Another (small) painting begins...

I've posted a couple "in progress" photos of this to my FaceBook group, but I wanted to write more about it, here.

This is a brand new "small spider" (5 x 7 inches) painting, and is based on a section of an even smaller (3.5 x 5 inches) pen-and-ink drawing I made last week.

I think it's going well, so far. The background is airbrushed acrylics; the legs are painted using brushes, in oils.

I did very little preliminary drawing on this, (using the smaller pen-and-ink as my reference) and beyond the basic "pose" of the legs, I'm pretty much making this up as I go. The lighting bothers me right now, so I will probably spend some time "tweaking" the shading on the legs, before proceeding further.

I may add colour to the legs, and I may add details to the background; I'm not sure at this point. I like the "skeletal" look of the legs, but they do look a bit more like an underpainting than I prefer. We'll see.

Anyway, here it is, as things stand right now.

Still quite a bit of work still to do...

Nothing to see here, move along (well, not really...)

...but, sometimes it really seems that way!)

I feel that I might have used this title before (but, I really don't care.)

It's been a strange week, and today is stranger, still. It's not been a bad day--straightened the studio, worked on a painting, worked out, sat in the hot tub with Linda for a while--but I had a "free" hour (or so) tonight, and I didn't feel like doing...anything.

I have a couple freelance projects due soon, and a painting for work, and (of course) several of my own in progress pieces, as well as a couple drawings I'm polishing--and I simply was not motivated to work on any of it.

I did work on the piece for work this afternoon, and (it's due Thursday) it will be done on time. But, it would have been nice to have worked on it a bit more this evening.

Oh, well.

The drawing for the 24 x 36 aluminum panel is coming along nicely. I (still) think it's going to be an amazing painting. AND, I plan to purchase some porcelain this week; hopefully, there will be at least a couple new sculptures in the show next month!

I bought another box of the Gamblin Traditional Gesso last week, and hope to get at least one more 24x36 inch panel this week, so I can prep a couple panels with the next "batch" I cook up. (I don't want to waste the stuff!)

I need to draw a lot more often than I have been, lately.

The photo is of some "practice" sketches I've been doing. They're more like "warm-ups", actually, than "real" drawings. (I mean, they're real, but...)

And, yes, the spider in the lower left is a real preserved female garden spider, freeze-dried. (If anyone knows where I could obtain more specimens like this--of various species--please let me know! And, thanks!)

"Arachnélégance"...

Here's what I am calling the "first finish" of Arachnélégance. At this point, it could be considered "finished" (it is on display at the MRP Gallery thru the First Friday in May, after all).

But (you knew there would be a "but", didn't you?!) I might put one more layer of transparent oils over the spider (to make it a bit more green-brown, and--hopefully--help it stand out even more from the background) after I remove it from the gallery next month.

I'll keep everyone posted, here...