Sophie Ploeg: Autumn

2012-02-10T12:57:00.000-08:00

Sophie Ploeg: Autumn: Autumn, oil on canvas, 60x40cm Here are some progress images:

Drapery

2011-04-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

Drapery fun with foot and hand!
oil on canvas, 40x60 cm

Finished painting.

Antonia & Harriet

2010-11-12T18:15:00.000-08:00

Work in Progress for the Commissioned portrait of Antonia & Harriet, 50x40cm / 20x16”, oil on linen

First Drawing and placement of design

Blocking in some cool colours and lights

Placing my darks, some warm tones and adding a background

The Finished Product!

with some details below

Sophie Ploeg Painting in Progress

2010-05-14T06:17:00.000-07:00

The Making of 'Life Ahead'

2010-03-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMKmd289r0U

The Making of 'Daddy is Home'

2009-11-14T09:03:00.000-08:00

Daddy is Home

The Making of....

Hope you enjoy the ride...

After figuring out the composition, roughly based on a photo that I took, I got ready to paint.
Its roughly 33x43 cm at the moment, on Colourfix dark purple paper (as I was out of my favourite La Carte). Decided to start with 'daddy'. Am trying not to blend (perhaps some at the very end) and am fiddling with his expression (is it a smile or is he eating a piece of sour lemon?). You can see I made a hand drawn rough grid to place everything correctly. I then sketched with some pinkish pastel the figures and shapes – all very rough and simple – just to get the shapes in the right place. Then I started painting Daddy.
First stage:
Next installment....
Done some basic work on the hand...just a first layer to get the shape and tones.
Done a bit on the face - mostly ajusting the 'smile' and the skin colour: adding cool tones where necessary and warmer tones where needed.

Fiddled forever on the sleeve...I want it non-distracting...realistic, but with big shape blocks. Not done yet, but this is it so far. Also I keep blocking in the negative space between the two figures....untill I get an interesting pattern that has the correct darkness.

I'll add some close up so you can see the colours in the skin (at this stage).
Also a sheet of paper with some of my favourite skin colours. All quite greyish - perfect for blending in the more vibrant pinks, reds and whites

Hope to do more on it tonight....

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OK. Here it goes - this is this evening.Some work on the background...

Decided to blend the face a bit to create 'rest' in the busy strokes.

Started on the baby - to show how the skin develops...

Finished for the night...off to bed

so far...

Next update

Not sure about baby's hands yet....got to blend in daddy's nostril, and figure out the background to work better....endless tweaking from now on. Also make sure I get the 'twinkle' and spark in baby's expression....
Its pretty close to finishing now. I am just tweaking it here and there when I see something that can be improved. Anyway, the latest - and a better scan

As the image is so small, I hope you don't mind if I show some close ups as well:

...I thought I was pretty much finished........apparently not....The background bothered me still. Anyway...so far (the colours and contrast is most realistic in the previous picture as that was a scan and this is a photo again)

And I'll fiddle on untill I am happy with it....or fed up

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I've called it a day and am ready to start a new painting.....This is it: