Three colour studies painted today, for the two Pat Benatar paintings and the Telepathic Daisy painting. These are so useful, and were especially so today. The colours for the Benatar portrait in particular were complex, as her dark clothing required a dark coconut on top, plus many flesh options.
The Telepathic Daisy painting was originally 30cm square, then made a little bigger at 40cm, but I liked the idea more and more while painting the colour study and have decided to double the size to 80cm, the same at the Abandoning a Friend painting, and the Self Portrait as Philosopher. I have some 32in stretcher bars, so this works. This will be my largest painting in a decade, since Revelation. The afternoon was spent working on this much larger drawing. The little Wyeth houses now have (or can have) much more detail. The only element that has moved slightly is the disturbing object on the washing line, which is more obviously out of place on the bigger scale. A small painting blown up always works compositionally.
It's largely done, but there is a lot more preparation work of the canvas, stretching and preparation, and tracing over the drawing using oil paint. The brilliant polyester canvas I use is waxy and does not accept pencil.
