Finally worked up the nerve to take the glazing technique I learned in a recent workshop and apply it to one of my finished paintings. The red heart on green background got a real upgrade! 

Starting point was this heart painting, which had good colors and was a basic, but pleasant piece. I liked the finished product because of the hues and free form brush strokes. 

But it lacked pop, vibrancy, and finish. Not much I could do about artistic value or interest of composition, but at least it’s pretty, right? 🙂 The glazing was done in a single session of about 20 minutes. I added an Indian Yellow glaze to the green background, and a very diluted Alizarin Crimson glaze to the heart. The result was subtle in color effects, but it really brought out the yellow highlights of the background, and made the reds of the heart pop. What was interesting was that the background highlights of yellow were almost imperceptible prior to the glaze. The Alizarin glaze, on the other hand, added a lot more brightness to the main focal point.

Finished product below, but not sure the photos do it justice. Took the pictures of before and after in the same room, same angle, same iPhone camera. 

2 more sessions have passed since the previous Giverny base layer post. One was spent basically redoing the underpainting, toning it down and getting better base for the water. The next session was spent on the foliage along the far bank of the lilly pond. Struggled with taming Thalo Green, but after some trial and error, I finally got some workable greens. Its amazing how much variation can be achieved in the green spectrum.

Most of the palette is Thalo green, cad red, cad yellow, burnt sienna, and white. Used some purple and blue to cool things off, or get darker variations so it wasn’t too flat, but that’s tough to do with these greens.

Next session will be a nose dive into the water, rough in the iconic Monet bridge, and maybe take a whack at some initial structure on the foreground flowers.

Finally got the Bull Ring finished! Lots of rework and detailing since last post. This was a real challenge, but I learned a lot of valuable lessons that I won’t soon forget. The final chunks of work included:

1. A rework of the columns in shadow.

2. Detailing of the columns in sunlight, including shadow details and accents to give texture and depth.

3. Lines on the roof and more variable values from top to bottom to fix the “flat” view from earlier.

4. Added the matador. First person I’ve painted, so that took some practice, including the hat. But it really anchors the composition.

5. Added to the sand in the ring, mostly to improve contrast and allow for a dry brushing of the new paint up onto the wooden ring so it gives the impression of sandy dust stuck on the walls of the ring. 

That’s it. Next and final step is a glaze, but can’t do that for a month or so until things really dry. Will post that final view, but the painting is done! Time for wine!