A full day yesterday underpainting Bunting Game, the third painting in an 'English' triptych. Here is the Bunting Game colour study:
And the underpainting, which is so finished it might not need a glazing layer:
After painting, I immediately left for Deb's for a nice meal of ribs with plum sauce, star anise, and other wonders. We watched Jabberwocky, the Terry Gilliam film, which I haven't seen in years. The black knight, played by Dave Prowse, had a shape that cropped up in many subsequent Gilliam films. I've yet to see his more recent works; Tideland, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Zeroth Theorem. I must do so one day.
Today I've been working on the two frames. I first decanted the Golden Sandable Gesso into a sauce bottle. This is a little easier, less messy, to use than dipping in the tub, but perhaps more importantly will keep the tub dust free and at the correct viscosity. I've painted some beading for the Cosmonaut frame, 3 coats so far, but this is difficult. It's hard to paint the very long and very thin wood neatly, and the ridge makes it hard to sand. I'm wondering if I should custom make some sort of sanding block of the correct shape.
Painting the frames is hard work too. I've painted three coats so far today.
Sanding between each, though the wood is still visible, and I might need many layers yet. They do look beautiful. The wood I gessoed before sawing looks far better now, so perhaps I should apply a couple of coats first. As you can see, one is bound with cling wrap, to clamp a fragment of wood which is gluing.
