SARASWATI - lotus throne and hair

I worked again until the wee hours of the night. The neighboring studios are silent and still, I have the whole space to myself. It is tranquil.

I continue my work on the glowing red skin of Saraswati.

I paint in the chrome areas and frets of the banjo as well as on the simple pieces of jewellery this goddess wears.  I am not going to paint in the strings since they are so thin.

I begin painting in her lotus throne. The tones I select remind me of an acorn. the petals spew out from underneath her giving her a stable seat.

I outline her body in a pure hue of red. It gives gentle emphasis to her form with a softly blended brush and I put in some details to the face and limbs.

I block in her thick dread locks of hair and anticipate my next visit.

I received an invite for my exhibition from Stride in the mail. The printing came out dark. Irregardless, it feels great to have one in my hand, so for that reason, they look fantastic!

SARASWATI - more

A while back I posted some of the development on this painting. It has come a far way since then, here is some of the work completed.

I didn't like how the background colors were reading. In an act of defiance, I painted the stripes with an oiled down zinc white. I then filled a spritzer with mineral spirits and sprayed down the entire surface allowing it to flow like milk all over the painting.

Here is the new palette I created to do further work on the skin.

O began adding back in the shadows and brightest highlights first.

This gives an idea how much brighter the new skin tone glows on the painting.

I painted the planes of light to bring out the shapes of the hands and arms.

The development of the leg and knee, which I later blended and softened.

Here is the right hand over the banjo, allowing some of the under painting to define some of the shapes.  There is still much more that was done so keep posted and come see the ork in person at Stride Gallery on October 26th.


http://www.stride.ab.ca/arc/archive_2012/brian_batista/batista_main.html

Saraswati gets a skin treatment

It has been many days jumping from one piece to another, as is my usual method of painting.

I made a dark variety of pinks to fill in the base skin color.

Here you can begin to see the form beginning to take shape. I also painted in the banjo skin in this session.

I mixed up a pure red with alkali medium to the consistency a bit thicker than ink and began outlining the figure.

Here you can see some of the developing line work. The pinks were still wet so I had difficulties with some tones lifting up, however they will be revisited after they dry.

Concluding the session I painted in the dark banjo wood to be added to later, frets etc. I am waiting until the paint is dry to work on the following layers and her clothing and hair.

SARASWATI - painting some radial lines

I put a light coat of clear gesso over the painted ones to protect them in case the tape decided to lift off the pigment. I then taped all the radial lines which took a lot longer than anticipated and I had to use some clear gesso to help the tape stick. This painters tape I have is really sucky.

I decided to paint all of the inner circle lines brown and not have them alter every second one like the green and blue do. I forgot one area by the foot, have to get that later.

I painted the outer portion with a lighter more fleshy color and applied it thick. Its oil and I had some alkali to help speed up the drying time. I waited two days then peeled off the tape.

The lines were very crisp but I had to go in and do some touching up afterward.

I do it for you...

My day started out great!
After an early morning coffee and stroll thru the zoo to celebrate my past birthday with my mom, we grabbed a delicious bite of Vietnamese food in Inglewood. I had a friend stop by to share his life woes and then hopped in the shower before heading to work. I prepped my After Effects Class at Quickdraw early, since it is the first day and taught until 9:30. I realize my schedule is a bit weird from here on in. I get off at 9:30. rather than go home, or better yet, go out with friends...... 
I go paint! 

I blocked in some two toned blue radial stripes in the Saraswati background. The colors I am choosing are inspired by the peacock feather I picked up at the zoo today. Saraswati is often depicted with peacocks. I also painted around the edges so that for this exhibition I do not need to frame all the work, that would be extremely expensive and time consuming.

Since I will need to tape off the lines for crisp edges I can only paint every second one, and it's late but I need to get more done. I make a mixture of cadmium's, hookers green, yellows etc to create to green hues for the next radial lines. The implied circle around the goddess is dark going to light which is opposite from the Ganesh painting (to see click here)  which is light to dark.

It is after midnight by the time I'm done on the Saraswati piece. I am feeling dark and finally take the plunge on the Kali piece.  I have been mulling over the next step for this piece and been too timid to just put the paint to the canvas. Now that the leap has begun I am feeling good that it can go forward from here. I intend on painting red bones onto the body and maybe adding a slight highlight onto the form to make it appear less flat. Believe me it took balls to do just this, but now those balls are rolling ;P

It can be really tough keeping my priorities straight.

BLACK HAND

Beginning the creation of my Saraswati painting.

 After the photo session with Taylor, I bounced home for some dinner and a quick power nap. I loaded in the photos and did some selecting and photo-shopping. I hadn't blended the images onto one file before today. I used the quick whip tool and the magic wand and a bit of work to create this print out to work from as a reference. It has sped up my process in getting the initial drawing onto the canvas.

This is the 5' X 5' canvas it is intended for. It already has some radial lines drawn as it will be a piece that accompanies my Ganesh painting. The goddess Saraswati was measured to fit in the center of the big circle.

Here is my BLACK HAND. A drawers curse. I drew in the figure using charcoal. I always seem to wipe my face and forget about it until I'm out on the town and someone asks me why I look like a coal miner. lol.

Here is the  placement of the goddess figure on the canvas. I can take a step back and have a good look in case anything needs changing before advancing to the next step.
In order to not lift the charcoal pigment into the paint pigment when working, I need to apply a clear coat over the drawing. But there is a step not to miss first. You can see the upper left arm is darker and blurry. That is because I forgot an important step.....

Before applying the wet clear coat via thick brush, you need to spray the whole surface down with stinky poisonous workable fixative.  Its noxious and carcinogenic and that's why I selectively forgot  to do it, my bad. It helps glue down the charcoal particles before application of the protective clear coat to seal in the whole deal.

SARASWATI - Photo session

I spent the day editing videos with Mark Allard's for his upcoming book release: Regressions. They turned out fantastic and we made magic happen. Things just seem to fall into place and make themselves at times. Which is why right afterward hopping across the street to my studio was just at the right moment.....

Heres my quick set up of the studio. Hang a sheet, set up the light and camera and get something for the model to sit on comfortably,while she is getting changed.I was blessed to have the beautiful Taylor Heywood come down to the studio for a quick reference photo session tonight, as the hindu goddess Saraswati.

Lo and behold she has a tattoo of the goddess SARASWATI on her shoulder. Talk about synchronicity and magic! Out photo shoot was close to 30 min. from start to finish, that is how it is done!