"Air" as it Progresses

I started Sketching for this peice on March 22, 2006

Day 3 - This is the finished sketch. I didn't include all the preliminary sketches because most of them were a collection of doodles, just tiny meanderings of my pencil as I played with different concepts. I did however come back to my very first concept for this.

Day 4 - Here she is sketched on the canvas. As with my other works, I took a digital image of the sketch and in Photoshop I added grid lines which corresponded to 5 inch squares on the actual 30 inch x 40 inch canvas. Then I grid the canvas in the same manner and basically transfer the sketch.

Note: For some reason the sketch was a bit wider than the canvas, when that happens I can either eliminate the excess on the sides or as I did with this one - I transformed the scale in photoshop and elongated the sketch a bit.

Day 5 - (March 27, 2006)- You can hardly see it, but the base coat is on the canvas. It's a mixture of pale pink and pale yellow. I'm shooting for this element to be more in the pastel shades than the others. BUT, I am not really good at keeping things in the pastel tones, things seem to end up in vibrant colors. So we will have to wait and see where this takes me.

(As I write this it is Thursday - March 30th, the canvas has had 3 days to dry that first layer and is ready for me to paint again, but I have a fair this weekend and I'm busy getting ready for that, so I probably won't get back to it until next Tuesday. Ughhh!!)

Day 6 ( April 3, 2006) - I had planned to take monday the 3rd off and spend it in bed recovering from the fair, but I hadn't painted in almost a week and I thought I'd go nuts. Sooo, here's the work I did.

Spent about 8 hours total at the easel. And I got alot of the actual colors laid in. Still pretty basic, no details yet, but those will come later.

Day 8 - Worked a little on the lower bird today, but realized that I needed to work on the background before I got too involved in the color of the birds. The color of the birds should ( I think) reflect the colors in the sky (maybe). So even though I was a bit tentative about adding the clouds, I bit the bullet and went ahead.

And lo & behold, They not only added more interest and detail to the piece, but they give it more depth and they place our lovely Air Goddess way up there where she belongs. They ( the clouds) will need a bit more work to give them more depth but I think they came out pretty cool!

It's a gorgeous day here so I'm playing hokey for the rest of the afternoon and gonna work outside in my backyard.

Day 9 - April 6 - 6 hours at the easel today. Started to add a little more color to the clouds today, but they really weren't dry enough. Still sticky and when you try to add paint to sticky oil paint it just gets it all muddy and mucky. So left them alone and worked on the middle bird. The clouds will - eventually- have more of the colors that the birds have in them.

Added a little color to the top bird too and filled in the ribbon up there too. Also add some of the peach tones to that middle ribbon. then I worked on some definition in her hair and her face.

Added a little dark tones to the blue sky near her body so that the rays became a bit more defined.

I seem to be staying - pretty much- in the pastel ranges. WooHoo!! Maybe it will actually stay that way! LOL!!

Day 10 - Spent about 7 hours at the easel.

Got more color into the clouds. I really like what's happening with them.

More definition in her hair. And added some hair behind her dress.

Worked the bottom bird a lot. And the ribbon that bird is carrying.

Worked on her body some more too. And on her dress. You can start to see how shear the skirt is now.

Decided to make the top of the dress pink, to tie her in with the ribbons and the clouds, and because I thought she was too white.

Day 11 - 6 hours at the easel. This image is much closer to true color. The lighter colors are a bit harder to capture.

Worked all over the place today. Started with the clouds. I added a lot more yellow to them along with white. Giving them more depth.

The center bird got a bit more work, but not alot. Some more yellow and peach tones to round out the body and give the body more definition.

Worked on her hair. Adding more strands to the center left section to make the swirl more believable. Then I made her foot smaller. But it got too small. OOpps! I'll have to re-fix it.

Added more color and contour to her back and arms. More color and contour to her bodice and more to her face. Still more work to be done there, but the shape of her back is starting to appear.

Day 12 - I had a bunch of paper work to do today so I only got about 3 hours at the easel. And since what I'm working on is in the fine detail I made this image bigger.

It's still hard to tell even with the enlarged image but our Air Goddess received some plastic surgery - so to speak. Her chin got smaller and her nose actually moved on her face. It was way off to the left.

I worked on her bodice and the front of her torso. And I finally added some detail to the top bird.

Day 13 - Worked 5 hours at the easel today. It's all refining and filling in detail work. Predominantly using a brush with about 3-4 hairs in it. I get a bit cross eyed.

I added shadows in the teal color to the folds of her "dress" along her leg to give it more depth and get the rest of the dress to look more diaphanous.

Also worked on the top bird. Adding more detail to the wings and the body. Added feet and feather detail to the middle bird too. And filled in some more color to the ribbon of both birds.

Worked on her mouth more , but that's about impossible to see here. And on her upper hand. Also added more rays from her face, just to spread it out some. Also worked on her arms.

I'm not going to give her the same kind of muscles as are in the other 3 Goddesses. Air should be a bit more lithe than they are.

Day 14 - 4 hours - She's Finished now.

I did detail work on several sections - Hands, Arms, Face, Hair and birds. Oh and also her foot.

To see a larger image of her, go to the Element Series Gallery.