"Wine Thief"

Here is my new painting, showing a scene from a trip my wife and I took to California wine country. Here, someone is taking a barrel sample from a barrel deep in a wine cave. The painting is in oil on a 24 x 36 inch canvas.

Here are the notes I've taken as I've painted it:

For session one, I started on the under-painting. I began laying in the dark areas with a mixture of transparent oxide brown and ultramarine blue. My goal is to lay in the under-painting with transparent pigments, and then move in with opaques.

For session two, I worked on two things, the barrels and the figure. For the barrels, I used a mixture of transparent gold ochre, raw sienna, and transparent oxide brown. I mixed that with my mixture of ultramarine blue and transparent oxide brown for the shadow areas. For the figure, I used terra rosa and transparent oxide brown for the flesh areas, mixed with my mixture of transparent oxide brown and ultramarine blue for the areas in shadow. I really struggled with the face. In fact, all the flesh tones will have to be revisited when I move in with opaques.

With session three, I started on the barrels going off into the distance. It was a real struggle to not put in too much fine detail. In addition, I started on the concrete floor. Again, all the pigments used were transparent.

Sessions four and five: barrels, barrels, and more barrels.

Session six and seven: I did not take a picture after session six. Basically, I finished the frame of the barrel structure. Session seven, I finished the under-painting and went in with targeted cool opaques. Mostly, that was a mixture titanium white and ultramarine blue. I'm finding that I use less and less opaques and spend more time on the under-painting with transparents.

I think it might be finished. I'm going to sit on it a week and see.

Here are links to images showing each painting session:

Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
Session 5
Session 6 and 7
Final