Hey all,
Thanks for all of the kind words and support throughout this project.
So, I'm back from the National, and that means back to the easel. I've been working on this all day, so here's the progress thus far:
In this first underpainting/dead color stage, my main concern is to get basic value relationships and colors down onto the surface. In a way, it continues with the idea of the drawing in that it acts as a skeletal system for the finished painting. With these initial strokes, it gives me a good chance to just cover the canvas with a block-in, something that has the same amount of detail work throughout (which is important so the whole picture is kept in mind while working). The color ends up being a bit on the dead side because it's somewhat thinly applied, and since oils by nature are somewhat translucent, a lot of the background stuff ends up showing through the paint. It's only going to be through a few more passes that I will be able to create some interplay between the opaque areas and more transparent ones.
This will need the (at least) rest of the day to dry, and then everything else that will go on top of it will become the very meat of the painting. This initial block-in is usually a bit weird to me, but it's always the start of the second pass where I start to see things coming together.
Anywho, hope you enjoy it! And as per usual, feel free to share any comments, be they good or bad.
Graig