"gotta love my mom": almost in time for mothers' day

well, i almost made the self-imposed deadline but not quite. in my defense, i might have finished it by sunday if my lovely spouse hadn't insisted on playing golf....what did she think it was, her day??? so she dragged me kicking and screaming into arguably the nicest spring day we have had since our return to la crosse , as if i was going to enjoy that. enough of my br'er rabbit-esque silliness. obviously we had a good time and a lovely mothers' day.

all i really did was put in some background, first, in the upper right and then the upper left. in regard to the former i used a technique that i have rarely used, that of wet glazing. this is where one puts down one wash on top of another before the first has dried. the way i have seen this done in the past is to put on a yellow first (quinacridone gold in this instance) followed by a red (rose) and finished with a blue (cobalt blue). i didn't like the dull grayish cast that i got so put on a cerulean after it had dried. still not entirely happy with it. on the upper left i just put down my more typical splashes of each color (see below) and just lightly maneuvered them together letting them do their thing. i did spritz some clear water along the bottom edge and blotted a bit to to taper the color. this resulted in some runs that didn't bother me, in fact, i liked them. so i left them in. at this point i noticed that i had painted ben's *right* hand a lovely shade of blue. thinking this was probably a mistake, him having abandoned his smurfian predilections long ago, i lifted it out and put down a more fleshlike color in a shadow tint.

"gotta love my mom" 16"X20"

a few more shadows and folds on ben's sweatshirt and the same on joan's fleece about finished this masterpiece, and only 4 days late. she is currently out on the links giving me time to mat and frame it before her return. she usually remarks how everybody gets a painting except her. this should disabuse of her that notion....for a while at least.

in form of a critique, i am relatively happy with the figures and faces (in real life the skin tones are quite a bit warmer than as depicted in this photo) at this point in my development, but the backgrounds are not at the same level. every once in a while i stumble serendipitously into a good solution, but it seems rather random. in the next one of this nature i am going to try for a more flat wash initially and then add a little texture. this is more in line with what i have seen others do in the background, like ted nuttall to name one, and i like it better than what i have been doing.

post script: i see i have neglected to finish the *left* side of ben's hair. i will put sown something similar to the *right* but won't wait to post.