June 12, I'm ready to move on.

Base color done, I'm ready to move on.

Does it look the same as yesterday?    Naaa -

Yesterdays image 

Here's yesterdays.

I darkened the darks and put a second layer of blue in the sky.

I also have gone back and redrawn the image so I know what to paint and where to paint it.

close up of drawing

Here's a close up of the drawing. See the details in the columns?
I draw it straight to mess it up with paint, then do it again and again and again....

Kind of.

Actually, this will probably be the last time I redraw the image.

Original drawing

The darkening of the darks and addition of blue in the sky actually happened last night.  I couldn't sleep so I got up and painted.  Even though I used the Alkyd paints (the quick drying ones) the paint was still a bit wet this morning so I was kind of stuck with forward progression on this painting.  So I played around with shadow placement on the original drawing.  You can see the red and blues above on my drawing.  For the most part, my shadows are not correct.  I know this but most other people do not.  I make the shadows just believable enough to make the image appear to work.  But since they are not quite right there is something in the painting that appears to be off or mysterious but most people can't figure it out.  It's almost subliminal.  This is just one of the few ways I play around in my paintings.

Reference

Here's the limited reference material I have for this painting.  I have a shot of a Denny's sign too, but forgot to include it.  Everything else is made up.


In addition to playing around drawing shadows this morning, I also completed a small painting - 6x6, of a lion- I'll share this later, after it dries up a bit.  I also sat outside next to a small fire, drank some tea and read some of my magazine (relaxing).  Then I chopped enough wood to refill my wood box, it was pretty low from the winter months.  And finally, I took a shower and went to a Greek food festival.  By the time I got home the painting was dry enough to redraw the image on top.

I think I'm ready to paint now.  I just need to decide on what to paint first.

Larry