Thursday, January 5, 2012

#5 painting,...Calling the Spirits ( in umber)

Setting up became very time-consuming today, as I am esp. easily distracted by so many things that need done. Finally, I found a design that I liked then to set up to paint. Last night my neck and shoulder really caused me some pain, making it difficult to paint, therefore today I decided to try to eliminate some of the aggravating factors.

One is holding up the viewfinder, constantly tensing up the muscle that attaches to the base of my skull. We joked about solving this issue in Carol Marine's workshop but I thought...why not try to really solve it. So I thought the issue through and came up with this;  
I used a piece of bamboo to hold the viewfinder, cutting notches in it with a utility knife. Then I inserted the bamboo piece into the opening of my Stanrite Easel post. It worked great!

  I played around with the position until I had it right in my line of sight.            
You can see my composition in the photo on the right.

 I am loving these panels and can't get myself to move beyond the beauty of working in umber. Today I used raw umber. Love it! Using less medium today and that seems to suit my style better.


Calling the Spirits         ( in umber) 5 x 7"
 
I will eventually do this in color, as I bought this turqoise vase because of its wonderful color. Let me know if you have any questions....

3 comments:

Gloria E. Moses said...

You are a brilliant problem solver! I too love umber, but that turquoise will call you. What medium are you using, I need to use something that doesn't dry too fast?

Linda Popple said...

I think your challenge with Kristen is great! Not only fun, but a way to get each of you in the studio every day. And I discovered your blog. Another plus! :-)

Dave Casey said...

Nice solution, but it seems it would be easier to just take a photo and put grid lines on a printed photo or on your computer screen. Then, you'd have your still life still set up to paint from and your gridded photo for reference on your computer.