Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Goldfinches, Sanding Disaster

This is the result of the third day of work on the goldfinch miniatures. I now understand why Alkyds are a good way to start. The slow drying time of my oils has prevented me from working very long on these two pieces. I also have learned a valuable lesson about the sanding film that is used between coats. I am afraid I went at it too hard on the first layer and the film left scratches in the painting that are horrible when viewed under the magnifier, although they are not noticeable with the naked eye. All the same, in the future I will be very sparing in the use of the film and I will try a circular motion rather than the back and forth buffing motion I used.

You can see that I am very slowly(excruciatingly slow) building up the colors in the painting. Instead of jumping right into black on the finches, I have used a bit of Burnt Umber and I have indicated the feathers by a wipe out method I saw Joan Willies use. Very effective!

I love detail and have had to restrain myself on the finch eyes. I really want to put that little dot of light into the eyes already. Patience Linda, Patience!

No comments:

Post a Comment