When the model is right... the rest will follow

This is both an exciting day and a sad day. Remembrance Day
always makes me think of and miss my father, long dead now.

The exciting part -- I began my painting The Promise tonight.
My model and I reviewed the 9 possible choices to select the right dress,
narrowed it down to three, and finally picked one.
After that I worked in two 10 minute poses before it was
time for her to leave.

The Promise

Step One, blocking the light

In the first pose I started blocking in the lights. In the
second I began refining the image by drawing it in
charcoal. I also decided at the end to whip in some
colour for a dark to define the right side of the image.
I like the layout of the piece so far.

The Promise Step 2
Drawing and staring colour

My biggest problem in painting big, is that I could always
paint bigger. So I still have to try and make the model
fit on the 3' x 4' canvas. I've been painting a lot of small
works lately, and this canvas is huge. I began work with
the largest brush I could comfortably draw with (2"), and then
used a slightly smaller brush to get more of a precise feel.

So that's it for today.

Have a memory-filled day.