I have begun a painting I know to be titled "Heralds of the Dawn". I often have a name given to a painting, as well as a mind's eye picture of how it will look, before the piece has begun. In the end, it looks different, ALWAYS, but usually the title sticks. Let's see what happens this time.
This painting is about sky and birds, as many of mine are. There is more to it than that, of course, but for this post, let's begin with paint.
I stretched a canvas (48x33), gessoed it and have painted on it (acrylic paint) for three sessions, each one less than two hours. The first coat was simply a gradual gradient of color top to bottom, dark to light. I used a mixture of Payne's grey, cerulean blue hue, and titanium white. By the second coat, my mind's eye picture had already changed. I wanted these obvious and exaggerated stars to appear in the top, so I stenciled some in with a mix of glazing medium, silver, and white. And at the bottom I mixed (on the canvas) titanium white, cadmium orange and cadmium yellow light, just to get a good look at what the top to bottom contrast might be. I just finished the third coat. Over the top half I coated the sky/stars with a satin glazing medium mixed with tiny amounts of silver, Payne's gray and cobalt teal. At the bottom I began the basic painting of the rising sun and the sunrise clouds using titanium white, cadmium yellow medium, alizarin crimson, chromium green oxide and cobalt teal. And then I stopped, took a photo and will return tomorrow to proceed after I take a really good look.
Here is what it looks like now.....VERY basic.
Stay tuned for the next couple of sessions.
