Monthly Archives: December 2010

Leaves Under Cherry Blossom, Vines Reaching

Three greens loosely brushed over the patchy en grisaille work behind the wall makes a good first layer for the bushes below the pink blossoms of the cherry tree. I’ve used Rose Madder for the pinks (a Pre-Raphaelite favorite), mixed … Continue reading

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Cherry Blossoms

The first layer of cherry blossom is down, giving a much clearer sense of the appearance of the  complete painting. I was a little nervous putting pink into the mix, but felt that it was necessary to do it now … Continue reading

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Cherry

At last the cherry trees I promised long ago have made their first appearance, albeit in a very slender and rather deserted showing, without any of the leaves and blossoms that will make them so pinkly pretty. I’ve contrived to … Continue reading

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Morning Shadows

After a few days of feeling completely exhausted and running a fever I forced myself to get to the studio this evening, not achieving anything monumental, but making at least a little progress on the Empress. Because it’s been a … Continue reading

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Layering the Plants

A little time in the studio this afternoon led to getting the right hand patch of wormwood complete in grey, and a layer of mixed greens over the left hand side to find that odd blue-ish green. I’ll re-draw the … Continue reading

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Wormwood Expansion

I’m moving super slowly this last couple of days, feeling weary and worn out, but I’ve expanded the Wormwood on the left of the canvas and laid a layer of dark leaves down on the right. I’ve yet to add … Continue reading

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Elements in the Magician’s Landscape

I’ve drawn the landscape for the Magician’s world onto the canvas, with distant mountain range, a trough of water, a cross of long rags attached to sticks, and rocks and clouds that resemble each other. All four elements are represented in … Continue reading

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Magician with Blues

I painted the Empress’ morning glory flowers blue this morning, but otherwise didn’t get much work done, spending a lot of time thinking about how the painting goes forward from this point and fiddling with cleaning brushes and tidying the … Continue reading

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Green glaze

Working pretty fast, I’ve added a glaze of Sap Green over the greyscale leaves of ivy and morning glory. Easy work, but a huge difference! I’ll add some Iron Oxide red to the leaves tomorrow when this is dry. Rich … Continue reading

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Wormwood and Cast Shadows

Drop shadows make a huge difference to the way an object sits within a painting. Now that there’s a glaze of Raw Umber around the morning glory and some highlighting of some smaller leaves the plant seems more substantial. Although … Continue reading

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