Daily Painting – Saturday Morning, The Witcher & A Very Slow Paint

Right folks… Saturday morning.

I was up late last night watching The Witcher. We started right back at the beginning again — like always. It’s impressive how much layering you miss in shows like that the first couple of times through, especially when you’re trying to make peace with the fact that it’s starting in very different time zones. A bit like Westworld in that sense — you don’t quite know where or when you are.

Anyway… I was up late.

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A Rough Morning

I’m struggling a bit this morning. I have some ongoing issues with my heart rate due to POTS and connective tissue issues, so sometimes my system gets stuck in fight-or-flight mode and I can’t keep my HR under about 85 — even just sitting at the computer.

So every few minutes I’ve had to duck off and lie flat on the floor and try to settle it down.

So far I’ve tried:

• water
• magnesium
• zinc + L-theanine
• lying flat
• brushwork
• meditation
• a shower

…and it’s still bothering me.

So annoying.

Basically this means that what should have been a 1-hour painting has taken about 3 hours — though obviously not three hours of actual painting.

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Method & Materials

I started with a burnt sienna underpainting.
Honestly… I almost wish I hadn’t in this one. I found it hard to cover cleanly without things turning muddy.

Then I did the cerulean sky.

I don’t use cerulean very often, but I’m considering playing with it instead of cobalt for a bit and seeing where that goes.

From there it was just a lot of green mixing:

• ultramarine
• yellow
• yellow ochre
• a touch of my greens

The dark values are 100% optical blacks — no tube black at all.
All the greys are just mud pulled straight from the palette.

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Inspiration (Not a Copy)

This painting was inspired by a photo that @Riverflows posted in her blog.

It’s not a copy — I didn’t ask her first — but the idea of a gate with vines creating a tunnel effect really stuck with me.

I’ll ask her if she doesn’t mind me posting the original inspiration here so you can see why it’s clearly not a copy and just that — inspiration 🙂.

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The Second Canvas

As always, I wiped leftover paint onto the canvas next to it.

It didn’t turn into anything I particularly like this time… but I still do it anyway. It’s just part of my process.

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New Paints

It was really nice playing with my new Matisse Professional paints.

I 100% agree that the ultramarine is much better than my previous set — more pigmented and cleaner — and I’m very happy about that.

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Anyway, I’d better dash.

Might try some more water… or a bit more L-theanine… and see if I can calm this heart rate down.

So annoying.

Talk tomorrow.