just a little more

i did not have much time last week to paint due to an illness, but earlier this week i was able to get a couple of hours in on the couple painting.

almost all the time was spent finishing the pattern on the man's shirt. i used a #16 round, ultramarine blue tempered with raw sienna and then charged with a dash of either alizarin crimson permanent or raw sienna here and there. i also tried to lose a few edges on the multitude of small "squares". additionally, i darkened the gaps in between the bench slats by putting on a wash of winsor blue and quinacridione gold. after lifting some color from the near slats on the bench i started dry brushing burnt sienna, cobalt blue and a little mineral violet to add some texture. i also put in some cracks near the ends of the boards and within the body of the slats. i decided to have them secured with some nails and added the heads near the end of the slats. these usually cause some splitting so those were added. all this was done with a generic "dark", like mixing two complements.  i indicated some light reflecting off of some of the surface of the nail heads and edges of the cracks by scratching off some paint with the point of a single-edge razor blade.

another wash of darker color was added to the shadow side of the man's trousers and an initial darkening wash to the woman's slacks as well. i think that was all that was done.

we are into rather typical fall weather with some really nice warm, sunny days punctuated with a couple of cold, damp, rainy gray days. on the former i will probably go out and play and eschew painting, which will have to await the "indoor-weather" days.