Transferring the drawing to the canvas, using a grid. Old school methods still work.
A new glass palette, table sized. I'm so glad I got this bigger palette to work on these paintings!
The first layer is painted.
January 1, 2014. On page one in my sketchbook I wrote, "let's go big, let's do this big." Yesterday I began one of three large linen canvases that are 5x5 feet. That is LARGE for me. I'm excited to not only be working at this scale, but also to be doing something I set out to do. Slowly I've been working towards this goal this year, completing the four 2x3 footers, which I've shared three of here, and here, and here. Is this the next step to even larger? Who knows!
Usually on a painting I'll work from scratch, without a pre-planned drawing or sketch. But sometimes I alter my own rules or routines. Since I've been interested in blowing up my sketchbook entries I have begun this painting with an entry from the end of June. I scanned and printed it out and then marked with a grid to transfer to the canvas. Doing the grid really took me back to my high school days.
And I'm reading a book that is in every art student arsenal but somehow, unless I completely blocked it from memory, I never read. Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. This morning I started "the morning pages" excercise.
With all this, I'm setting myself up for a productive, focused, and creative time in the studio before I begin teaching again in one month.