Day 62

11: 58 AM

I'm back to working on the center of the painting.  I have one single figure left that I need to work on and then I'm shooting over to the right side again.  I'm feeling healthy today but getting up to get the kids to school this morning was not easy.  Alexei woke up around 5AM with a fever.  I don't even think I had fallen asleep yet after getting to bed at 4AM.  Milla burst into the room this morning to wake me up.  I don't think my eyes even focused until a half hour later.  I'm not exaggerating.  All I could see was a cloudy mess.  After a strong coffee and a shower I'm ready to attack this painting with all I have.

I have some unfinished figures there that will be the bulk of my work today.  One is for the deadly sin of Envy.  Normally this person is shown in freezing cold ice.  Since that's a little difficult to show (she's surrounded by an inferno) I am taking a more emotional approach with a little bit of visual help using the color green (green with envy etc.)

I am also painting out two figures that were skewering a woman and using one of them to operate a "Catherine Wheel," a medieval devise used to break a human body.  It will find a nice home in this painting.

Off to paint more maiming, torture and sinister things.  Wish me luck!


3:19 AM

Finished with another day.  Time to rest.  My eyes are not doing too well.  Had a great night painting. I spent the day listening to "The Fountain" soundtrack.  I really love the music.  I decided to watch the movie while I worked.  Very strange film yet really sad and depressing.  I don't know if it was that or the creepy demon I was painting this evening but my stomach has been in a knot all night.  Feeling really anxious.  I am not sure if it is a combination of the imagery or the pace of things but this is becoming a recurring feeling.  Anyhow, that marks another day.  I'm feeling pretty good that tomorrow just might be the end of the large figures.  See you then.

This is what 2 months of sleep deprivation looks like.  The canvas behind is what you get for it.

12:13 AM

Getting ready to dive back into painting again.  I had to take care of some art marketing materials I'm sending out.  I'm enjoying a nice plate of Eggs and Ful for my midnight breakfast and I should be good for another 3 hours tonight.  I needed a little boost for this evening so a cup of Starbucks Verona and a Vivarin and I'm ready to rock and roll for another late night.

At this point I am thinking I can wrap up most of the large figures by the end of tomorrow's session.  This would allow me Thursday to do just small people everywhere.  Friday I'll get some great shots with the photographer.  Well, my food is getting cold.  Time to eat and work.

Day 61

2:16 PM

I'm having a great day today.  I was able to get right back into the painting after dropping my children off for school.  I finally wrapped up all the figures on the left hand side.  More specifically, I finished painting the deadly sin of "Greed."  The punishment for all eternity is to be boiled in hot oil.  I went a step further as per my client's suggestions to have one of the people in the tub slithering out to reach into a spilled pile of gold.  This area has the feeling one might have after being slowly stewed.  There is a very subdued, surrealistic feel to the characters, like overcooked pasta.  The creepiest part is the demon that is watching over the pot.  He is disgusting and has a deranged, almost amphibious face.  This is the demon that made my son cry in the sketch stage of the project.  It's just disturbing.

Well, onto the middle of the painting.  Soon my children will be home from school.  Have to keep moving. I'll be on this another 12 hours today.

2:24 AM

Good morning, everyone.  Sorry it has been a few days since I posted.  Things have been more busy than ever.  After another week of sickness I'm finally feeling like I'm out of the woods again.  My nose isn't stuffed up and my energy is back.  Having little or no problem staying up these days even without coffee.  I'm getting sick of drinking it again.  It happens every so often.  I'm usually a slave to drinking it but I think after this long my body is adjusting to the schedule.  That's good because I still have another painting to do yet by mid March.

Feeling great and anxious to bring "The Damned" to the finish line this week.  I have about another 4-5 figures to finish up and then I have some revisions to a few of the characters for the client.  I'm also feeling really great after this weekend now that Rebekah has totally redesigned my studio and I have new large strip of track lighting to work by.  The lighting is so much more diffused now and it is so easy to work.  I never had to worry about lighting so much in the past but due to the size of this painting I had to use 3x the normal lighting in my studio so that everything could be seen while I am working on it.

In any case, wish me luck.  I have my good friend Darren coming this Friday to professionally shoot the painting.  I can't wait to share the shots.  The ones I post here are just from my iPhone and not very accurate in terms of color and contrast.

Anyhow, I have to get to bed.  Need to get a few hours in to recharge.  Take care.

A shot from the bottom left of the canvas at the end of Day 61 (unless you count the fact that I'll be back on the canvas again when I wake up in four hours)

Day 56

1:41 AM

Finishing up another late session.  After three days of good health my immune system is under attack again.  I can feel a cough settling in my chest and everything in my body is starting to ache.  I have no time to rest so I'm loading up on Airborne again.  Every time I have a major project the late hours and no sleep do a number on my body.  My mind wants to continue but it is a struggle.  

I have been focusing on the left hand side of the painting today.  There are a number of figures in the mid-ground that I was able to paint in today.  If I have a good day tomorrow I'll be able to finish the rest in that area. 

Not feeling really well right now.  Hopefully some rest will help.  Good night.

Day 54

1:57 AM

Sorry it has been a few days.   I've been working nonstop the last five days on this painting and my last entry for this year's Art Renewal Center competition.  I finally finished up my painting of "The Beheading of St. John the Baptist."  It turned out incredible.  Between this schedule and adding an additional painting, I've been getting even less sleep.  The payoff is that I'm doing the best painting work of my life.

I finally kicked the sinus cold I had since Christmas.  It never fails this time of year.  With a hard painting schedule without sleep a cold likes to stay around much longer.  In addition I almost got hooked on Afrin during that time and I had a few extra days of sinus problems before everything went away.  I know Rebekah will be disappointed with me but I will not be joining her addition!  Lol.

Anyhow, I'm feeling great again and I'm going to start working out again starting tomorrow.  I don't know if it is the duration of this project but staying up is becoming much easier.  I haven't even been drinking coffee at night because I am having problems going to bed, even if my nights are ending at 4AM.  I started taking Melatonin to sleep and that seems to be helping satiate the problem.

Looking forward to a big week with the painting.  I am hoping to wrap up all the major work, work on a few adjustments requested by the client and bring this thing to the finish line so I can start the next painting "The Final Judgement."

I worked on this little area of the bottom left corner tonight.  It is for the sin of GUTTONY.  The historical depiction of this in hell is to be force-fed rats.  The bodies are contoured and elongated adding to the mannerist feel of the overall painting.

Day 49

11:35 PM

I'm sitting here, ready to paint for another session fighting some really nasty fatigue.  For me it's just about the worst feeling I can have - trying to get back to work after falling asleep.  Unlike some people I can't stop.  If I do, fatigue sets in and I'm asleep in seconds.  I'm not the kind of person that can nap either.  Instead, I do all I can without stopping.  This isn't because I don't love sleep.  I LOVE TO SLEEP.  I just believe my purpose to paint is more important than sleep.  When I have a deadline like this project it is only logical that my normal system of work is ramped up with more intensity.  Four years ago I had to pull off a 14 panel "Stations of the Cross" commission in only 4 months (including getting compositions ready, hiring models, posing and delivering the finished product across the United States in time for lent).  I've also painted 22 portraits in 48 hours of continuous painting without sleep back in 2010.  For me it's about the thrill of what is possible when you push yourself to the limits.  I'm grateful for the opportunity to do it again with these enormous commissions.

When I reflect on that success in my personal and business life, this uneasy feeling in my stomach, my burning eyes that won't focus, and the nagging conscience in the back of my head that keeps telling me to call it a night doesn't seem to affect me the least bit.  With that said it's time to get back and paint until dawn.

Here's an iPhone shot of the devil from last night.

Day 47

2:01 AM

Just finishing up another night of painting.  Things went very well.  I finished the devil and a three headed dragon monster he is riding on top of.  Looks very disturbing.  Rebekah refuses to look at it every time she visits me in my studio.  I'm glad that part of the painting is finished.  I can retire the ladder until I have to finish an area on the left side of the painting which has a temple structure that is burning.   After the devil I painted in a large scaly rat coming out of a hole and eating a human.  I also roughed in another tortured figure and two demons around him.  These should go very quickly tomorrow.  As for tomorrow I'm moving along the bottom of the painting to a section that has one of the deadly sins of Gluttony.  The picture is a very obese man being force-fed rats by a demon.

See you tomorrow.

Day 46

I tried to finish the devil last night but I wasn't feeling well enough to make it past 2AM.  I'm digging in again to finish him.  I finally moved my lighting above so I have more space to move in my studio. I've never had to juggle so many chairs, stools, ladders and tables.  Normally, even with a larger painting I'll use a chair and a table.  With all the area to move around this painting it is easy to get cluttered.  Today should be some of the last ladder work I need to do.  The devil is at the top center.  As of this point I have all but his face and the faces of the dragon he is riding finished.

Now that I have decent light I wanted to share a photo so you can get an idea of the scale of this painting.