Day 2-9 Getting the Rough Layout Finished

Sorry to group a bunch of days together.  I've had a pretty packed schedule the last week and I haven't had the time to keep up with this blog.  I did, however, get a bunch of photos of the painting in progress during that time.

I began work on the canvas using a rough grisaille in oil with turpentine, unlike the last painting that I did the underpainting in acrylic.  After a few days I decided to go back to that method again.  The speed at which I could build up skin tones will be much better and it really helps with the dark areas on the bottom of the painting.

You can see a few days in where I even had my son, Alexei (7) and my daughter Milla (10) helping me block in the bodies of the painting.  They did a good job even though I think there was more paint on the plastic tarp and the baseboard.  A few minutes later I had to relieve them of their duties before the hardwood floor was completely ruined and Mom threw all of us out.  lol  I can't complain though because they saved me several hours of work.