Franny

[Julie Deane]

Hi Tom -

I was about to ask you to post the feet and the wood flooring too,

Very nice painting - and I understand what you are saying about the color.
Well put!

[Tom Edgerton]

As requested...

Not much detail in the feet, no half-moon nails or such--just some broad, quick neutral strokes. As you can see, the floor is pretty broad-brush stuff also, no detail. It just seems more solid from a distance.

The hands don't have any more detail than the feet, really. I thought about completing the thumb, but decided not to improve on the accident of the moment.

Michele--I guess it's a global working up, rather than going from section to section. I draw the heads on the canvas in great detail in a schematic, analytical fashion instead of as an "art drawing"--a friend told me these drawings look like dissections--to teach myself the structure that creates the likeness. I seal that, and stain the heads and hands to a medium value very quickly--the drawing still shows through. I paint the overall composition to the point that I get values and atmosphere and light in some basic way. The middle period is finishing the head, pushing it out a ways and following with all the other things, pushing out and following, until the head is finished and the other stuff works to support it. Then work through the whole painting again to pull it all together. Not anything radical.