"Chameleon" (12x12 oil on panel) painting process

Greetings,

In the beginning of my painting practice, I was most comfortable with dark backgrounds (being a huge fan of the great David Leffel). The chiaroscuro effect made a lot of sense to me. Light shining in the darkness. But in a way, it was becoming a crutch. I was using it as an excuse to spend less time on the background...to paint it with less care and intentionality. So I forced myself to work with light backgrounds wherein the feeling of mystery could be accomplished using a high key (instead of low key as in a dark painting). Eventually I grew to become equally comfortable with both scenarios. I really enjoy the subtleties of value and temperature that can be explored in the lighter environments.

detail

The setup is above. Back to foil. It's just so interesting to paint. Satisfying. That, and I've never completed a foil painting that didn't sell (knock on wood), so other people must like it too, eh? I guess humans are like magpies.

I wrapped that glass three times before it had the nice foily look that I wanted.

First stage, brush:

Next, knife from here on out:

Next stage:

Next stage:

Next:
I wanted to push focus to the foil covered wine glass. My values in the rest of the painting (above) were much too contrasty, too distracting. I went back over things and squashed the value range to a very high key in everything except the foil covered glass which will have light lights AND dark darks. By isolating a full value range (and greatest detail) to ONLY the wine glass, it becomes the focal center.

Right now I see that the color relationships need to be resolved and more incorporated/united, but first that drapery needs a lot more love. I continue fixing until satisfied.

And the finished painting, "Chameleon" (12x12 oil on panel, 2014):

Thanks for reading! -David

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