Dragons: Day 4 – the rocks

Day 4 was a faintly annoying day. I had to mix a blue that was darker than the colour out by the entrance, as if the yellow had been removed as the sunlight faded. However, there was not any yellow

Still Life, Roses and Reflections: Day 8

Today was a really, really difficult day. The copper jug was always going to be hard to do. It’s a mixture of an imperfect mirror, a cylinder, an overall colour, and a lot of drapery and complicated reflection. Ignore the

Dragons: Day 3 – the lighting

The dragon cave is going to be made up of receding layers of rock, going back towards the outside, where a dragon is silhouetted. The further back a layer, the earlier I should be painting it, which in this case

Still Life, Roses and Reflections: Day 7

This was a day that started at 12pm and ended at 6pm, so not an entire working day, but close to one. I spent the earlier part of the day mixing paint and then discarding the paint mixes. Some skills

Allegro, Day 3

Today I added the sky, and the whole painting started pulling together. The sky is cobalt blue with titanium white, fading to a yellowed blue at the bottom for the atmospheric effect. The very lowest bit of the blue has

Allegro, Day 2

The second day of painting on the Allegro was slightly shorter than the first, but as I had folded the sketching time into the first, I can still face my conscience. At the end of the day I had done

Allegro, Day 1

This commission started, as they often do, with sketches and squinting at the canvas. I painted a purple background, made of the blue and red I used for the sail with titanium white, which is a workhorse white; it’s nothing