A New World Order Revisited

A New World Order has been drying on the wall in my living room and as I have been looking at it all this time I decided to add the detail back to the people in the bowl and a couple other small details. I had decided to take out some of the politics but after living with it for a while I realized that was the real point of the painting from the beginning.

Here is the painting as it sits on my easel right now. 

I added the flags back and also started painting in an Illuminati ring. 

 I changed the Trump and Hillary flags to Democrat and Republican and also 

added a white surrender flag in the middle of the bowl.

A little more detail and added some more shadows in the bowl.

I thought I would add an "Illuminati Decoder Ring" and actually Googled it

 and this was one of the rings that came up. I'm letting it dry overnight and I will add some more detail and see if I dream up anything else over night. :)

Vulture: Work in Progress 18

I did a glaze of 50/50 turps and stand oil today to bring out the gloss and add a little glaze color over each area. It will be drying for a week now before I do anything more. Next will be a retouching varnish mixed into the oil medium for the final touches.

I am going to order the retouching varnish and then wait until I'm happy the glaze is dry enough before going into the final detail work. Then I'll have to come up with a title for this one.

Vulture: Work in Progress 17

A little more progress today. I'm getting where I'm pretty happy with the painting overall now. A few nitpick spots and I'll call it done.

To see the step by step photos and explanations read on after the break.

Vulture: Work in Progress 16

I've been adding more layers of intense color today, here are the results.

To see the step by step photos read on after the break.

Check out my website and order some Fine Art Prints for the Holidays if you have some time.

Vulture: New painting work in progress 15

I'm really putting the paint on thick now, punching up the color and taking the detail down a notch.

Today's progress.

To see the step by step photos read on after the break.

Vulture: New painting work in progress 14

I've been looking at my painting a couple days now and thinking about some of the comments from some friends online. I decided I've been going a little too far with the small details which really isn't my normal style of work. 

 

I originally started this painting to try out a new technique. Painting in grisaille with acrylics in the first stages and then switching over to oils. Grisaille was a technique used by the Dutch painters to do beautiful layered portraits. I love portraits but I normally have a much looser style of painting, more like the impressionists. I found on this painting I have been getting more and more realistic due I think to the technique. However, looking at a couple areas of the painting where I was a little less careful, I find I really like those areas and so I am going to kick up the color and paint a new layer a little more loosely and see how I like it.

To see how I got to this point read on after the break.

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Really getting into the detail and refining work now. Here is a shot of it right now.

Here is a detail shot of the inside of the bowl.

To see the step by step shots and the thinking behind them read on after the break.

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I had a dream last night about my painting, this happens quite a lot when I am in a creative space, so I decided to give my Vulture some feather dreadlocks with a nod to the Predator series. 

 

I also did a couple other things. To see what they are read on after the break.

Vulture: New painting work in progress 11

It's been a productive day today and I'm beginning to see just how long this project

 could take before it's finished.

I got quite a bit accomplished today, to see the step by step progress photos read on after the break.

 

Vulture: New painting work in progress 10

I started adding detail on the Vultures head today. Makes a big difference.

To see the step by step photos, read on after the break.

Vulture: New painting work in progress 9

I'm thinking this will be taking a really long time! I added more color and started checking my composition and proportions today.

Each layer of detail adds more interest for me and I see more things to add.

To see the step by step process read on after the break.

Vulture: New painting work in progress 8

This is the first time I've ever done a painting using this technique so the glazing process is new for me over a grey scale. I was a little tentative at first but it is going better now. 

I was working with glazes that were too thin at first but now I am more comfortable. To see the other steps read on after the break.

Vulture: New painting work in progress 7

I found I can get a darker "black" by mixing the ultramarine blue with raw umber instead of burnt umber so I went through the painting and punched up the darkest areas. I also started glazing color on the background today, just a thin blue glaze to start. 

To see the step by step photos read on after the break.

Vulture: New painting work in progress 6

I think the grisaille is about finished. Now I'll let it dry a couple days and then start glazing on color. First I will take the last photo of the step by step process into Photoshop and play with different color schemes before I put any paint on the canvas. I love that I can try different color schemes without any damage to the painting. Here is the painting now.

I think I will need color to add detail to the flags and banners the people in the bowl are carrying, so I just left them white for now. I also think I will add some texture to the Vultures face around the eye.

Here is a detail shot of the people in the bowl.

To see the step by step process read on after the break.

Vulture: New painting work in progress 5

Continuing work on the grisaille in oil paint today. When I am happy with all the details and the tonal range I will let it dry a few days and begin the color glazes. One nice thing about photographing my progress is that I will be able to do a high resolution image of the final grisaille before I apply glazes. 

Here it is this evening.

 

 

To see the steps to get here from yesterday, read on after the break.

Check out my website to see more of my work.

Vulture: New painting work in progress 4

I switched over to oil paint to finish up the grisaille.

 Here is the painting as it sits on my easel now.

To see the process to get to this point read on after the break.

Vulture: New painting work in progress 2

I added some more to my ideas yesterday. I think this painting will be done in the grisaille technique. I am going to do the grisaille in acrylic and then oil for the color. I have a 48"x30" canvas that I am going to paint this on. I also did a quick digital painting of the composite as well as a grey scale image to begin checking values. Here is the digital painting as it sits now.

In the actual painting the people in the bowl will need to be refined some more. 

To see the steps to get to this point read on after the break and visit my website to see more of my work and to order Fine Art prints.