By Donato
For those of you who feel you may have seen this painting before, you are correct! But just as each day is a little different in Bill Murray’s surreal life in the movie Groundhog Day, such is my fate as I work slowly, surely day after day on the same image, yet never is it the same. Some days it feels like a wonderful painting, others like a disaster. The most important lesson here is to keep moving forward.
Ambitious paintings require a tremendous amount of commitment and patience. I Apply paint to the areas I know, and take leaps of faith in those I do not. All the while in the back of my mind are words of wisdom from Dori…
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!
Eventually I will get there…where ever that may be.
Coming along magnificently. I love the way the light shimmers through it. Just ignore yourself the days you think it's a disaster. It will be a masterpiece when you're through!
I always try to tell myself, that whatever happens – I can´t fail. It can always be fixed, but maybe not always to what I had in mind. Thats not bad, though.
Wow, this looks beautiful. Do you always work left to right or do you pick something out and work on only that object?
The marble looks really great.
That is gorgeous!
Epic. Looking good man!
Stunning! I'm loving the light play and overall design aesthetic. Thanks so much for sharing the progress Donato. Looking forward to the next installment.
Simply amazing piece. Gorgeous lighting and layout. Multi figure composition is stunning. Beautiful piece yet again. Can't wait to see final painting.
It's shaping up brilliantly. Wishing you all the best as you struggle over the difficult mountains on your way to the final, glorious downhill polishing bit.
Come to think of it- do you have any advice regarding those slightly bleached out light patches with coloured fringes. Not even sure what to call that. If you wrote a book like Gurney's I'd certainly buy it !:)
HI William,
I do not have any particular working method, except to generally work object by object…lighting effect by lighting effect.
Dappled light! I would suggest you look at other artists work on this effect and then look at nature. Henri Semiradsky was a 19th century Polish artist who mastered this lighting effect. Good Luck!
Donato, do you paint only with natural daylight?
Sorry in fact I also have another question, how can you scan/photograph properly a painting this big when it's finished? Thanks
Well done. Congrats.
I paint mostly under natural daylight. It is now my work schedule with two children around, the minute they head off to school, I hit my punch card for the studio. As for photographing art this large, I take multiple shots while it is stretched on the wall and composite them into one large image (the new Photoshop Warp tool is a life saver here). There are always little errors, but at this scale it does not bother me and no one will really notice. It is all about the original art anyway not the digital image.
very informative, thank you!!
Hi Donato, you inspire me!