the demo project

I picked up four pine boards for a demo project. I would have rathered birch, but it wasn't immediately available, and for what this project is, the pine will do. I also picked up regular gesso. I want to work with mixing my own, but since I haven't purchased the supplies for that and I have to do this NOW, I'll wait on the other.
I've got two coats on gesso on one side, one on the other and tonight I'll do a third. I see a lot of brush strokes so I expect I'll be sanding as well tonight.
Originally I was thinking I could use a doll as a model, but since this is a time crunch project and yes I actually sketched a couple of the dolls, I decided I'd be better off attempting something like a sphere or fruit for this.
Tonight the schedule is to finish the gesso, do an underpainting color - probably grey- and then the under painting of my subject, whatever it turns out to be on all of the panels. Tomorrow will be doing the underpainting of light and darks, assuming everything dryes fast enough, on three of the panels.
Next night will be the colors on two panels and lastly one panel will have full details.

I just hope it will dry fast enough in 24 hours that I can proceed. I want to display these at a demo this Saturday. I'm betting though, that I will have one, maybe two stages done. Sigh, what I get for not being inspired prior to this.

On another note, I did try out the graphite pencils and they were lovely to work with. I want to work with those pencils whereas the others were just not there for me.

Re-Inspired

I’ve been avoiding doing this work that I know is very important. I’ve even been researching and planning other projects other than these things.

This past weekend I think was one to help me get back on track. I went to an event near Houston. I spent a lovely day in the company other scribes, helping with overdue painting. Then I arranged to go to the museum of fine arts in Houston the next day with one of the other ladies. We had a nice lunch at a Greek place nearby before first going to an art store. That alone would have been inspiring with all the easels, supplies, tools and books on various arts that I love to indulge in. I browsed the books, looking over several books on my recommended list at Amazon, was able to determine not to buy some, put others on the definite list, and even bought a couple. I bought a set of graphite pencils that have a wonder feel to them. I can’t wait to try them out. I also picked up a couple of new brushes, a bristle, a sable and another I can’t remember the type, probably a sable, or mixed sable and synthetic. I also found some carving wax for the pewter doll project.

Then we went to the museum. I spent a lot of time just getting up close to the paintings, looking for hints of brush strokes, thickness of paint and so on. I was exhausted, but inspired. Waiting now for the day’s work to be over so I can sketch and get ready to paint…