Today I have worked a lot with the young woman. The lace collar, her face and hair, her body and some touch up on the older woman. Then I applied a thin layer of a cold and greenish yellow on the entire background. Not sure I like it, but it has to dry before I do anything more.
I worked on the older woman today. She has a look of a tired, sad person who has resigned herself her situation in life?
Today I have added a third layer of white to the baby’s dress, I have worked a lot with black on the women’s dresses, the hand of the older woman, the man’s white collar and started working on his face. More tomorrow!
Quite a bit of work done, but probably hard to see in the photo. Such as a second coat of white on the baby, detail work on hands, the face of the baby, the old man’s tie, etc. etc. Now is a phase that is pretty hard to do, enjoyable and scary, because it is easy to ruin parts of the painting, since I can’t just add layer on layer as with traditional oil painting on canvas. It is important to keep the birch texture and keep an even balance in all parts.
What colors to use? How much to add? Varnish? Background? Etc… The birch plywood creates a wonderful texture, soft and like fabric! I have to be careful not to do too much!
An intense day. Slowly making progress. Many problems remain to be solved. I have never made a large painting on birch plywood before – I like it!
Today I have added a lot of white and some Titanium Buff. This is a cropped picture of the “canvas”. It is always interesting to paint on plywood – my plan was to do this and that, but when I start painting and realize what the plywood does, it often changes my plan of action. This time I am painting on birch and I am really starting to like it, because the birch creates a shine that is pretty cool. Well, a lot of work remains… a lot.
For a number of days I have been preparing and starting my, probably, most ambitious work until now. Today I was able to start painting. It will be a big job to bring this to completion. The size of the painting is about 150 x 120 cm (59″ x 47″).
