The Retro Process

HOW I WORK

These are the next three wanna-be paintings in the Retro Challenge:

a group of dancers

Canyon Women and a harvest

Chimayo in the fall

 dancers

Canyon Women

Chimayo

Most of you already know that I use a toned red ground.

I will usually tone about 16-20 canvases or panels at a time and

believe me, they are spread out all over the studio.

While the canvases are drying, I will think about what I want to paint that day.

Since they're not plein air paintings, I choose from a huge

rolling trolley of alphabetized reference photos.

Once I have my photos, I loosely sketch the scene in acrylic paint.

Even when I work in oils, I use acrylic paint for the sketching.

The color is a medium brown - purple tone.

I mix it with a lot of water, sketch the scene, 

and then blot it all over with a paper towel.

There are reasons for this:

- the paper towel removes any thick splotches of color 

that might show through in the final painting

- it also removes the harder outlines of the sketching and makes it blurry,

sort of like my own unique version of squinting.

Now, I am ready to paint!