Sunday, July 8, 2012

A Little Progress...?


What is it with summer? The days seem to melt away with all my best-laid plans being waylaid. Like: I'm ready to head for the studio to work on the mural, but first I need to get that lawn mowed. And then the gear drive breaks down on the mower and locks the wheels. So now I need to find someone to fix the mower. And find someone else to mow until my mower is fixed. You know how it goes...there's always something.

At any rate, I've managed to make a little headway on the big painting. I'm pretty methodical when it comes to painting murals. They go together almost like jigsaw puzzles, as one section is more or less finished before moving on to the next. I guess all those large-scale projects over the years have conditioned my approach. After I'd get all the scaffolding set up to work on some section 20 feet up on a wall, I tended to want to finish that part while I'm there, instead of having to come back later.





Here's the progress after a couple days work. I decided to begin with the building, since all the figures need to key in relation to it.





On day three I began laying in the people, beginning with the background figures and working forward. The idea is to have the earliest figures in the historical timeline be painted in lighter values and sepia tones, gradually introducing more contrast and color in those depicting more recent eras, and culminating with full color and value in the present-day foreground figures. It's going to be a balancing act-- I hope I can make this work.

I'll be back soon with another update (if summer will let me).

5 comments:

Gary L. Everest said...

Hi Don,
Another interesting "tour" of the mural. I have no doubt that it will be spectacular based on what you've shown us already. The concept of the faded, sepia-toned earlier figures is nothing short of brilliant.
We'll all be standing by for the next update!
And get that mower fixed!
Sincerely,
Gary.

Sheila Vaughan said...

It's a de Chirico building Don.

Don Gray said...

Hi Gary--what's the rush to get the mower fixed? Then I'll just have to use it. Thanks for your encouraging words, my friend!

Don Gray said...

HA—yeah, Sheila--all those arches. Hopefully, it doesn’t seem quite as ominous as de Chirico. 

Looks like you’ve added Brenda to your 60 Women list—am I right? This series gets more interesting all the time, as one image plays off the other.

Sheila Vaughan said...

Yeh I did! So difficult to achieve anything like a likeness especially when you have never personally met that individual. I was pleased with the way that painting turned out though.