Impasto Pete

A housewarming party and family trip kept me busy not working this weekend. Since the home christening was for the buyer of the Pistol Pete painting that I'm supposed to be working on, I'm sure I'll get a pass for a day or two off.

Today turned out to be a breakthrough day, though. Sometimes a few days away from a canvas is the only way to make real progress. It's a real shame that all offices don't operate on that premise.

It appears that the fourth attempt was charmed, as far as backgrounds go. In fact, I stumbled onto a technique that produces results that I find so appealing that I might adopt it as "go to". The previous three tries produced a background that was either too dark or very boring. I think I've achieved a proper balance finally. My in-house art critic/director/studio-mom (Sarah) agrees.

I decided to pick up some more medium for my paint. I'd moved away from the high-gloss medium over the past year. However, parting with one of the first pieces where I'd used the medium reminded me how much detail and visual interest the medium can add with it's texture and contrast in sheen.

This painting is really coming together thanks to a few risks.

Edit: After posting these new pics, I came to the uncomfortable realization that they appear to be identical to the previous post. You'll have to trust that this is the result of my poor photographic skills and lighting laziness and not that I'm only pretending to paint.