Ok. Well the under-painting on the arm was still the slightest bit tacky this morning, so I decided to work on the the shirt instead…and was able to finish it. Here is the best photo I could get of the painting at this point:

The next order of business will definitely be finishing the arm. With any luck, it will happen this weekend.

Iv’e managed to make a little more progress on the new figure painting in the past two days. For simplicity, I will be referring to this painting as the ‘Arch’ Painting, because of the shape of the figures left leg which I intend to tie into the architectural arch of a bridge in the background. This will almost certainly have little to do with the actual title of the finished painting. I was able to get the under-painting for the right arm finished, and I started laying in color before the under-painting began to tack up. I had a similar issue develop while painting the face. I was forced to allow the under-painting to dry completely, and then continue with a semi-glazing technique over the top. It ended up working out really well, so I am planning on trying something similar with the arm. One way or another, the arm will end up finished in a fashion which compliments the finished face. In the mean time, I have started work on the shirt. These photos are pretty dark, but you can see the changes.  I suppose I should make some mention of the size of this thing.  The canvas is 38X30 inches, and the figure, filling the bulk of that space, is roughly 26 inches high.  I would guess 1/2 life size…which is fairly large.

I have another full workday ahead of me tomorrow. I may work on the arm, if the paint is dry enough, or I may continue with the shirt. Either way, I will post images of the changes.

In other exciting news, I will have the extraordinary pleasure of spending 6 weeks this summer studying drawing and classical figure painting technique at the Grand Central Academy in Manhattan. The school was started by Jacob Collins, whose work I have made no secret of admiring as some of the best figure painting ever. My intention is to blog as regularly as possible on the experience, but given the intense schedule of the courses, I can’t make any promises. Whatever happens, I can only assume I will come back inspired and ready to dive in to a new level of painting. More updates on this topic as they are available.

I am happy to report that after my longish hiatus from blogging, I am back with news and new images from the easel. Commission work is a great thing, any Artist would have to admit. But it is really good to be working, once again, on a composition fashioned purely from my own artistic motivations. I started this painting in mid-October of last year, and since my last post on it’s progress on October 25th, have been focused on other projects. However, it is my intention to have this painting finished and ready to enter in the Springville Museum of Art’s Spring Salon in April. So far, this piece represents my finest figure painting technique to date. Hopefully I can keep it up…and if so, I think this will be a really beautiful painting. The images below were current as of this morning. The hair and face are finished. The colors are a little off in the photos, but you’ll get the idea.

Click above for a larger version. I included the photo below just because I continue to be amazed by the images I have been able to capture with this new phone. The larger photos above were taken at mid-day in sunny weather with additional artificial light in the studio. The one below was taken at night, just after I finished working, with only the overhead incandescent lights. The actual color of the painting is somewhere in between the two.

All day today I will be working on the figure’s right arm and hand. I will post updated images as soon as I can.

Incidentally, I am currently posting on the ‘Architect’ commission piece (actually titled ‘Breaking Through’) in The Artist’s Studio on the Cordair Gallery’s site. I will be posting final images of the painting here once that run is completed. I will also be posting images of the finished BB&T commission in the next week or so.