Even a very mild case of Covid can zap you of energy and ambition. Today was the first day I felt like tackling the mushroom painting. It takes quite a bit of concentration to figure out what goes where and in what tone and what texture and what colour.
This morning, I started tackling the blue head of the middle mushroom. The Daniel Smith colour, Lapis Lazuli Genuine is perfect for this application. Right colour and very granular.... all those little specks of the stone floating around on the page. If you look closely at the blue area that is under the little bell-shaped mushroom, you can see that I left the white paper in the shapes of that mushroom's white gills. It takes a bit of convoluted thinking to get your mind around filling in the negative space between the gills. I'll go back in and darken that area sometime and the gills will become more apparent.
There is a nice natural "lost edge" between the black in the mushroom and the blackish background beside it. The viewers' eyes can get intrigued when viewing lost edges. They draw them into the painting.
I also worked on the little sprigs of dried cedar needles next to the white mushroom. It took a bit of time to get them to look three-dimensional and twisted.
Our daughter reminded me that we are supposed to isolate for 10 days after having Covid. We've already missed three family/friend gatherings. Guess this painting will be getting a lot of attention!
“It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.”
Chuck Palahniuk