"Fire & Ice" (24 x 24 oil on panel) painting process

Greetings,

"This is one of my favorite things that I've ever created. Partly because of the final result, but also because of the arduous process itself. The creation of this painting encompassed the full range of emotion. Excitement, joy, frustration, despair, boredom, exhaustion, and finally satisfaction. It was a journey. I gave it everything I had and came out the other side."

(Excerpt from my FIGURE book, page 41)

detail

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And the finished painting, "Fire & Ice" (24 x 24 oil on panel, 2017):

Up close:

"Notice the evolution of the background values. From the outset, I had the vision for a middle-value blue, but I kept adding light into the background in order to increase dramatic focus on the darker values of hair and face. I have a strong instinct to do this on paintings with intended mid-value backgrounds. It just keeps happening. I'm drawn to drama. I'm no good with subtlety. For this reason, most of my backgrounds are either mostly dark or mostly light."

(Excerpt from my FIGURE book, page 43)

Thanks for reading! -David

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