Sequences

I thought you might enjoy another sequence. I actually started my blog with this sequence. This painting is of my daughter Priscilla, and it was painted at my storefront from life, while I was holding Violet (now 6 years old). It is a fast, direct painting, or alla prima painting.

As you can see, I started this painting the way I always do, by getting the pitch and finding my general light and shadow planes. I never start with a tight, finished drawing, but rather with the general shapes, deciding what is essential, what is not essential, and where I want my light effect. This allows me the ultimate freedom to "find" the figure, allowing her to imerge out of a nebulous fog, where I can change and edit as the painting progresses. With each pass, I try to tighten up my drawing, but never sacrifice the illusion of depth or light. I am a realist, but I do not want my paintings to be primitive (showing every little detail which flattens the illusion) or photographic (like HD TV, which over-sees, or has hyper-vision, and loses the magic).