I snapped a large number of photographs in the spring downtown during the annual Festival International de Louisiane. From these, I plucked out some of my favorite figures / characters and put them together in scale to create a new, unique image unrestrained by photographic reality. I visualize them in a sort of mental collage before I start the dirty work. It was drawn out in it’s entirety onto the canvas with significant detail before being painted in oils. I chose muted tones specifically for the majority of the painting in order to highlight the two dominate colors of purple and blue. The snapshot above captures the foundation (background) as I laid it in. This work is now completed and I am varnishing it prior to framing. As I worked on this one I found it to be close to my heart in subject and I decided to make it a series of three. Another in progress image with under-painting visible prior to laying in skin colors:
A view of the completed work to be shared soon. Onward to the next one!