A little more Mermer painting

A little over two hours more work on Mermer's painting last night.

I've been unhappy with the orange side of her face. And now that I know more about glazing, I understand that this base color doesn't have to be the exact right color. If I can get the shapes to the point where I'm happy with them, then I can fine tune the color with countless glazes (if need be).

I worked on simplifying the orange shapes and making there be less little things going on over there. Also worked on darkening some of the black that I applied in class on Tuesday. (Note: It's a lot easier to get it right the first time. It takes multiple layers of black to look black if it's been put on top of orange.)

I also added an all-over glaze of brown-black to the background. (It looks really solidly black in the photos, though.)

( cut for large pics )

And for fun, here's my main means of taking painting supplies to class:


Yes, it's an empty bucket from 35 pounds of cat litter.


Here it is with canvas glued onto it. (I took it to class for two weeks before actually covering the "Tidy Cat.") I ran out of the glue I was using for this. Not sure if I'll bother to get more just to cover the two corners where plastic still shows.


Inside the bucket, it's also all about recycling. (Maybe because I feel guilty about all the paper towel use.) Salsa jars are for solvent. The big clear plastic "cup" with the palette knives in it was the cover for a spindle of 50 CDs. My tall cup of brushes (not pictured) fits inside it nicely with room for the palette knives to circle round it. That cup is a Starbucks travel mug that had been sitting unused in my cupboard for over a year. Big square tea tin holds paint tubes. Small round tea tin is for painting mediums.

Haven't quite decided what to paint on the canvas. But it will be bright and cheery. :)