After 141 Sessions of work on this painting I’m calling it finished.

I love the title of this post. There are some phrases that I could never in a million years think that I would every write, and this is one.

I love the weekend! I’m up early and working on art by 6am.

Today I painted the background of the next shelf which is a cardboard box in preparation for painting the items tomorrow.

I finished the large shelf on the top left today. All the parts and pieces are starting to come together.

I worked on the third layer of paint over the Cd’s on Patrick’s shelf and I like them a lot more now that I broke up their edges.

Nothing very flashy or special today. I’m putting in the work that needs to get done and trying to find some meaning beyond the visual.

I feel like I’m on the home stretch with this painting while I work on all the background items.

I see all kinds of imagery in the drawing hanging behind Patrick’s head. Words, names, suns, landscapes, homes and the cosmos.

Today is a big milestone in the Patrick painting. I’m almost 100% sure that I’ve finished the figure unless I find something I hate later.

I’ve put my last strokes of paint on the couch and next I will finish all of Patrick after that the rest is all background.

I’m working on the last bit of the couch that needs to get finished and soon I can put my tube of black away.

I’m still a bit sick but I’m able to spend about an hour painting with good results.

The foot went a lot faster than I thought it would. I didn’t go crazy with detail and I like how it turned out.

For almost everything in my life right now if I’m having some kind of difficulty I always check-in on my fundamentals.

I worked more on the leg today and I’m having trouble with the flexed tendons that enter the top of the foot.

I’m working on the knee again today trying to add in some transparent layers to turn the form and add texture.

Happy new year and new decade! For me today is much the same as yesterday but the hope for my best decade every is growing.

This morning I worked on Patrick’s foot. Getting the drawing and values refined while also setting up for more layers later.

I’m working on another layer over the leg and trying to infuse some form into it.

I determined to get Patrick finished in this painting so my goal is to work on him until the whole bottom half of the painting is done.

Home alone on Christmas day is not so bad when I can have some awesome quiet de dedicated time to painting.

I finished up Patrick’s hand holding the beer bottle and almost finished the right side of the couch.

After 10 days away from this painting it took me a while to just get setup for it but it feels good to be back to oil and the figure.

Today is a bit of a milestone in this painting. I’ve fully covered the entire painting with oil paint. YAY!

My painting today wasn’t the best as my focus was split but it was worth it because I was chatting with my Mom and painting.

We are home now and I’m back to work on Patrick’s painting. I’m motivated to get all the gray covered up so I’m doing initial layers.

I decided to work on the tapes in the top left corner again. They were too static and needs an update to the more energetic technique I’m using.

I started painting today a bit frazzled from some to-do items that were full of frustration and it helped me realize something.

I’m having some trouble with sleep this morning so I’m doing only an hour of work on the painting.

I’m in the habit of starting out new areas of a painting with a block-in but I would rather just paint an impression of what I see.

I made some changes to the wall value and did the first layer of a framed art of hair notes.

I love the abstraction that I’m infusing into the wall behind Patrick and it is so much fun to relax and let the texture and color flow from me.

After a wonderful heartfelt talk on the phone with my brother I spent some short time painting a arcade game painting on this painting.

I worked on the wonderful drawing behind Patrick’s head and tried hard to get close to the spectacular spontaneity of the artist.

I reworked the painting behind Patrick’s hand and it looks much better now without the dark textures.

My original thought of this painting has changed since I’ve started so I’m constantly going back and bringing other areas up to date.

I find it very important to understand my own mood and pick what I want to paint accordingly.

I’m trying to balance control and spontaneity, too much of either and problems arise.

Today I was on the phone and doing some easy details in the background. Short and easy is good to have on some days.

I started working on the hand trying to get it looking somewhat finished when I realized that I need to do a lot of work on the arm also.

It’s easy for me to get caught up in the surface details when painting and I need a reminder to not forget the purpose of what I’m painting.

Today I’m painting the left side of the couch in preparation for the left side of Patrick.

I worked all over the place today. Starting with the couch and wall and ending up all the way on the other side of the canvas.

Tonight I’m painting late and I’m thinking about the feeling of paint peeling on the wood shelf I’m rendering.

I think I’ve finished the stacks of tapes but I’m not 100% sure, I may return to them a bit. They lack energy.

I’ve had quite a big idea change with this painting and I want to see how that will apply with parts of the background I”ve already done.

Maybe one of the hardest things to do is try and copy the spontaneity of a child’s drawing. He/she is a true master unfettered by time.

To quote one of my favorite movies. “I’ve had an apostrophe, lightning has just struck my brain”.

From the beginning I wanted to keep the background loose and it is also nice to paint differently for a while.

In a large and complex oil painting like this it is easy to move around and do something different once in a while.

It’s become extremely apparent to me that a multitude of paint layers is a much more exciting way to render skin.

Entering a state of calm and focus is very important for me before art but today was a challenge to focus.

I finished the shirt this session and has some fun with the beer bottle and blocks of color.

I guess if you look long enough at anything you begin to see much more than you ever thought possible.

I spent an hour on the orange shirt again getting the texture right and toning down the crazy chroma.

I’m excited because I’ve got a good method for color, value and texture on this shirt but it’s going to take a lot longer.

The orange shirt is just a too high chroma so I’m trying to add some texture and bring down the vibrancy a lot, but keep it looking orange.

I put another layer of paint on the right shoulder so it can dry in preparation for the next and hopefully last layer in the future.

I finished Patrick’s hair and the shadows cast from it on his right shadow. I still need to fix the value on the other shoulder though.

I spent this whole session painting more hair and trying to get the detail I wanted without going overboard.

I got an early start on painting this morning and after 2 hours I’m almost done with Patrick’s neck.

I started working on the right side of Patrick’s hair. When I finish this I feel his head will be completed but I still have a very long way to go on this painting.

After a wonderful day hiking the mountains around Mt Baker with Pattie and Susan I’m painting later in the day and working on Patrick’s beard.

I’m waiting for the work I did on his neck to dry so I moved to the arm adding another layer of paint.

My work is taking up a lot of time time right now due to a deadline so I just spent the minimum time on painting Patrick today.

Today I worked on Patrick’s chin and some of his neck. The portrait is coming together nicely now and I’m anxious to begin painting his torso.

I started refining some of Patrick’s hair this session with lots of tiny brush strokes.

Wanting to spend a bit less time painting today I worked on the background in preparation for the edges of Patrick’s form.

I’m working on Patrick’s mustache and his cheeks with subtle strokes.

I continue to paint the face in the method I began yesterday and I’m finally sure that the strokes I put on will not be covered in the future.

The process I used to paint part of Patrick’s face today yielded wonderful results and I will be following it’s example for the rest of the painting.

I did some work on Patrick’s blue bandana and the intricate design on it. But I kept it much lighter than the photo,

My schedule is a bit off this week, so I’m painting later at night with not much motivation on Patrick’s arm. I expect to do it over later.

I’m uncertain of my direction with this painting. I continue to work on the face but nothing seems to “click”.

I’m working a bit on the background behind Patrick’s head and I want to keep the background loose while also pushing the head forward.

I come closer and closer to a finished face, yet I’m not convinced that it will turn out the same as my vision.

I have a new idea of how I want to approach skin and the life I want to demonstrate beneath it. I hope it works but it may take a long time to achieve.

I’ve avoided details of the mouth until now. Teeth take lots of concentration to get right and if painted wrong they stand out horribly.

I’m beginning to learn to always paint over edges and to never just paint a color up to an edge. It’s easier to harden edges later, keep them mostly soft.

Today I started work on his neck with a focus on high chroma and texture in an attempt to communicate the weather beaten skin.

I’m planning a new method for this painting and it has to do with some organizing of layers from day to day.

I’m trying to figure out what I want to accomplish with this portrait. I think the drawing and composition is set but the paint application needs something more.

Each area of a painting starts with no direction, I feel lost when starting, so I just focus on something small and specific that I can effect well.

I didn’t feel that I had a lot of energy for focus this morning so I worked on the base color for the bandana and some of the background.

During this session I thought to use Gamblins Neo-Meglip medium to bolster the texture of the paint but that idea fell flat, literally and figuratively.

I’m close to slapping on the paint thickly with a palette knife, maybe if I sculpt the portrait out of paint I can come close to the life I want to achieve.

I had some struggle trying to determine if I should work further with acrylic but my heart said that it was time to move on to oil.

I’ve come to a point where I feel I have no choice and must start over.

It was apparent from the first brush stroke that the white of the canvas was a bad idea.

I feel that I won’t be happy with my progress on this painting until I have 10 good layers of paint over the first eye socket.

I debated for a while and finally decided that it would be better to switch to oil and focus on layers, chroma and texture.