Today I had a good stretch of time to work in the studio and get a decent start on my new piece.  I had much more time than I used - that seems to be the way it goes sometimes, but eventually I got to it.

During the course of the day, the name of the piece changed from Shelia x 4 to Shelia x3.  I had originally designed the piece for 3 figures, but found that four fit better on the canvas I already had, so I put in the figure on the far right.  What I think I'll do is paint the three figures then take the canvas off the stretcher, build the right size stretcher, and re-stretch the finished piece.  Hopefully that'll work OK.  I haven't done it before, but as long as I wait long enough so it's completely dry, it shouldn't be an issue.

Today I painted in the darks, the shadows.  It's always amazing to me how much that already reveals about the look of things to come.  Well-placed, well-defined darks are what make a piece to a great extent (in my humble opinion, at least!)

The strong light coming in from the left is from my window - this time of day I get the last beams of sun coming in as the day draws to a close.  That's how I know to turn on my lights or begin thinking about dinner.

Tonight my choice is dinner.  I wish you all a good evening.  I'll be on a Silent Retreat this weekend so won't be blogging again until after the weekend.  Fare thee well.