The final version "Rampion Rising" is now posted to the website--as always, I take a picture and announce it's done, and then a few weeks go by, I look at it again, and it's "Oh, wait--hold on." So, after a few more tweaks and corrections and then waiting several days for a sunny day, now the final picture is up on the website.

This time around, I'm going to varnish it instead of using a glaze. I've always glazed my paintings using a mixture of Galkyd watered down with Turpenoid, but after reading this, I noticed that a lot of the artists were doing varnishes. Previously, I thought of a glaze and a varnish as the same thing (a glossy translucent coating to bring out the saturation of a painting's colors), but apparently a varnish is a final coating that can be removed. A glaze cannot. I read a very a comprehensive PDF online by Gamblin about varnishing and their particular varnish, which is called Gamvar, and I decided I want to do varnishes from now on (I can't find the PDF to link to, so if you want it, email me and I'll send it to you).

This spurt of reading was brought about by my somewhat failed attempt to glaze Leviathan Queen--I apparently have to learn the hard way a few times before the lesson really sets in, so I think I must have glazed a bit too thickly and it didn't dry evenly (plus, it's also freaking huge, so that makes the job even trickier). This means that when the painting catches the light at certain angles, you can see a couple areas of glaze that stand out from rest of it. @#$%. So, I went ahead and tried to correct with a few more coats, but no go. The new layers are too thin to cover my mistakes--I would have to risk another thick layer and hope it dries properly. I'm not counting on that, so I'm considering varnishing it instead--worse comes to worse, I can remove the varnish. Plus, I noticed in the link above that the wondrous Donato Giancola used Galkyd as a glaze and then Gamvar on top.

The witch-mother and the husband-prince had one thing in common--the desire to possess Rapunzel. Rapunzel represents the billions of young women who are treated as property by their families and husbands, and by society as a whole. Rapunzel's life is not her own--she is merely the vessel of her proprietors' demands, their dreams, their desires. They imprison Rapunzel and strip her naked. They fetishize her hair, symbol of her virginity. They clutch at her ripe breasts. They clench the promise of her womb between their prying, possessive palms. She sits still and silent in the darkness of her isolation, but in this darkness the seeds of rage, the spores of rebellion grow--like dank, glossy white mushrooms, they do not need sunlight, they flourish in the wet dirt, lavished with tears. Her repression and confinement is coming to an end. Rapunzel chooses her own path, her own purpose.

She will rise.

"Rampion Rising", oil on canvas, 24" x 34"

This painting began as most of them do--a vision, a blip of an idea, which I then pursued without knowing the full depth of its significance. As I worked on it, though, its meaning became clearer. The name "Rapunzel"  is thought to refer to Campanula rapunculus, an edible plant known as "rampion" in English. Both its leaves and roots may be eaten and its flower is a light blue or violet. Someday I hope to try some!

I still haven't quite gotten the knack of taking pictures of my paintings in our new place--it seems like the ideal light (at least in winter) is between 2:45 and 3:15 PM, and it's often cloudy! At any rate, it's pretty much done. I'm mostly happy with the results, but for next time, I will work on drawing the viewer into the painting as opposed to having the painting leap out at the viewer.

So, here it is. The final of "Leviathan Queen". There's a slight glare, so some of the darks are off. I'll retake the photo once I put a coat of Galkyd on it. I'll do that once I feel truly done...well, correction: I'll never feel truly done with it, but I've moved it down to the dining room so that it's out of my studio. Sometimes seeing a painting in a different environment helps me pick out little things that need to be fixed--and I do mean little, I'm not making anymore big changes to it. I just want to make sure that no edges that need fixing up, that's all...and with a piece this large, it's easy to miss stuff like that.

"Leviathan Queen", oil on canvas, 60" x 40"

Anyway, yeah...it's done. Am I 100% happy with it? No. This was started a year and a half ago, and I've learned a lot since then. Composition-wise, I think it is better than how it started it out, but I wished I had used a more restrained color palette--mostly earth tones with the occasional bright color. I think this piece would be have been more visually coherent that way. I also think it could have benefited from a looser, more "painterly" approach. Ah, well--it's done and I've learned a ton. Best to move on--Rapunzel has been waiting all alone in her tower for months!

As the new job starts to settle down and become a bit more manageable (a bit), I'm getting back to my oils. Leviathan Queen is looooooong overdue, and it was really enjoyable to finally get back to her this past weekend--I literally had to dust her off before I started laying paint down again, though!

"Leviathan Queen"...closing in on the final phase!

It's been so long since I've posted any real updates on her, I'm not sure anyone will be able to see the progress without going all the way back to my posts from last year! It's weird, but it always seems like she's looking at me, no matter where I'm standing in the room. That's called resentment.

In other news, here's a new mini:

"Eye of Butterfly"

"Eye of Butterfly" - partial side view

This is actually a gift for a friend, but I will be adding it to my Etsy shop as a made-to-order item.

And finally, a digital study from today:

"Pumpkin Stem"

'Tis the season, right?! I made some pumpkin, lentil and potato soup and saved this. (I pre-cooked my pumpkin in a crock pot instead of the oven--totally worked! Don't poke it or anything, just put 2 cups of water in with it and cook on high--I honestly don't remember for how long, though...maybe three hours?) I realized one of my big issues with digital painting is that when I'm painting stuff out of my head, I just can't seem to get myself to push and sharpen the values the same way I can with oil--how am I going to overcome this? By doing lots of still-life studies! I think I'll do a buckeye next.

So, last night I had the idea that I should do a warm-up painting this morning, taking just an hour to create a loose rough--a painting "sketch", so to speak. Well, that plan failed--I became completely absorbed and spent the better part of my day working on it. Ah, well--I'll try again and hopefully I'll be more efficient next time!

"Una and the Elephant King"

And here's another new one! This is a little oil on a 6" x 6" panel--a special gift for One&Only's brand new office! :)

"Pair Bonding Ritual of the Dragon Caterpillar Tree"

Last week I had the pleasure of watching Wes Burt demo some concept art--it was very inspiring and prompted me to try out digital painting with a much looser technique at the start.  Here is the result (based on a pencil sketch from a month or so ago):

"Pelagic Hominid"