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.