St. Sebastian in progress.
Continuing the work of the woodblock nudes, I started a third roughly a week ago (6 April.) The subject is St. Sebastian, a martyr who was tied to a post and shot with arrows by Roman soldiers. Though he didn't immediately die of these wounds, it is this scene that he is often depicted in.
The first two nudes were done in a more traditional scheme of colours, or at least order of layers, with underpaintings of raw umber and flake white, with french ultramarine layered over for the shadows, and flake white and cadmium red for highlights and warmth.
With St. Sebastian, however, I wanted to try cooler skin tones, so I started with an underpainting of french ultramarine and flake white, which has guided the entire painting into a very cold, almost silvery range of flesh tone, which I find quite fitting for a subject so close to death. While it's not as haunted and ghostly as I had originally hoped (which is due to technique and not colour), it may make the wanted step into the gently macabre once I paint in the very last bit of detail--a trickle or two of the darkest blood from his wounds.
Once this piece is finished, I'm thinking of painting a companion piece; a St. Ursula holding her quiver of arrows.
The first two nudes were done in a more traditional scheme of colours, or at least order of layers, with underpaintings of raw umber and flake white, with french ultramarine layered over for the shadows, and flake white and cadmium red for highlights and warmth.
With St. Sebastian, however, I wanted to try cooler skin tones, so I started with an underpainting of french ultramarine and flake white, which has guided the entire painting into a very cold, almost silvery range of flesh tone, which I find quite fitting for a subject so close to death. While it's not as haunted and ghostly as I had originally hoped (which is due to technique and not colour), it may make the wanted step into the gently macabre once I paint in the very last bit of detail--a trickle or two of the darkest blood from his wounds.
Once this piece is finished, I'm thinking of painting a companion piece; a St. Ursula holding her quiver of arrows.
1 somethings:
Love. -M
GO ON, SAY IT