Tuesday, December 07, 2010

La mesa de mi padre

 This is the sketch and underpainting of my next project. I am using another of Roch's excellent photos for this painting. It is of a portion of his patio, and shows a table hand-made by his father when Roch was a young boy. His father has passed and he cherishes this table, crooked though it is. It sits among a colorful set of Mexican pots and, as his photos usually do, has great light-dark contrasts. I intend to maintain these contrasts as much as I can throughout the painting.

As I have been doing lately, I am working on starting paintings with a purple grisaille underpainting. I want to explore this technique more fully to see how it works for me. So far, so good.

This is the next WIP, which shows the first glaze of color over the masking fluid applied here and there. There will be many more glazes to show the stucco and flagstones as they need to be, as well as the very dark shadows enveloping the pots.

As very often happens I see, now that this is on the computer screen, that I have drawn and painted the table top incorrectly. So, thanks to my trusty Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (MCME) I will attempt to correct this so it reads better. What was I thinking? When it comes to drawing, who knows....it is just wrong!

For those whose Spanish is better than mine, please advise if I have incorrectly titled this...I am trying to say "The Table of my Father"

5 comments:

Ruth said...

Susan, this sounds like an interesting technique. Will be interested in reading how this goes for you.
The title to be written in Spanish would be: "La mesa de mi padre". No capital letters in Span. and the article "la" is optional. So you were close. It could be "Mesa de mi padre" also. I'm speaking from an English person studying & teaching Spanish.

Watercolors by Susan Roper said...

Ruth, I was born and raised in a border town and took three years of high school Spanish, but that was a long time ago. It stretches my brain to come up with the correct words in Spanish when I want to! I agree that the article "la" would be more appropriate here so will re-title it.

I am finding that starting with the grisaille technique helps me to set my values better. Since I am using a gray shade of acrylic permanent ink for the grisaille step, it doesn't lift when applying multiple glazes over the top and it ends up looking like a darker shadow color of the colors I am painting over it. We'll see, anyway!

Thanks for stopping by, haven't heard from you for awhile, you have been missed!

Gary Keimig said...

off to a great start Susan.
Thanks so much for your comment on my art blog. I do consider myself a photorealist so you pegged me just right. I am entering the last two posted paintings in a show as [hopefully]purchase awards along with running a booth at the show this weekend. fingers are crossed in this economy. lol

Watercolors by Susan Roper said...

Good luck with your show, Gary! I am glad I pegged you correctly as a photorealist, some artists feel that is demeaning as they feel they should be more "painterly", but I do love seeing the details perfectly painted.

CHummelKornell said...

I'm excited to see the progress of this one. Your painting style is evolving. Thanks for letting us share in your journey.