First figure painting WIP

[Coastal]

24x36 oil, photo ref lots of issues to work on but really enjoying the composition C&C's always welcome,

[Descartes]

Awesome work. I love the ripples and the variation of colour in the reflections.

[bethanyt]

Two of the most difficult painting subjects- people and water, and you have done an amazing job on both. Outstanding!

[lovin art]

Hey JOhn , getting there for sure, really love the theme and tones your starting to approach here in this , a suggestion of looking at that front arm and the forearm is to small in width and slightly to longish I feel looking at this ... How many times does her head fit into that arm take a relative measurement maybe ...This is working from a photo ref isn't it , I feel the perspective is throwing you and for me looking , we know if an object seems to be an exact record is made by this view it will of course be in perspective , but our eye is conditioned by what we think we know a given object looks like ~,give to say we know arms to be the same length but our eyes Sometimes tell us different ...

[arl]

Beautiful work and colors. The front forearm does seem a bit long to me.

[mburrell]

Coastal,
I agree this has beautiful compositional elements. Nice radial elements from/to head shoulder area. I hope you will post your progress pics. Food for thought, I think she is a little washed out in terms of saturation and contrast, photo references often pickup the depth of contrast and saturation in one area and blows out in others. I think that may have happened here so maybe you can digitally enhanced her figure to see what the eye would have. The highlights in the water to the right of her shoulder need a little work to make them lie down and move into distant. I have not seen ref. but looks like you will have opportunity to dip some of the skin into the water. This area where she comes in contact with the water will present a challenge to you and also an opportunity. Your doing a great job with this.
I checked the distance between shoulder and elbow against distance to top of hip it seem good, I then took distance from elbow to wrist it seem to be close to the shoulder -elbow distance adjusted for perceptive. She has dropped her shoulder a lot which increases her reach, looks possible to me but you can check it yourself. The color and light of the water may reflect on your figure adding interest and harmonizing her with the river. hope that will be of help.
Mike

[aureliof]

This is so utterly lovely. I would hang it in a heartbeat.

BTW, my son is very long limbed. His sleeve length equates to an arm span of a person 4-5 inches taller than his 6' 1". And there are any number of athletes whose arm span is disproportionately long. So to my eye what you've elegantly described is a long-limbed and beautiful young woman.

[Coastal]

Thanks for looking and commenting

I have went back into the arm I'm going to lower the elbow joint a little, give the forearm a little angle ,to lose the straight stiffness feel.
And shorten the forearm and the overall length to some kind of normalcy

Best,
J

[carolkay]

Oh John,

this is top notch--- super wonderufl- gorgious, and I could go on.

Youve done a masterly work. beautiful.

I do have a question-

When you go back, and I assume after it has dried-- do you get dull and shiny areas in the painting?

This what happens to me a lot-- so just wondering.

[Coastal]

Hey Carol thank you so much
I switched to Bill Martin's medium and I love it
The venetian turp (resin) adds the shine so every session stays wet looking and true to color.
I used the same mix with damar varnish and they both worked well
So i just brush a little medium on the work area, never enough that it runs.
Then paint,and the solvents have it (usually) dry in 24 hrs

[carolkay]

Thanks John--- could you post that medium mix for me, I know its Bill Martins, but this would be of inerest here if you could.

Are you saying you swithed out the damar varnish for the ventian turp???

Not sure if Im understand correctly.

[carolkay]

I have mixed up some of Casey Baughs medium mix and want to experiment with that I just wonder how it differs from Bills medium !!!!


Casey's is:

1 prt- damar varnish
1 prt-stand oil
5- prts triple rectified turpentine( from NYcentral supply )

[Coastal]

1 part lindseed oil
1 part walnut oil

2 parts oil of spike lavender or turpentine--------solvent

1 part venetian turpentine or damar varnish------resin
used sennelier(spelling) for the venet turp

And i read where he said the resin allows your paint to cover without beading up and that is true
I'm on my 2nd batch of it and I can see the cost will lead me to turpentine over oil of spike

[wjrmonkey]

Very nice painting indeed, congrats. Any blow-up shots to show some details?

[carolkay]

Ok so venetian turp is the same as damar varnish/

So
1 prt linseed oil
1pt walnut oil

1 pt damar varbish

2 prts turp.


sorry to be so dense here, just want to get it right