While I was neglecting my duties to the blog, I was, at least, working at the easel.  The Pandora twin paintings are finished, and I’ve also completed another piece.

‘Navigator’ 20″ x 20″

‘Pandora’s Legacy: Curiosity and Knowledge’ 18″ x 30″

‘The Artist’s Daughter’ (AKA ‘Pandora’s Box of Crayons’)  18″ x 30″

I’ve also been experimenting a little with Tumbler as a possible addition to or replacement for WordPress as a format for the RationalArt blog.  I really like the visual style and layout, and updating is much simpler.  My concerns are the severely diminished comment-thread functionality, the difficulty of placing images inline with text in a post, and what seems to be a serious degradation of image quality, most likely due to some sort of compression used to save space on the service’s servers.  If anyone would care to check out the site as it is so far, drop a few comments there so I can see how well the comments functionality is working, and give me some feedback on which format you prefer…I would really appreciate it! —> http://bryanlarsenart.tumblr.com/

Cheers!

Update:  I’m seeing the same distortion in the images on WordPress as on Tumbler….I’ll have to look into how I’m formatting them….Tips?

The twin paintings are coming along nicely, and, interestingly enough, are not taking twice as long as if there were only one of them.  As you can see, the shirts are both complete, the left arm of each girl is painted (but no hands yet), and all four little legs are finished as well.  On the left is the painting that will eventually be a more rational, positive take on Pandora.  I am still far from settled on an appropriate title for that one.   On the right is the painting I will be keeping as a companion piece for ‘The Artist’s Son’ which my son modeled for at a very similar age.  This one will probably end up being titled ‘The Artist’s Daughter’, but I am currently amusing myself by calling it ‘Pandora’s Box…of Crayons’.

As always, you can see a larger version of this image by clicking twice.

After two weeks of work tweaking details and colors, refining this and that, redefining this and that, and yet more tweaking, the twins both have completed faces.  And hair!  oh, and one arm each.  I have some doubts as to how much interest there could possibly be in the process….which was an unusually intense one for me as I was competing against myself, but just in case you are, for some reason, curious about the evolution of each canvas, I offer the following two images.  Each follows the progress of a separate twin.  Perhaps not surprising, I spent more time on the second twin, since I was comparing the result not only to the reference material, but also, no matter how hard I tried not to, to the first completed face.  It has been an very instructive, and incredibly fun ride.

Twin 1

Twin 2

And here is a photo of both canvasses with the heads complete, and also with the left arm blocked in.

More to come!  Stay tuned……

The oil primer coat is finally dry, and the drawings of the twin girls have been transferred to their canvasses using an oil transfer method (I’ve posted on this method before, but if you have questions, please take the time to leave a comment!).  Now, I plan to work on both paintings, but I have to start somewhere…and since it has been a week or two since my last session with a brush, I decided to warm up on ‘The Artist’s Daughter’…the twin I will be keeping.  This first image shows the state of things at the end of my first day’s work.  I’m mapping colors and blocking in general areas.  Things are rough at this point, and somewhat creepy with the gaping holes where the eyes should be etc. but the general form of the face is beginning to emerge:

This second image shows the face after another day’s attention.  Details are being refined…and the entire effect is considerably less creepy.  I’m sort of jumping all over the place at this point, pulling things into focus both on the color and the line fronts.  Every small adjustment reveals another area that needs attention.  I’ve got another day’s work ahead of me to finish off the face…progress on which may be broken up with block-in work on the hair.  Once I get things to a comfortable level, I’ll move over to the other canvas, and try to recreate my work on this one.

Finally, here is an image of both canvasses as they sit sharing my easel.  They will trade places occasionally, but I will include a similar image at each stage to give an impression of how the twins are progressing as a pair.  Stay tuned!

Until I get things figured out, you will have to click twice to get a larger version of each image.  Apologies for the inconvenience!

So you know how it is:  Two canvasses stretched and primed, scrap of your model ready to go….hey, you’ve even got your drawing of the model finished and ready to transfer to the canvas.  Maybe twice! But the oil primer stubbornly refuses to be dry!  We’ve all been there.  What do you do?  Well, I decided to spend a few hours on a little charcoal study.

I’m going to temporarily title this composition ‘Navigator’.  9 X 12 inches, charcoal on toned paper.

So, for my next painting, I wanted to use my daughter as a model, and paint in the style of my favorite figure painter, William Adolphe Bouguereau.  Upside: She’s the ideal model!  Photogenic, good at taking a pose, and cheap.  Downside:  Between Sara and me, there’s almost no way I can sell the painting.  Solution?  I paint it twice!  Years ago, I painted a portrait of my son working at his makeshift easel and titled it “The Artist’s Son’.  So, one of these two twin paintings will feature my daughter, holding her crayons and will be titled ‘The Artist’s Daughter’.  We keep this one.

The other painting is a take on Pandora….but with a twist.  I’m using the same scrap for the figure, but instead of implements of artistry, the young girl is holding a small golden box which she is just opening, revealing a glowing, mysterious interior… Pandora’s box.  She is also holding a pendant featuring a jeweled version of Athena’s Owl, symbolizing Knowlege and Wisdom.  The take-home message?  Pandora’s box did indeed release something powerful and, depending on your point of view, dangerous…. knowledge.

Here is a photo of my study for a few variations on the hands, and what they are holding:

So, two paintings, same size, same model, same pose, painted at the same time, different themes.  I’ve never done anything like it before, and I’m pretty excited about it.

Here is a photo of my easel, modified to accomodate two 18X30- inch canvasses…both stretched and primed in the exact same way.

And here is a photo of the two blown-up images of the scale sketch, ready to transfer to the two canvasses.

As soon as the oil primer coat on the two canvasses is dry, I will use an oil transfer technique to transfer each drawing to it’s respective canvas.  Then the real fun begins!

Nearly a year after starting the sketches for this painting, it is finally finished….and after a fresh coat of retouch varnish, I managed to get a somewhat descent photo.  Somewhat.  Professionally shot images still to come.  In the meantime, let me introduce a ‘Young Galileo’.

An Armillary sphere is the device I’m adding into the foreground of the Young Galileo painting.  Various forms of the sphere have been used since as early as ancient Greece to calculate movements of the moon, stars and other celestial bodies.  The addition solves two problems I have had with this painting.  It fills in the empty space at the bottom left of the composition,  balancing the gold and yellow in the background outside the window and adding another layer of visual space.  It also, in combination with the exaggerated day-time moon, provides a clue as to what might be on the young astronomer’s mind.

I have less than a day’s work left on the architecture.  Once that’s finished, painting the sphere will just about complete the painting.  And it’s about time!  I started the sketches for this piece almost a year ago.

After much deliberation on possible titles and an epic search for a competent photographer, I am pleased to present:  ’Between Chapters’

Click twice for a larger version…and visit www.cordair.com for purchase information.  Also, if you are in New Mexico and need your artwork photographed, contact Brian Edwards at http://www.briankedwards.com/

For the past week or so I have been working, once again, on the ‘Young Galileo’ composition.  When last we saw the boy thinker I believe he had no finished clothing at all.  Well, I’ve been busy…and as you can see, Galileo is now fully decked out in the latest fashion.  For his day.  Anyway, he’s dressed.  With the figure all but finished, I am now making a final pass over the masonry using a glazing technique to darken and adjust the color of the stones and add some much needed texture and contrast:

The technique basically involves applying a very thin coat of burnt umber, raw umber and ivory black in linseed oil to the area I will be working on.  The amount of pigment can be adjusted to darken the stones, and the ratio of the pigments adjusted to get the desired hue…but the main purpose of this coat is to give me a wet layer to work into without obscuring any of the under-painting.  Into that layer I can then paint with a full palette to add details etc. particularly in the areas where the stones are directly lit by the sunlight.  Once I’m finished with the wall, I will decide whether or not I need to add any reflected color from the stone to the tights.

As a side note, I am having a little technical trouble with WordPress that is temporarily preventing me from approving comments….however, please continue to send them in and I will get them posted as soon as possible.  For those of you with questions, I will copy and paste as many as possible into a new post along with whatever answers I have.  You can also go to the Bryan Larsen Fine Art Facebook page to leave comments and ask questions…and even hit the old LIKE button if you feel so inclined.