Although this is only my second blog post on this painting, I have been working on it for months and spending a good deal of time on it. I’m almost done…I hope to finish in a couple more sessions. Here’s my version of this Petrus Christus painting, generally referred to as “Portrait of a Young Lady” or similar:

Portrait of a Young Lady study - work in progress

The accursed decorative silver metalwork around the hat is the main thing I need to finish…it’s really caused me a lot of bother. I would have been done with this painting weeks ago but I keep “fixing” that part, I have painted over it several times now. I’ll write about it more when I post the final version, hopefully sooner rather than later!

*Update: For the completed painting see: http://www.chromaticblack.com/completed/petrus-christus-study-completed-portrait-of-a-young-lady

Categories: master study, oil painting, portrait, work-in-progress by Airn
2 Comments »

Here’s the progress I have made so far on my Alice painting…this is after 2 painting sessions.

Alice painting work in progress session 2

Working on canvas is refreshing…the 3 other paintings I am working on are all on panel, and although I enjoy some aspects of it, canvas is so much easier to blend on and such. The amount of progress I have made so far would not have been possible for me on panel. I’m also loving using yellow+black for the greens, it makes it really easy to match the shade if needed and to do shadows and highlights (just add more black/yellow). I also have a few different earth tones mixed in there too though to add variety.

Update:  this painting is done. To see the finished one and other Alice stuff, look at the Alice in Wonderland category.

Categories: Alice in Wonderland, oil painting, surreal, work-in-progress by Airn
No Comments »

I’m usually working on 3 or 4 paintings at a time…here’s another one I started recently, a portrait of Brother Cadfael as played by Sir Derek Jacobi.

Brother Cadfael painting work in progress 05-26-09

It’s oil on panel, 8×10 inches. I am using a raw umber dead layer underpainting on this one, which I will glaze over later with color. At first it progressed really rapidly, but I keep altering the mouth; it’s been really tough to get it right! This should be a relatively quick painting though, since once underpainting is done I won’t have too much farther to go and there is no complex stuff like the metalwork on the pesky Petrus Christs study I am doing, which is driving me crazy.

I love the Cadfael series, and murder mysteries in general…I plan on doing a few other portraits of famous sleuths, including Nero Wolfe (Maury Chaykin) and maybe Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett).

Update 07-11-09 - Here’s a much more recent version: Brother Cadfael - Sir Derek Jacobi work-in-progress 2

Categories: oil painting, portrait, work-in-progress by Airn
1 Comment »

I’m in the early stages of a new Alice in Wonderland project. It’s for a group show at the Muddy Waters cafe in Santa Barbara. The show is called Alice in Wonkaland…entries can be either related to Alice in Wonderland or Willie Wonka, or both! If you want more details on the show or if you’d like to submit something, please contact Traci Lane at this page on Myspace.

My own painting is going to be 11×14 inches, oil on canvas. I am going to paint direct this time, no monochromatic underpainting on this one.

Here’s a detail of the preliminary sketch:

Alice in Wonderland sketch - preliminary drawing for oil painting

I changed the drawing a little since that photo…thankfully I checked it in an 11×14 frame before transferring it to the canvas — I was not happy with the cropping and would have been very bummed later! I’ll post more photos once I get some paint down.

Update:  this painting is done. To see the finished one and other Alice stuff, look at the Alice in Wonderland category.

Oh, I think I am also going to submit a miniature oil painting portrait of Alice Pleasance Liddell, I’ll post a pic of that later…it looks too crummy right now to post

Categories: Alice in Wonderland, art shows, drawings, oil painting, surreal, work-in-progress by Airn
No Comments »