New beginning (Almost!)

Well, and oh dear. I was reading "The Artist's Handbook" which goes into great depth about the materials that are used for different types of painting, watercolor, oils, tempera. It said zinc white, which I used to mix with the blue for the sketch below, becomes brittle with age. "Zinc white is considered of greatest value in a simple, direct, one-sitting painting" So my 8X10 fishes are OK.

I want my paintings to look good five hundred years from now, if there's still a World then, so I am concerned with knowing the right paints to use. The book recommends Flake White highly. Flake White is made from lead, which, for safety concerns and manufacturing expenses, is very expensive, and I don't have any!! "Old portraits which have been thinly painted except in the faces, where a heavier coat of paint consisting principally of flake white which has been used, are often found to have disintegrated except for the faces, which are in perfect condition."

Now you know! Whether you were interested or not! Haha!

Guess I'll take the sketch out onto the porch, for fresh air, and scrub off most of the blue, that has zinc white in it, so my painting won't get cracks and peels in the near or far future. I've seen too many lovely paintings ruined by Time by having been painted with no regard to the "Fat Over Lean" rule, and other discreptancies and ignorances of the proper use of pigments, chemicals, and techniques.

Four by three feet(122X92 cm) Oils.

Another painting begun, but I feel very different about this one, might actually finish this time. Instead of doing laundry, I worked on the painting. Hmmmm. Odd how the stretcher bars and braces show through. I don't like that. The canvas is on the easle, and there's light coming from behind. I have one other canvas like this one, I might give it a coat of gesso before I begin a painting on that one.

Oboy, with the projection of the 'base photo' on top, it shows there's a looonngg way to go. Maybe I'll keep track of hours on this one. Now I need more fish, and a conch or two. This is a place I enjoy visiting in Cane Bay, here on St. Croix. The water slopes up from about 45 feet to 25 feet(14m to 7m) in this photo. And this is one Eagle Ray that swam by. I always take as many photos of them as I can, they're so graceful and beautiful. I've seen as many as seven in a school.