Rue de Petit Champlain WIP

Well going to post this early because we are having some really nice weather and it is time to get out onto the porch and just enjoy it.  Thankfully, we were too far from the hurricane to have any rain or big winds, mainly just clouds and smaller consistent wind.  However, the hurricane, they fascinate me, since we lived so many years in Florida, each was different.  Today, it is crystalline blue skies and her to believe there ever was a monster storm a couple hundred miles to our east.  But we have 30-40 mpg winds and gusts because we are on the back side of the hurricane.  So strange.

I got to work on this for a few hours this morning and am now am finishing adding in the rest of the base coats.   Also started to add in the secondary coats and putting in some of the details.  Once all the colors are down and canvas covered then I will have to rework the shadows.  I am most afraid of trying to do the crowd, which is in the center of picture, so you can kind of see I am working around it getting my courage up.  Am pretty sure it will work out and yes Helen, if this comes together the way it has been going, I will indeed be a proud artist because I think I will have finally gotten onto canvas what I saw in my head.  I did read something interesting today about using your own photos, especially if they aren't terrific photos, that it allows you to paint more from your imagination, heart and head.  If you experienced it you draw on those thoughts and move away from the photo and just paint with more abandon.  Have to think about that, but I think there may be something to that.  A good exercise is to do a 30 minute picture, 15 minutes with the photo and the remaining 15 minutes without it.  Have to give it a try.

For this picture I have been using two new brushes - a 3/4 flat, golden takalon.  I love it, it stays together very well and allows you to put in square brush strokes.  Also it is great to neaten up my non-straight lines that get wobbly and too thick.   I just got this  #2 pointed filbert a few weeks ago and am finding that I really like it.  I like a brush that I feel I can get into small areas and I really like this pointed filbert as the brush comes to a pointed long tail and is great for working with fine lines.

Thanks so much to Hilda, Val and Caroline for watching after this and giving me such support.  I appreciate so much the extra eyes to keep me in line and the generous comments and advice.  We just can't ever hear or remember all the things we should be doing during the course of a painting - well at least I can't.

Have a super weekend.