Chris Beaven

I normally stay away from using black but today I made an exception.

Trying to paint a solid looking structure covered in hair is quite interesting.

With this session I’ve taken care of the foot and leg in shadow, working from left to right over the figure.

I’m second guessing myself on this approach after spending two hours blocking in the rest of the figure.

A very short session today with some focus only on shadow areas.

I may be working on this painting for longer than normal.

I started on the foot but will have to redo it in the future.

I chose to go with a much more warm background this time around, normally I would cool it off to separate the figure more.

I’ve finished the drawing with this session and will be starting the background on the next session.

I’m very happy with the outcome of this painting.

I see the end in sight for this painting.

Still not feeling well, 1 more hour of work.

I’m not feeling well but I got an hour of work in on this painting.

Moving further down the body the shadow areas are progressing much faster than the light areas.

Hair is interesting, there is a fine line between it looking authentic or stringy.

It’s at this point that I just let the progress on the painting show and I don’t say much about it. The progress is slow, but it is there.

The first pass of color over the figure is done and now I’m refining, starting with the head.

Just a small bit left and I will be done with the first pass over the entire figure.

This painting is finally moving along nicely.

A bit of a rocky start on this painting, but I did figure out something not to do.

I started on painting the figure today, but after an hour and a half I was distracted.

One session to establish the background. I’ve learned in a previous painting that this way is much easier to deal with.

I’ve started on my next figure painting, in the midst of a very frustrating day.

Another one finished and I honestly think this one is better than the last.

With this session I’ve finished all of the figure and the foreground. But I think I will do one more pass over some sections.

The figure is slowly fading into shadow and I’m finding it hard to fine anything to write about.

Hands are tricky to paint and I believe that I will have to do another pass over this one.

I worked on the upper arm and upper torso today.

I’m very slowly adding in detail across the figure utilizing transparency in many places.

I’ve begun the second pass over the figure now and I find this part of painting much more invigorating.

The ability to recognize your current mood, accept it and plan for it rationally can really help with the quality of work.

The first pass on the figure has been started, as with any painting at this point I’m not sure how it will progress.

I’ve painted the entire background and have ended up with a figure shaped hole.

Drawing is done, next session I begin with paint.

A beginning for the next painting currently only looks like a blank canvas.

After eleven sessions and around nineteen hours later this painting is finished.

I think I have the background in order now and I’ve learned some lessons here.

I’ve started from the beginning again adding a semi opaque glaze over all the work I’ve done.

With this session I’ve covered the entire canvas with the first layer of paint.

Session 7 on this painting and I’m still working on the first pass throughout the whole figure.

There are huge advantages to posting the progression of artwork daily, but you must conquer any fears of inadequacy.

While refining the rendering of this model face I’ve made some observations of hue variation in skin.

Tonight’s session I didn’t do much of painting the figure, I worked mostly on the background.

I working my way over the figure thinking mainly about describing form through value and color.

It seems that I’ve found some motivation in this painting.

I figured that this is enough build of the underpainting and it is now ready for color while in front of the model.

This is the first time I’ve begun a long term painting using burnt umber to build up the values first.

I didn’t have a lot of motivation for art today so I spent only an hour fixing the drawing on this painting.