Ice Planet - stage 5

 It is nearly finished, just need to finish the foreground and maybe a few tweaks on the buildings. I hope to finish it tomorrow and scan and post on Every Day Original before I leave for the USA on Monday. Good to stop here as I need to have a think about the foreground colours over my breakfast coffee.

Ice Planet - stage 4

 Work is s bit slow on this one as I have quite a lot of things to do as I prepare to go to the USA next week so I didn't get as much done as I wanted on the buildings. I stopped here so that I can have a good look at it with a clear head over tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee. I need to decide how dark to make them for instance and I'm too distracted today to make a good decision. It doesn't matter if I don't finish it before I go as I will have time to finish it when I get back and will be easily in time to post it up on Every Day Original.

Ice Planet - stage 3

 Have been away from the studio for a while so good to be back and have got on with the background mountain today. I stopped here so that I can look at it again tomorrow over my breakfast coffee and tweak if necessary before I go on to the buildings.

New colours used: Kings Blue Light, Lavender and Naples Yellow Reddish Extra.

Ice Planet - stage 2

 I finished the brown underpainting and gave it a desaturated violet/blue wash over most of it later on - violet because the painting is based on a yellow/violet colour complementary.

Colours used so far: Indanthrene Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Ultramarine Violet, Dioxazine Purple, Burnt Sienna and Permanent Orange.

Ice Planet - stage 1

 I liked how the light hit the background mountain in an earlier painting "Out In The Cold" and wanted to try it again in a different way. After sketching out various ideas of Islamic summer palaces high in the mountains set against the light hitting a mountain in the background I settled this morning on setting it loosely on the planet Hoth in the Star Wars films. This is two thirds through the initial tonal underpainting which I hope to finish tomorrow and try and get the blue wash over it later in the day as it could well be dry by four in the afternoon in this sunny weather.

This is being painted early for my slot on Every Day Original next month as I will be away from the studio for three weeks 19 May to 10 June in Pennsylvania painting on an historic farm near Amish country as an Artist In Residence.

Oil on linen 12" x 16".

Heliotropolis - stage 9

 Managed to paint in both sides of foreground and just need to finish off the date palms and then paint in the water and reflections tomorrow when I hope to finish it. I also looked at it last night and decided to break up the line of light on the shoreline of the city as it is too early in the evening for that burst of light to happen because there is too much light left in the sky at that time. This is a legacy of how I was originally going to paint it when I planned for it to be later in the evening and the sky would be full of blues and darker but of course I changed my mind but still clung on to the idea of the strip of lights until last night.... it's still there a bit...

Heliotropolis - stage 8

 Roughed in some colour into the water to give me an idea of what colours and tone to use on the foreground. Made a start on the foreground at right, more date palms to go in next and finish the ones already there before I move over to the left foreground, I'm leaving the water until last.

Heliotropolis - stage 7

 Still painting the city tentatively but have most of the right hand side finished so tomorrow I should be able to get the city finished including all the lights running along the shoreline. Then onto the foreground and water...

Heliotropolis - stage 6

 Haven't got much done on this until today due to distractions like the great weather.. and also a lot of dithering about what colours to use for the city. I stopped here today as I now need to work out what colours to use on the city at right which is theoretically more in shadow. Do I change the sky colour behind it? All will hopefully be resolved over tomorrow's breakfast coffee...

Heliotropolis - stage 5

 It's all about the lighting at the moment as I struggle a bit with colours to make the idea work of a hot early evening/dusk with light and colour still in the sky but dark enough for all the bright lights of the city to be there too. I stopped here as I want to have a look with fresh eyes at the colours I'm using in the buildings, I feel something needs to be slightly different - hopefully mulling it over tomorrow's breakfast coffee will do the trick. The sky is finished... maybe.

New colours used: Brilliant Pink and Yellow Lake Deep. 

Heliotropolis - stage 4

 First colour pass on the sky and background hills. The finish will be richer in colour with some glazing. I chose a sky colour like my collection of vintage Orientalist postcards which seems more appropriate as I go along and will be a nice counterpoint to having the Sci Fi city in it.

Colours used so far: Ultramarine Blue, Dioxazine Purple, Lavender, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Naples Yellow Reddish Extra, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon and Warm White.

Heliotropolis - stage 3

 Tonal underpainting now finished. Late last night I was looking at it before going to bed and realised that the way the painting looked at that time suggested going for a more Orientalist colouring than the one that I had originally intended. In the morning over coffee I looked at Orientalist painters like Hermann Corrodi and even Orientalist postcards from that period in my collection and decided on a warmer, hotter even, late sunset/dusk light based around yellows, oranges, pinks and violets. You will see this start to take effect tomorrow when I start to paint the sky...

Heliotropolis - stage 2

 Oooppsss... just noticed I misspelt the title in the last post...

 Spending longer than normal on this tonal underpainting as all the architecture has to be right from the outset otherwise it looks.... wrong and difficult to fix later on. I was originally going to have the city stretching across the canvas but I decided to make it look like it's following the curve in the river away from us - good 'ol breakfast coffee...

About two thirds of the way to finishing the tonal underpainting.

Heliopolis - stage 1

 

To misquote Rolf Harris you can't see what it is yet.... I have gone ahead and done a partial tonal underpainting of the foreground as I need to establish that first before I begin to compose the background which will be a futuristic city in the style of Ancient Egyptian architecture so that the point of the painting is a fusion of my interest in Orientalism which is the foreground combined with a Fantasy/Sci Fi background. I am going to set it at late evening with the last light in the sky on the buildings and all the city lights on and probably a spaceship going across the sky.... I am painting this to take to IX later in the year unless a buyer comes along beforehand...

Colours used so far: Dioxazine Purple and Burnt Sienna.

Oil on canvas 31 1/2" x 12".

The Vampire Of Rialto - stage 2

 First colour pass on the sky, buildings at left and right and part of the bridge plus I added a gondola and a few poles at the bottom to add interest to that area. Might have a couple of poles nearer...

Colours used: Phthalocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine Green, Dioxazine Purple, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Lemon Yellow and Warm White.

The Vampire Of Rialto - stage 1

 Seeing as I have an upcoming slot on the 23rd of April on Every Day Original I thought that I would paint another "Vampire Of Venice" for it as I enjoyed painting the last one. This time I have chosen the well-known Rialto Bridge as the location although quite when is more vague as I am going to have it dark with no lights on so that must make this painting set in a time before electric lights... not a good time to encounter a vampire when it's a moonlit night but otherwise dark and mysterious. Like the last one I have come in closer to the face which makes them different to all the previous vampire (Nosferatu) paintings.

This is the tonal underpainting stage using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a brush and rag with a wash of desaturated blue/green over it.

Oil on fine cotton 16" x 12".

The Vampire Of San Marco - stage 7

 I have pretty much finished the first colour pass on the buildings in the foreground and left it to dry so that I can go all over it tomorrow. I have always seen this area as fairly dark so that the lights in the vampire's eyes really come through so I need a good think about it over tomorrow's breakfast coffee to make final decisions.... planning on having the vampire's face fairly dark too....

The Vampire Of San Marco - stage 6

 Painted in the fog this morning which I am basically happy with barring a few possible tweaks later on. I have made a start on the foreground buildings and stopped here so that I review how it's going over breakfast coffee. I am planning on the foreground being quite dark as I originally intended and have resisted the temptation to make the details more distinct - I want the lights in his eyes to emerge from the darkness for maximum creepiness....

New colours used: Yellow Lake Deep and Naples Yellow.

The Vampire Of San Marco - stage 5

 I realised that I couldn't put the fog in until the water was painted in and in fact I really needed to work on the buildings a bit more so.... the fog goes in tomorrow.

The Vampire Of San Marco - stage 4

 I have kind of overpainted the buildings across the water as I want them to be dark and semi-silhouetted but will have a lot of fog/mist over them soon but I still want some of this detail to be there. Bear with me...