Day 5

7:35 AM

Remember that commercial from Dunkin Donuts, where the man said, "Time to make the donuts... I just made the donuts?"  I'm feeling like that at the moment.  Hard to get up this morning until I realized I have an art shipper coming in four days to pickup two commissions I have for a church.  I only have one finished and neither are framed.  Looks like I'm jumping on that for the day.  Hopefully I can come back to this later tonight.

Time to get some of Mrs. Armusik's amazingly strong and delicious coffee....


3: 06 AM

I figured I may as well put this post at day 5 since I've worked right into the next day.  After another 14 hour day I've finally finished the entire acrylic rough sketch.  Standing back from it now all I can feel is anticipation.  I can't wait to get into the background and then the figures in oil paint.  Nothing against acrylic painting but it isn't for me.  I've been a strict oil painter for two decades now and after all that time the materials really do become an extension of your hands.  You know how they feel, how to manipulate them and how to get what you want.  I'm grateful to work with something that dries so quickly to eliminate the drying time (and the fumes) but I'll be looking forward to all the subtle effects I'll be able to create with oils.

So far it took 33 hours in three days just to get a rough sketch down onto the canvas.  I've used four tubes of acrylic paint and half of a bottle of black gesso to rough in the dark areas.  That has also been a good decision and it will save me a lot of time.  I've been building up my blacks the gradual way since I learned how to paint.  Burnt Umber, French Ultramarine, Alizarin Crimson, Viridian then glazing over Ivory Black.  Using some black gesso is going to literally save me days.  This is good considering I have less than six weeks to finish this Goliath of a painting.

Well, time to go to bed.  The kids will be up for school in three hours.  Good night.

A shot of the entire 8ft x 14ft painting - first rough pass with acrylic completed in 33 hours in three days.

The view from my desk this morning.