A slow day yesterday. Confirmed submission of Another Violet Night, this will release on October 31st, and painted a mouse lamp to look like an actual white mouse. The plain lamp was an ugly black resin. I also shaded a study for the cat in 'Can There Be A Refuge' painting.
Today, re-drew a Claire Luce portrait, with shading this time. It seems that a shaded outline works well, and my 0.5mm pencil seems better for this than my usual 0.3mm line drawing pencil. The likeness is much more easily checked and adjusted this way.
Was happily helped to deliver two paintings to Tarporley for the weekend community exhibition there. New paints arrived. Blockx Mars Red is instantly beloved. A fine and powerful red, more violet than Venetian Red, but much redder than Mars Violet. Mars Red and Mars Yellow Orange would make perfect flesh I suspect. Oddly, I use mars violet and light red, and rarely ever involve venetian for flesh, using the still beloved venetian for other 'general red' use (often for my signature). I can see the Mars Red replacing this, especially as the Harding Venetian Red is very fluid, almost watery, like many of his paints. Blockx Natural Umber is indeed a raw umber, rather neutral and green-shaded compared to the Michael Harding version I use in every painting. Blockx Natural is very close in hue to Winsor and Newton Raw Umber Green Shade, though more opaque and a little more granular. I'm less certain if this will replace my invaluable Harding Raw Umber, but I will give it a try when my Harding tube runs out. Every Blockx colour I've used has proved to be lovely, they make the best oil paints.
Also signed a new contract with Galleria Balmain today, and heard that I have at least one poem accepted in the Morecambe Poetry Festival Anthology 2025.
