On the evening of October 8, 2012 I worked on two oil paintings.  I added another layer to the book cover for Mermaid Drowning, and I resumed work on the Samhain Candles still life.  I hope to have both paintings finished before the end of the month.

Mermaid Drowning – WIP 712″x16″ oil paint on gessoboard.
2 sittings

For this layer I added only black and white paint, which I used to lighten the color of the sand and reduce the yellow tint. I also added stronger shading in the sand and the rocks.

Project: Mermaid Drowning

My apologies that the photo is a bit too yellow.

On this layer I painted in the subjects. It’s mostly flat black, but I did paint wet-on-wet to add details where a lot of lighting was needed. I am not expecting to do anything else major to the reflection images, but I will be laying down at least one more layer of black paint to the objects, and adding more highlighting details. The white paint I used is very low pigment load, so I also expect the bright white areas to be less brilliant when the paint is dry.

Project: Samhain Candles