Granny at the circus

Its been quite awhile since I posted here. This is for myself more than anyone else, though. I realize I keep having the same problems over and over so I am going to keep better notes of my progress and obstacles.

I started a new painting recently, inspired by these pictures we took at circus vargas.

 The ringmaster's expression was just too good.

I decided that i wanted to use the mischt technique that I have been experimenting with. Well not really "the technique" but just the idea of using egg tempera and oil together.


So this is how I started:

Its 16 X 20 on a panel that I had previously prepared with rabbit skin glue and gesso, so I thought I'd try it out. I thought I would try having the foreground in warm tones and the background more gray. (July 15, 2017)

This is the next day. Dark floor, more highlights

I thought I would experiment with putting texture in the rug. (July 31)

As I started putting in more details, I realized it was all too dark.In oreder for the tempera to have an affect it has to be almost entirely covering the area with just the dark details showing through. (August 7)

I put a lot more white tempera in the background and tried out 2 different kinds of white pens along with colored pencils. I always find myself wanting to make straight lines which i cannot do with paint. The watercolor pencils work pretty well so far, but the are not very strong. I got an oil base sharpie paint pen and a regular old gel pen from Michaels and tried those. The Sharpie is bold but even though it is an extra fine tip, it is pretty thick. The gel pen is working pretty well  and is more the consistency I was looking for. I put local color glazes on some of the areas and painted the Circus sign pretty alla prima. That brings us up to date. (August 13)