Midnight Queen - stage 4

Painted another wash of colour over the figure with a rag, darkened the hair and made a start on the background trees and moon. I will probably put some thicker trunks and branches in behind the figure as well as having some much darker foreground branches. The glow around the moon is not finished.
Colours used were Kings Blue Light, Indanthrene Blue, Ultramarine Violet, Emerald Green, Phthalocyanine Green, Permanent Orange, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon and Warm White, most of these are Michael Harding paints with a couple by Winsor & Newton.

Midnight Queen - stage 3

Got back this afternoon and managed to strengthen the lines on the figure ready for a darker wash to go over it tomorrow as well as painting a glaze over the background with a mix of Indanthrene Blue, Ultramarine Violet and a dash of Permanent Orange (to knock back the saturation) thinned with Liquin.
As can be seen I want this picture to be pretty dark apart from the luminous yellow/orange moon.

Midnight Queen - stage 2

It is now apparent as to where this picture is going now that I have gave it a wash with a rag using a mix of Phthalocyanine Blue, Pthhaolcyanine Green and Ultramarine Violet mixed with Liquin and turpentine. Everything will be relatively dark and subdued apart from the bright moon above her head - there will be some glinting highlights from her jewelry but kept unobtrusive so as not to confuse the lighting design. It's a bit frustrating this morning as this has to dry before I can continue  and won't be able to paint any more until I return to the studio on Saturday.

Midnight Queen - stage 1

The third nocturne in the "Midnight" series, this will be all in subdued blue/greens and quite dark apart from a slightly orange- tinged moon above her head. The model is the lovely Naomi Wood again, based on reference taken for an earlier, failed painting called "Naomi Gold".
This stage was "drawn" up with a small bristle and a 3/8" Acrylix brush using a mix of Kings Blue Light, Phthalocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine Green, Ultramarine Violet and Permanent Orange thinned with Liquin, Lukas Number 5 Medium and turpentine.

Midnight Rain

This has been renamed from the working title "Here Comes The Rain" and is the second in this short series of nocturnes, the "Midnight" series.
Originally conceived as a sky piece there was a larger figure on the right hand side of the picture which I replaced with a much smaller one when I noticed that it was looking like a Romance book jacket illustration so that it now returns to being mainly about the sky. I also painted in on the last day a distant coastline on the extreme left of the picture as I felt the picture needed "grounding" in some way.
The colours are all mixed from Kings Blue Light, Emerald Green, Phthalocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine Green, Ultramarine Violet, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon, Warm White and Permanent Orange to knock back the saturation.
Oil on linen 24" x 18". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Here Comes The Rain - stage 6

Change of plan. I decided that the inclusion of the figure took the picture too close to looking like a Romance book jacket illustration so I have painted her out (sorry Ruth) and am leaving it nearer to my original intention, a sky piece. While I'm a way from the studio until Monday I will consider various options as to what I may want to put on the horizon, at the moment I am thinking of either a tiny figure or maybe a farm building silhouetted against the sky (quite small) or of course just to leave it as a sky piece. I was always thinking of a largely dark painting with just one area of light so I guess this is back on course.
I seem to be painting it like a stormy Atkinson Grimshaw...

Here Comes The Rain - stage 5

I had a couple of hours this afternoon on my return to the studio to work more on the sky as well as darkening the flesh tone underpainting to get nearer to how the tonal lighting is going to work.