I’m stretching my own canvas for the next painting. I ran out of the regular weight canvas, so I’m trying this, which is a heavier weight. I cut the canvas 2” bigger than the frame and wrap it around and staple it with an electric staple gun.
I primed the canvas with some crimson paint mixed in to colour it. I just like it. I haven’t decided what I’m going to paint yet. It’s either going to be an amaryllis, or an old family photograph. I’ll see which one looks better on the canvas.
The beginning of the ‘amaryllis’ painting.
A close-up of the leaf and stem. I just wanted to see what it was going to look like. None of the pink background will remain when it’s finished. I just like painting on top of a colour. I put a layer of matte medium on top of the tinted gesso background to make it smoother to paint on.
I was up late working on the painting. I’m just trying to paint the first layer so I know which colours go where. I’ll do another layer and add more detail after this is done. It looks pretty good so far though, I have to say.
The fist layer of paint is almost finished on the flower. I had to stop and go to bed.
I’ve got the first layer of paint onto the canvas. I’m working on the central part now. Lots of subtle changes to be made yet. This is the beginning of the next step, which is to blend the colours from light to dark a bit better. The lights need to be lighter, and the dark parts darker.
I painted the blue background on the painting. I did a couple of white-to-blue graduated stripes, but they were too distracting, so I painted over them.
I’m working on the right-hand side of the painting, and the middle. I’ll do the petals on the left side next. It’s comin’ along.