I would have loved to post that the painting was complete, but I am still working on the pumpkin. I have had a bit of trouble getting the colors to work as I wanted. I have a color mixing chart, but it really did not seem to work very well. Perhaps it is the brand of paint, but it rarely comes out looking anything like the color chart or as I want it to look. This has caused me to repaint areas a number of times to even begin to get it to be the colors I want. However, I am making progress, and I think I have half the face mostly painted except for the vein detail on the leaves.
This side is the side where it is finally coming together, although the photo does not show the colors as vividly as they appear if you are viewing it in person. I don't think I had enough light on it when I took the picture.
I wanted to paint leaves to look like the colors of autumn, showing brilliant reds, golds, and russets. Unfortunately, what looks great in nature, did not translate well to a painting at least not with the paints I was using.
My first mistake was I had painted the leaves green because I needed some color on them so I could determine the color for the face. My first painting of the face came out too dark. I had to repaint it to bring it up to a lighter color. It took another two paintings to get the face to a color I felt I could live with. I was trying for an olive color. At the moment it looks a little flat, but I think once I seal the piece it will brighten up a little bit. So, I am leaving the face as it is.
My next problem was that the Cad Yellow Medium, Cad Red Medium, and Cad Orange are transparent colors. They did not cover over the green leaves well, so the leaves ended up looking a muddy brownish green. I painted some of the areas with an autumn gold craft paint to try to cover the green. It looked very chalky. I added more of the yellow, red, and orange. It still looked chalky, and the bright colors look blotchy. You will see what I mean in the next photo. Anyway, I painted over the leaves with a coat of Cad Yellow Medium. That seemed to tone down the blotchy colors and take away some of the chalky look. I also decided to paint some of the leaves brown to add some contrast. That seemed to help a lot. I think this side of the face is coming together. I just have to go back in and add some veins on the leaves.
The side of the pumpkin not yet finished. It is still a work in progress.
This second photo shows the side of the face that has not yet been repainted. The gold color looks chalky. Without some of the background leaves being brown it does not have enough contrast to help the top leaves to stand out.
Every once in a while, I have to remind myself that this is a craft project and that I am not trying to paint the Mona Lisa. My problem is that I get to where I want it to look alive and real and that is never really going to happen.
I hope to have the pumpkin completed in the next week. At this point I am feeling really relieved to be close to the end of this project. I have been working on it all year and was feeling the stress of trying to get it done before October.
Even though I have been alternating between this project and my carousel project it has been a slog to get to the finish line on this project. I become bored and at times just have to buckle down and work through the boredom to get a project finished. It is difficult to stay inspired when working on a long-term project. The immediate gratification of a short-term project is not available, so I have to set my mind to being able to accomplish the short-term goals, which re not as satisfying.
One of the things that has helped keep me going is that I have so many readers that look in on the project. I want to keep up with adding content to the blog, so I don't disappoint them by not having something new to put on the blog. So, a big thank you to all my readers for helping me stay on track on this project.
Check back next week for the next post on this project. I hope to have the Green Man Pumpkin completed by then. mâché
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