The Main Body of the Painting

'You Don't Say?' 20"x26" Oil on canvas

Another in the series of "in progress" postings on one of the portraits that I'm currently working away at.

This is the chief stage in the programme of painting, the bit where the heavy lifting is done. After this it is largely a case of tinkering, checking for mistakes, and lashings of glazes.

Although it looks as if the foreground has not been altered, it has had quite a lot done to it, although nothing very drastic. Most time and effort at this stage has been spent on the background, and it will likely not be detailed any further (although it might yet be simplified).

The next stage will be mostly one of "marrying up" the different parts and making the painting a "unified whole".

First Foreground Pass

'You Don't Say?' 20"x26" Oil on canvas, foreground

An "in progress" update of the portrait that I'm currently doing of one of my fellow artist friends.

I have be asked by some people as to how I'm building this piece up, so hopefully this will be somewhat of interest to those who asked (hopefully).



So, this is the first basic pass over the figure and the foreground items. It's pretty general at this stage with some items and parts not finished to the degree that they will be worked up to later. There again some sections will also be simplified as the painting is developed.

I have on reflection decided that the background needs to be "cleaned up" a tad and have some of the clutter removed. This is a pretty common occurrence with portraits, what at first seems a charming and relevant detail can later be seen as a distraction. After painting in the background I'll put a final unifying sweep of glazes over it all and it'll be (sort of) done.

Sadly it's a bit of a "rough" photo, the camera wasn't set up correctly and was shot late at night (I will replace the image later with a better one).

 Further images of the work as it progresses, as well as the eventual final piece, will follow.