Putting longer hours in the studio now!

       First drawing from the shots I took of Michael. I will want to do careful drawings for each image I intend to paint to make certain I can get the composition I want to and alter any problem areas in the poses. When I work from life I  just start painting right on the canvas but when that isn't an option I like to plan more carefully. I have a couple of ideas for extra elements to add to these also but need to keep that to myself until I know for sure. One of the things I want to do is play with the light/dark areas, maybe over emphasizing them as I have done in this drawing. I also need to compensate for any photo distortions, like the feet here...made them smaller than they look in the photo...didn't want your eye pulled to big feet coming at you.

         I worked out canvas sizes for five paintings. I was going to let the image

dictate the necessary ratio of height to width but was coming up with too many odd sizes which would mean building my own canvases and I just don't feel I want to that any more. I searched out available gallery wrapped sizes from Opus and found some close enough to work with and I can manipulate my drawings to fit. Boy, there was a time when I wouldn't deign to buy a prestretched canvas...I built the frames and did my own stretching, often on quite large canvases. The first time I did use a ready made canvas ( I was on a deadline or something and didn't have time to fuss around) and realized what a total snob I had been about the whole issue. I have continued to build my own canvases whenever I needed an odd size but now there are so many sizes to choose from in the prestretched world that it is less and less necessary and it is a blessing to those of us in a certain age bracket:-)

         Received an Award of Merit for "Girl in a Garden" at the Campbell River Art Gallery members show last friday evening. I'm glad I went, although trying to figure out what to wear almost made me decide to stay home! Nothing looks good on me anymore! What on earth am I going to wear to my son's wedding this coming August? At least I have some time to wallow in that dilemma for a while and maybe even find, or make, something I won't be ashamed to be seen in. 

          In the meantime, if you get a chance, check out Amnesty International and maybe write a letter to free a political prisoner or save a life. Much more important than trying to be fashionable.