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Marley vs The Dragon, A Lesson Painting


Here comes the long awaited Dragon Slayer painting!

 
This is a 16" x 22" gallery stretched canvas - which means the painting will literally wrap around the edges. This also gave me the opportunity to build up some texture when applying the layers of gesso (primer). This texture (which is tough to see right now) will allow for some great brushwork to happen!

 
The underpainting is a puddle of mostly light ultramarine. That murky spot in the lower left? I ran out of the mixture, so scraped my palette in order to fill the whole surface. Because this is the underpainting part, I'm not too concerned about the variety in color that happened as a result.
 
 
I loosely sketched Marley in with a lighter blue paint, placing her intentionally at the vertical and horizontal middle points of the canvas. This creates compositional tension that will keep the viewer's eye right where I want it - travelling from her face to the dinosaur and back again.

 
Now the dinosaur/dragon is a Schleich toy, and I've set it up in the studio and lit it to match the dog. I'll be painting the toy from real life, using Marley's photos for her portion, and studying the light on the pavement outside the studio for additional guidance.
 
 
At this point I tried to touch every piece of the dog and the toy with some sort of color. I'm starting to model their forms and define their relationship.

 
 
And then I used the same mixtures from Marley, lightened and grayed down just a smidge, and drybrushed them into the background. This created solid color harmony between all the elements in the painting, and I've begun to get a sense of spacial depth, too.

 
Back to Marley vs the Dragon next week!

 
Thanks, as always, for looking at and sharing my paintings with your friends and family.
Happy weekend,
Kim
 
 
JUST ANNOUNCED!!  PAINTING WORKSHOP: Saturday, October 8th, at the Orion Art Center in Lake Orion MICHIGAN, for reservations call 248-693-4986
 
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Comments

  1. Anonymous10:34 AM

    I love seeing a painting come alive from underpainting to varnish! And reading what you wrote of the process makes me aware of the thoughtfulness of your work. I can see it in the result, but it's a treat to have you reveal it as you go along.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kimberly Kelly Santini12:25 PM

    Thanks so much, Quinn - I really appreciate your taking the time to stop by the blog and comment! Your words keep me inspired and on track all the time! :)

    ReplyDelete

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