Tuesday

The glass pallet I use is a quarter inch in thickness and tempered, for those who were asking about it.

I was back on the Amsterdam painting today, working under Grey winterly light.


I added a small boat to the left of the bridge and a lot more highlights on the water. The buildings in the background were also changed around a bit, they needed a little more detail. As I get towards the end of a painting, it becomes more like the conductor of an orchestra operation. I end up bouncing a little all over the canvas, fine tuning this and that, to bring the entire piece into more or less a harmony. Once I was finished with the water, that's when I noticed the background building were too orange in color. This fine tuning before you can call the painting done, will actually drag on for quite a while, as you step back and look for some of the small things that could be changed for the better. With the crit sessions, this in many cases can drag on for a few weeks. This is why I will usually work on several paintings at once, so I can put the one aside and look at it with a fresh eye at a later time.

Another trick I forgot to mention was the use of a mirror behind you, you're looking at a reversed image, but any problems with it become very apparent.

Richard Boyer