Adult Books - stages 1 & 2

Stage 1

There is an earlier painting called this but I will now rename that as "Adult Books 2"! 
I am returning to my Roadside America series now for a while and intend to try out using thicker paint on these as I want to move things forward a bit in terms of the way my work is painted. The building is on Michigan Avenue in Detroit; I am more drawn to painting the urban American landscape than I am my own in the UK - not sure why yet!
I am using an analgous palette based around red, the red areas being the focus of the painting so I am going each side of red to include oranges and yellows as well as violets. Colours used so far are Winsor Violet, Manganese Violet, Pale Violet, Burnt Sienna, Scarlet Red, Yellow Ochre Deep, Naples Yellow, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon, Zinc White and Permanent Sap Green.
Stage 1 is the tonal underpainting using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and applied with a small bristle brush and a rag.
Stage 2 is the colour underpainting.

Stage 2

Dawn of the Hamadryad

When I received the IX 2019 Commission from Pat and Jeannie Wilshire I sent them a few ideas as to what I could paint for it. We agreed on the landscape idea "The Dark Citadel" which I finished earlier this year and will be exhibited at IX in Reading this coming October. However they also liked the sound of the figurative idea "Dawn of the Hamadryad" and suggested that I paint that as well to bring along to the show. I finally got round to painting it when I came across the circular canvas's that had just arrived at my local art supplies shop, Cass in Brighton. I had been thinking about painting one for some time and this was the final impetus for starting it on a larger scale after painting a couple of preparatory pictures earlier, "Dawntree" and "Dryad". The circular format seemed to give it something extra that I needed to make a start and I decided to compose it in such a way as to make good use of the circle, tree trunks and branches being ideal for this as you can move and twist them around to fit. 
I intended this to look a little like a Victorian painting such as by Leighton, Draper etc (the hubris!) and gave it a suitably overblown title but once I had started on the tree it became pretty clear that it was going to be very much a Fantasy painting...which is fair enough. I think that if I had painted the tree more realistically I might have got nearer to my original intention but I just got carried away with the writhing branches etc. Incidentally this kind of circular painting is called a Tondo.
I managed to scan this painting on my A4 scanner by assembling 17 separate scans in Photoshop as I have never been satisfied by anything that has been photographed digitally in Copy Shops etc.
So I will be bringing this and the studies to the IX show in October. Oil on canvas 24" diameter.
There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Dawn of the Hamadryad - stage 11

I worked on the figure today, putting in some colour into the hair and face and sorting out how the hands and arms merge into branches. Also trying to work out how the hair merges into branches. I think I will paint a thin scumble of semi-transparent yellow/white over the face and hair when I'm finished as I suspect it will need knocking back a bit.

Dawn of the Hamadryad - stage 10

Worked more on the tree branches at left and carried on with getting in the figure. Started to use a very light mix of Warm White and Winsor Violet as the highlight colour on the figure - if it's a yellow light the shadow will be it's complementary, violet.

Dawn of the Hamadryad - stage 9

Decided last night whilst under the influence of a stiff gin and tonic to have the back of the tree to go into the mist...I think it was a good idea, I'll look at it tomorrow morning over breakfast coffee and see if it was. Finished parts of the tree now so it was time to start work on the figure. I want the figure to be somehow emerging out of the tree into the sunrise of another day and want het to look slightly unsubstantial...new territory for me so we'll start seeing tomorrow if I'm able to pull it off.

Dawn of the Hamadryad - stage 8

Superficially this doesn't look much different to the last post but in fact I have been working all over the picture and no area is as yet finished. I am essentially making this up as I go along (apart from the figure reference) so progress is a little slower after the quickly put in earlier stages.
Incidentally this idea of the tree spirit was one of the alternative ideas I put to Pat and Jeannie Wilshire for the IX Commission. They went for the landscape "The Dark Citadel" which can be seen in earlier posts but they liked this idea as well and encouraged me to paint this too. Hopefully I will be bringing this to show at IX in October if it works out OK.

Dawn of the Hamadryad - stage 7

I made a decision this morning over my morning coffee about the sky, painted in some blue sky and clouds and then carried on with the right side of the picture. Once I have finished this area I will be able to paint the rest of the picture; as I am making this up as I go along I am proceeding quite cautiously until things get more fixed in my mind as how to proceed.