Ghostly Children are Forming...

I'm working on a new version of an old, never-finished painting: The Presentation of Spiders. (Oils on shop-made panel, 20x40 inches). I'm sure I've mentioned this piece here before. (I have; see the photo accompanying my blog entry from January, 2011) I began working on this painting at the beginning of my first semester as a seniour at the Kansas City Art Institute, in the Fall of 2007.

I'm changing quite a few things in the new version, with the most obvious change being that this new version is being painted in layers. This first layer is a black-and-white grisaille (grey-toned underpainting), which will be "colourized" with transparent oil paints once the grisaille is complete. There is actually going to be a background to this version, too, instead of the rather flat blue "sky" beh8ind the figures in the earlier attempt.

I have several freelance projects in ths works right now, so it may be a couple weeks before I can make any substantial progress on this, but I don't mind taking my time, and "doing it right", this time.

Stay tuned...

First Carved Spider Begins...

I drew out the basic shape for the "front part" of what will become the first carved spider, and traced it onto a block of basswood last night. This afternoon, I cut the shape out with the bandsaw, and now it's ready for the actual carving. This is bigger than I originally planned it to be, so the finished spider will be larger, as well. I do plan to make some spiders using exitic woods, and I'll leave them ufinished so that the wood-grain will show. But, given that the basswood isn't terribly interesting to look at, this one will be primed and painted (probably using airbrushed acrylics!) I have no idea how long this is going to take, as I have several other projects that need to get done (including building several frames for one customer, and building a couple wooden displays for a local shoe store) as well-- --but this is a start!