Day 41 Deadline... Painting Finished? No.

Sorry it has been over a week since I posted.  At this point the painting should have been finished as today was the deadline - November 1.  Fortunately there is a little bit of leeway for me to finish it a few days late.  At this point I had to make the decision to paint much longer days to insure I'd finish the commission on time.  I've been working from about 9AM until around 2AM each day until the painting is finished.  Though I'm not as exhausted as I was during the last commission I'm certainly not as used to this long schedule as I was before.  Not to mention I gave up coffee before I began this second painting so things are a little more challenging.  Only another week to go.  Wish me luck.

Painted in a quick figure of Jesus on day 27.  

Day 26-29 Working in the Middle

I've spent the last few days working in the middle of the canvas.  It looks like I'll be finished with all the figures on the ground in the next two days or so.  As it would figure, I mentioned how well I've been feeling a few days back.  Well, the last three days I've been fighting off a cold.  It hasn't developed into anything serious but it has cut into my late nights working on this painting.  I'm hoping I'll be past it soon.  It is my goal to be working on the angels in the sky by the next time I make a new post.  Wish me luck.

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Day 24-25 Halfway Finished? Not quite.

I had hoped to be done with half of this commission by the 15th of October but I didn't quite make it. However, I've been picking up the pace the last few days and I think I can make the time up.  After weeks of work I believe I'm finally feeling in "the groove".

All of the figures I painted the last few days are in the on the right side of the mural in the "Hell" section.   I will be finishing the last few today and painting some of the demons before moving onto the middle of the painting.

I mentioned at the start of the project that I decided not to stay up ridiculous, late hours working on this one and that I would try to get at least six hours of sleep each night.  I also stopped drinking coffee and I've continued weight training.   In contrast to my last painting I feel healthy and ready to take on the rest of this painting to deliver it on time.  That isn't to say that the next two weeks will be easy but I'm ready to take it on.  Til next time..

Day 21-23 Moving Over to the Right Side

Sometimes one needs a little change of pace when working on a large project.  This was the case for me this weekend.  I decided to finish up what I could on the left side and I moved over to the right side of the painting to make some fresh progress.  I had hoped by the 14th of October I would have at least 50% of the painting finished.  At this point I'm around 30% finished so I really need to pick up the pace.  Fortunately this weekend went well.  The right side of this composition is mostly demons torturing and throwing bodies into the fires of hell.  As per the client's request the style of the painting is overly mannerist which you can see by the rendering of the body proportions and the stylized environment and flames.

That's it for now.  Lots of work to do.  Thanks for following along.  It's going to be a really busy three weeks...

Getting started on the right side on day 19.  Just roughing in the background around a falling body.

A close up of some of the bodies I painted over the weekend.  

What the painting looks like this morning.  I'll be painting somewhere in the middle today.

Days 11-20 Painting Hell Figures

I apologize for not posting for several days.  If I told you life is way too busy at the moment I'm sure it wouldn't take much convincing for you to believe me.  At the moment I should really be painting since I only have three more weeks to finish this painting so I'll be brief.  You can see exactly where I am by the two photos below which were taken about 5 days apart from each other.  I hope to post more frequently as I go forward.  Wish me luck.  It's crunch time.

(5 days ago)  Starting to rough in some of the figures being pulled into hell and begging for forgiveness

This is what the painting looks like in my studio this evening.  I'll be working my way out of this corner tonight finishing up the initial rough in of the remaining figures.

Day 10 - Painting Over the Finished Underpainting

This is what the Final Judgment looks like in my studio this morning.  The underpainting is crude but done to my liking.  I've never been much of a perfectionist in the under layer.  What the hell is the point of doing something perfect that you paint over?  That's just my personal preference and something that works for me.  Even though this painting will not be something rendered in my normal "realistic" technique of Baroque naturalism, I don't see the need of going any further on it, especially with only four weeks to go on this project.

As per my client's request, the composition will be more of a 16th century mannerist style and much of the composition was decided on before the project was given to me.  There are several references to the great final judgement scenes of that time period and I'm very excited to take on the challenge of doing something this complex in a very short amount of time.  There's nothing better than an extreme deadline to bring out the best in us.

I have, however, decided to be a little more conservative about beating myself up this time.  Since I painted the last commission I've decided to scale back my late hours and I've stopped drinking coffee.  This doesn't mean I won't be giving my all and working some long days but working so many late hours over the last 20 years is going to catch up to me sooner or later.  I fought off about 5 different colds while trying to paint the other commission on three hours of sleep for two months.  My immune system couldn't handle it.  I'm in the best shape of my life today, just a week before my 42nd birthday.  I'm training hard to keep it that way and for my health I need the sleep.  That is where I'm at today.  Who knows what I'll be feeling a week from now but that's how I feel today.

Thanks for following along and sharing this blog with your friends.  It's going to get crazy from here on out.

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.