Step 2 - "Best Friends" - Painting Demo

Step 2: As you can see, I have refined my dark areas. As I mentioned in step 1, it's tough to get coverage on a slippery surface such as oil primed linen, so today I concentrate on creating those dark areas. With a little dry paint now on the canvas, it's easier to work. Also, I begin to lay in color using a larger brush, without worrying about drawing. My aim at this point is to stay with my original concept for this painting. I want to set these little girls into a circle of focus. Everything else in the painting is secondary. This is a lot of stuff in a tiny painting and so my goal is to try to minimize detail in the outer areas of the girls' figures and in so doing, hopefully make this confined space that the girls are in, appear as if it is in a very large space. Does that makes sense? Their faces remain in shadow....this is fun to paint....the mere gesture of these little girls tells the complete story. I am aiming for simplicity and hope to achieve that in the design of light and shadow that I've created. Keeping the distant landscape simple, I use it to add some color and direct the eye to the heads.
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