We had some visitors to our studio yesterday. Don, on the left, is an artist we’re helping and a good friend of Pete who is on the right. Pete, Wendi and their daughter Kai have several of my paintings. In fact when Kai got her first painting she was my youngest Team Senkarik member. Wish she and her mom could have come. What a fun afternoon and evening it was!
But it’s back to work today…..Let’s do some construction on the adobe building. The light and shadow patterns are painted first. The inside plane of the wall forming the gate is darkest. I add some strokes of blue to the edge closest to the door, this makes the wall recede.
The gate is painted with light and dark mixes of Pthalo Blue + White. After the gate is covered and the shadow of the chili ristra blocked in I come back to highlight the edges of the individual boards. I brace my arm against a mahl stick to steady my hand. What is a mahl stick? CLICK HERE to find out.
An antique iron latch completes the gate. To enlarge the image just click on the picture.
The upper level of the courtyard floor is blocked in first, followed by the steps. The top surface of each step is lighter because the sun hits it more directly than the upright plane, which is darker. This theory holds true for both the sunlit portion of the step and that in the shadow of the low wall lining the walkway.
Next the shadow of the floor on the lower level is painted. Then a splash of sunlight is dragged across the surface of the wet paint.
The perspective lines of the tiles are drawn freehand into the wet paint of the floor with a fine liner brush dipped into a mix of MUD (Ultramarine Blue + Alizarin Crimson) + Liquin.
Horizontal lines separating the individual pavers are now added. The finishing step on the floor is to highlight the edges of the tiles touched by the ray of sunshine. This helps to give them dimension and increase the feeling of light pouring into the painting. Have a wonderful day and thank you for following my blog. Hugs, Mikki Senkarik
Website: www.senkarik.com
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Mikki Senkarik 
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