That, unfortunately, gave me this brilliant idea.  To arrange an event in the middle of Leamington along similar lines.  Now I have these great ideas in the morning and by the afternoon have, usually, managed to persuade myself not to go through with it.  In this case though I couldn't find enough good reasons not to do it and all the tools that I need to make it a success are fairly easy to find, or so I thought.  The venue is in a public park so I had to ring an official to see whether or not we could use it.  The lady was really positive and very upbeat about the idea saying that it could really "take off" and become a regular event.  She said that she would send me an application for an event licence which was relatively easy to complete, also could I make sure I applied at least 6 weeks before the event because it has to go through various other people within the council for approval.  ALARM BELLS ARE RINGING, COULD BE ON A HIDING TO NOTHING HERE.  Well I have had the email with said event licence application form attached and, as with most District Council stuff it's about 30 pages long and full of stuff that would be more applicable if I were erecting a Big Top in the Jephsons.  That's bureaucracy for you and I have never found it to be useful or encouraging but guesss I've got to live with that if I want to try and carry this event on.

That explains why there is not a lot of painting done today.  Speak again tomorrow!

 
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Samuel L is finished now, all I have done is tidied up the background with a mix of raw umber and lamp black.  I dont like using black on it's own because it never gives a very nice finish, raw umber is much better.  Also I was hoping that, by mixing it with the raw umber, it might dry a little quicker too (pigs might fly).  Even though I am a little biaised this one is one of my favourites.  Samuel L. Jackson is a very powerful actor and I hope that I have shown that in the painting.