Re-working A Post For Paint Nerds

 I am slowing down.  I am reworking.  I am still.

Remember these paintings?  I decided to work on them some more.  I wanted to try that outlandish ultramarine blue sky on them, because I liked how the sky turned out on the stop sign painting.  But now I am getting carried away.  I always do, because this is my favorite part, tweaking something till I get that buzzy euphoric feeling, or... I ruin it, or... I get that buzzy euphoric feeling and I ruin it.

I read that Rodin took 14 years to do the Gates Of Hell.  Same thing with that statue, I think...  of Balzac.  He re-worked everything and he worked in clay.  He thought cutting marble was a waste of his time, so he would hire someone to do it.  Still working in clay was no picnic.  It  had to stay wet that whole time, (sometimes 14 years) so it would not crack.  What a hassle.

So I am taking my time.

"Angry Bird" 

I sanded "Angry" with turpentine and graphite sandpaper, a technique I learned from my, now far away but still adorable friend, Jhina Alvarado.  It creates a super smooth surface like plaster or fresco.  I feel like a postage stamp muralist.  I re-painted the background an almost pure ultramarine blue.  (Actually, I try not to put down any "pure" colors.  It is one of those "3 rules," every color is actually three colors mixed together, nothing is straight out of the tube.)  Then I  re-sanded and put down this cerulean.

Then of course, I had to re-work the whole bird, because that is what always happens when you repaint.  Everything you didn't repaint looks under painted and it is.  So hopefully this process brings the whole painting up to a new level, that is of course... unless it doesn't. 

"Flight" I did the same thing with this one, sand, ultramarine blue, sand, cadmium yellow, yellow ocher, cerulean mix on top and re-work the bird.  I still want to work on this one.

I like the way "Angry Bird" turned out, at least I do today.  The head and wing in "Flight" need to pop out from the background more, so I am going to make more of a value change there.  Maybe go really light and Naples yellowy in the background in those two areas.  Then I might put more detail into the head and the wing.  What that really means is more detail in the whole bird.  (see above)  The painting still is lacking depth.  I will most likely leave the other wing less defined.  It is farther away and moving so lack of detail might work...  At least that is the hope.