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.

Ganesh - Deep Purple Rays

After my week plus of Systema training in Toronto and one night at home to recoup, I hopped right back into the studio as any professional bunny must!
"They keep going, and going....."

My task was to make finish off the background radial stripes. I mixed up a new purple, making this one favoring the red side of the spectrum and using a richer chroma Viridian hue for the green stripes.

 

 I gave a quick spray over the background with a clear varnish to ensure the tape would be removed without lifting the paint layer. I also stuck the tape to the wall first to remove some of the stickiness before application.

I find thatt he green painters tape is not sticky enough and creates areas of bleed so I decided to us regular masking tape. Here is the piece entirely taped up. I have already started applying the darker of the two green tones around the outside of the Ganesh painting.

I made a stronger contrast between the two tones for this hue. It should pop more and create a bit of dynamic undulating energy to the overall piece.

I then started to paint in the deep purple rays onto the missing stripes. I am putting it on fairly thick and painting around the edge of the canvas so that it need not be frames.

I then painted in the lighter purple hue to create a circle of light radiating out from the center of the painting. I really liked how the colors I mixed turned out.

I paid careful attention to my edges and to not push the paint underneath, that way there would be less clean up required once I removed the masking tape.

I removed all the masking tape. I used nearly an entire roll. You can see a small portion stuck to grandpa's chair. The oil paint was still wet and got all over me, but I couldn't wait until it dried to remove it to see what I have.

I am really happy with how it turned out!