Lion #1- Session 3

Hi on a Saturday, a greyish day, with moments of sunny sparkle.  But mostly feeling a  bit wintry (for Sydney), and I have had to wear a jacket and scarf in the studio !  Plus an apron of course, I make a huge and glorious mess while painting so the apron is essential.  I did not get to work on the lion during the week, even the days I worked from home doing funny local hours meetings did not give a good opportunity for a break.  I can do a minor bit of painting in an hour, but a block of 2.5 - 3 hours is better and 4 is ideal.    Usually a "split" sked of morning work and late evening work allows this, but not this week.  So the lion has been waiting all week and gazing at me from his canvas, sitting on a big easel.  

Today I decided to do NO errands out and about and stay and have the whole day to work on the lion and other art things.  A few CDs got put on and I got water and gloss medium.  I already had all my paint tubes out, left out from the previous session working on the lion.

First I had to work on the lion's face.  His mouth and jowls were not right yet, and looked a bit "heavy".  Also, shadows on parts of his face were not right yet.  And I also worked on his nose and his eyes.  I used a very light touch today, with a palette full of many shades of my verdigris colors, payne's blue, and also some raw umber for dark shadows.  And pthalo green, this time with no white (as used for verdigris shades).   I had already made some charcoal markings on the lion's face where I would work on improving the shadows.  I let the charcoal mix into the paint this time (no fixative needed) and that worked fine, just adding a bit of charcoal granularity to the payne's grey or pthalo green used for shadows.    This allowed me to vary up my shadows and add some dimension to some of them.  Especially on the lion's nose and eyes.  I put in some of the dark shadowy and shading bits today, where the verdigris is worn off his chin, and where it ends on his ribcage, legs, etc.  I painted shadows into a few of the highlighted parts to give them more definition.

I worked on the lion in two shorter stints, but probably each over an hour.  Gosh now thinking about it is must have been two plus each.  I wasn't really keeping track of time today, which was kind of pleasant and relaxing.  

It got quite dark and stormy and my good light disappeared, so I decided to do a bit of work on the background.  I got most of the stone bricks in the building done, but need to make a few adjustments next session and also work on the shadows and a bit of detailing.  But the color of the stone looks better and is on its way to being how I want it.  I ran out of daylight and had to stop.

So here is the lion at end of session 3.  Still more adjustments to do to his face, his body, mane, and left leg.  And work on the building in the background.  So plenty to do in session #4.  If all goes well, he will be mostly done that next session and need just a bit of "love" to give him some embellishing highlights and touches before an oil glaze.  Stay tuned for his further development. Have a good Saturday :)