Here are  the continued stages as well as the final of the painting I call, "Natasha Waking" 

I will start with the 3^rd  , 4^th and ^5th stages (earlier stages are described in earlier blog posts) of the painting and then the final.  The biggest struggle here was the skin tones and getting that feeling of morning but still having some drama in the values or shading and a contrast with the background.   

When I reached this point I knew where I needed to go and was able to finish the painting. Below is the image of the final painting. You can see a larger version of the completed painting here, "Natasha Waking"

If you have not read my previous post about the beginning of this painting I would recommend starting there, for all others who have shown the tenacity to  stick with this, read on. 

Once the canvas is prepared and the drawing is on the canvas I rough in the basic color for the gown and the body.  For the gown I used a combination of 4 different blues mixed with combinations of two earth browns. (I'm trying to not make this all that technical so more than just a serious painter could enjoy it.  If anyone has more detailed questions feel free to comment or message me.)  The paint is kept rather transparent.  I don't want it to get too heavy or dense at this point and allow some of the canvas colors to come through to add a richness and depth.  There is some white added to the highlights to create some opacity and the sense of at third dimension.  What I'm looking for at this stage is to  give a  basic sense of flow and shape to the gown.  I want to make it feel as if it is flowing in a rough sense and to give it the basic color such as blue and not red or green.  I use this time to rough in the basic shadow and highlight patterns but don't want to get too detailed because it would lock me into something I may want to change later.

Although I have never really seen this gown I'm assuming or deciding it is all silk.  It should be. [grin]  So part of the challenge of painting is to also give the viewer a physical sense of how the fabric will feel, and for that matter the same is true of the skin. Just don't touch when you see it in a museum. [grin]

From what I can get by the photo there is a second or third fabric piece or colors.  I'm going for a sort of see through silver.  The decoration on the fabric is just hinted at with this stage. 

As for the skin, I make this very simple.  I use a semi-opaque mixture of white with some red and blue and yellow to give a variation to some cools and warms out of the shadows and just the more pure white with a touch of red to the highlights.  The shadows or muscle structure are kept more transparent with the highlights more opaque again.  This again, is just rough in both color or detail.  I don't want to lock myself in with anything except to define the basic structure of the body. The face is left pretty much alone.  I define the basics of placement of the eyes and mouth and just a hint of the bone structure but that is all at this point.

Her hair is just roughed in with a combination of dark blue and a deep red earth tone.  From the photo I see only a black shapeless form for the hair but I know it is very soft, thick and lovely. I love painting hair second only to a woman's skin.  I will work it in more detail later but now it is just mostly a transparent dark blob.  I'll make up highlights and shape when I go back to it.  I feel sure she has some deep reddish highlights in there somewhere.  It is wonderful she has such thick and long dark hair.  That is so in keeping with the origins of  belly dancing from the Middle East.

Now what about the background?  Yeah, what about it.  If I knew what I was going to do that would be done next and will be when I figure it out.  I was originally going to make it a very dark blue black with a little lighter area near the bottom to indicate ground.  However, after looking at it more I decided to make it into a real place.  At least a real place out of my head.  What I want is the sense of an old Arabian place.  Some place a sheik might sit and watch is dancers perform for him.  The thing is, I don't want to see much of it or have it interfere with the beautiful dancer. The way other artists of old have done this and Da Vinci was well known for it, is to do what is called a grisaille.  This is a  monochrome,  (one color) painting or nearly one color usually in shades of grey or brown, particularly used to represent objects in relief without making them so vivid or detailed as to distract the viewer from the main subject.  If you look at some of Leonardo's paintings you will see much of his backgrounds are done this way and sometimes you have to look twice because even if you have seen the paintings many times you realize the background was there but you never really noticed it.  It does help to give depth and context to the subject.  For mine it will be very dark and probably hard to see in images put up here.

I'll explain more about this when it is done and I post it here.  For now, it is into the books looking for images of old palaces.  Then, back to the drawing board, as they say. 

This has been rather technical and I'm sure a bit of a "Who Cares" to many.  Some people only want to see the final product and others only care about why did you paint it and what do you know about her. Well, I am painting for the reasons I stated in the last post, basically it is a very beautiful woman in a great pose, in a great gown doing beautiful things.  Why wouldn't I want to paint it.  What do I know about her, well, not much.  I will have to ask her, (I keep forgetting to) if I can put a link to her myspace page here so you can see other photos and see just how lovely she is.  I can also tell you she is happily married and has two little boys so guys, don't get your hopes up. [grin]

One thing about how painting feels for me.  I am not able to paint all the time.  This past week I had to spend much of my time printing and framing prints of my work for people who see my paintings either on line or in person and say they like them and wish they could have one but can't afford the originals.  Hence, prints.  I am also expanding in that area but that is a lot of work and time.  Even though I would rather do the framing all day than one hour back in an office or ever having a boss it isn't painting.  When I get a little crazy, yes, I've been known to get a bit more than a little. I just have to paint.  Three hours at an easel and even if it is not going all that great but where I can be alone and concentrate I am so much better. I can end a simple three hour or nine hour painting session tired but feeling so fulfilled.  When I'm at the easel it is as if I'm home.  I have been paintings as a professional since 1980.  That is 28 years for all those without their GED.  [grin]  It has felt like a warm old pair of shoes for all that time.  It does get nuts at times and I do get down and then up and then down again but it is all good, even the worst. 

Mostly I paint alone or there may be a model here with me but even then I have a very private and alone feeling.  Alone is very good.  Yes, I enjoy some friends and always enjoy the company of a beautiful woman but I want to select those times at my choice.  The rest should be alone.  I listen to either Dylan, old blues or some old R&B or it is all classical and opera for music.  I'm looking for some other as I paint the dancer.  For now, Mozart is working. [grin]  I'm very focused while I paint but with that alone time I also have time to let my head wander around and to some extent it is a form of meditation.  The world falls into place when I'm there.  With that time I'm able to put into perspective everything in human history from the cave paintings in France to the graffiti on the buildings of an inner city.

When I paint a woman, such as my beautiful dancer, I'm able to go back over the far too many women I have known and to sort of revel in the wonders of women.  To go over my mistakes and my pleasure.  Each painting is a sort of religious experience for me as an offering to the gods of my interpretation, love and respect of all women.

Many people have mentioned their favorite painting was "Thinking."(pictured to the left) It was purchased some time ago. When I shipped it out I sent along a short story about how it came to be. I realized that story should be much longer and went over into a story about the model and a series of paintings I did of her.

No reason to mention her real name but it all started when a photographer friend of mine told me he had met this young girl who wanted to be a model. He gave me her phone number so, of course, I called her. When she came to the studio it turned out she was just 5 feet tall and 20 years old. She was pretty in a rough sort of way. She had long dark hair, almost black and it fell to below her shoulders. It was very thick but never really combed or styled. Just sort of there and she always looked as if she just got out of bed, which was true too much of the time. She always wore pants and a boy's shirt. Never ironed. She had very deep eyes, which could have made her a very lovely woman, but she had such a chip on her shoulder all the time it never came out as attractive, at least not to me. She was short and slender, with a very nice figure. She had a tiny waist and was rather well endowed for her height. She had very pale skin from never going outside except to my studio or after dark.

After her first time to the studio we agreed to have her come by regularly and we would just see where that took my work. At the time, I was married and my then wife never did like my having models. I really don't blame her but for the most part it was harmless. Contrary to the opinion of her and many others I didn't necessarily end up rolling around the floor naked withe every woman that came to my studio. Then wife, hated this model more than any. She affectionately called her "That Slut" not to her but to me and anyone else she could find to tell.

We started working together by my taking about 100 photos of her and asking her questions about her life. She had no problem talking about it, which made my job easier, but it was difficult to keep her focused. She didn't have a clue as to how to pose and or much care what I wanted her to do. It became very obvious she had a real trailer park attitude. She lived in a small town of about 20,000 that was known for its unemployment and lack of class. (I know I sound like a snob.) She lived in a small apartment in the worst part of town.

She said she lived alone but really she lived with the stud de jour and never really knew who was going to be there from day to day.

She came to the studio three days a week for three hours each time. I paid her well, since she didn't have any other job. She would arrive, get out of her clothes and wrap up in one of the many drapes I had in the studio. She would spend her time either walking around or lying around on the modeling stand I had which was covered with a sort of thin mattress.

She talked on and on about how hot she was and how all the guys were after her and she had them all jumping through hoops for her. The truth was she was the doing the jumping and they only stayed around until they either got bored or found a new toy. Every one she mentioned was either unemployed, barely employed or just out of jail.

She came from a traditional family who were mostly appalled by her and her life. They rode her all the time about what she did which made her do it all the more.

Each time she was there I would take about 50 B&W photos of her and let her talk. She would look at the photos I did the last time, which was way back when I had to process them in my darkroom after she left and pick out all the good ones. She would talk about how she wanted to be painted. This was, of course, all new to me. I've had many models and they did what they were told and were really only a figure to express what I saw in my mind or dreams. They helped me say what I wanted to say but weren't really in charge of it and even though all were an inspiration at times it was still a singular experience for me.

After listening to her for a week or two and doing several sketches of what I thought I wanted to do I realized I wasn't getting any inspiration from her but was finding myself sort of wallowing in her life. I listened each time she was there to what she felt she would look best as in paintings. So, rather it was a brilliant decision on my part or more likely just the only option left I decided to let her pick the photos and tell me what she wanted to be in paint. I did the sketches as per her almost instructions and then went to the canvases. She saw herself as this elegant beauty that would or should be a sort of female star as a vision of beauty or goddess. She was really a pathetic little girl who had surrounded herself with trash that thought nothing of her but let her think she was a very hot babe.

I did a number of paintings of her as she saw herself. A few of these are pictured below. I wanted to keep the compositions simple and just about her. The backgrounds not important as anything more than to accent her. I love to paint in a very old traditional manner with glazes and deep shadows. This gave me an opportunity to do just that and at the same time depict this young girl as she and many other women would want to feel or see themselves.

I had a few paintings of her in my studio and in those days I was more open about letting people visit me on weekends. I ended up selling a few right from the studio. After a few months and a dozen or so paintings I was asked by a gallery to have a solo show. I got the idea of having the show be all about the one model. Painter's models usually don't get recognized and often aren't even at a show or opening. I wanted this show to be all about her and less about me. Just to see what would happen. So I set up the show by putting in the paintings she chose and displayed them, as she wanted. I then set up a high directors chair where she sat for the opening.

It was sort of fun. She went on and on about herself and took offense of anyone saying anything about her nudity or of her being my model and it not being all JUST her. I just stood in the corner and let people come up to me as always and talked about the work but tried to keep them going back to her for answers. As for sales, the show was a total failure. I didn't sell a single painting.

Soon after the show she showed up to model and sat there very down and sad, or at least, quiet. That wasn't her style. I finally got her to talk and found she was pregnant and didn't know exactly who was the father. I was taking photos as we talked and from this came the painting "Thinking." I painted it almost completely from the photo because she didn't like it. It wasn't too long after I had finished it when she showed up one cold and rainy day in an old heavy coat and ball cap. She looked just like the person she really was. It was about this day she told me she was turning 21 and even if she was pregnant she was going to go get good and drunk just the same. It was who she was. So, from a photo of that day I was able to create "Turning 21" (pictured to the right) which she hated and never wanted to have to see again. I wanted to capture the simple frailty of this sad little girl who was in a world she didn't completely understand. I wanted to show her vulnerability but at the same time, using the coat and hat as a metaphor for her struggle to hide her true self.

I started to do some paintings of her during her pregnancy but life was getting complex for her and to be very honest I was not just bored with her but so offended as to how she was now conducting her life I just didn't want her around.

I didn't see her again but I've been told by a person who bought one of the paintings of her she is now working as a security guard and told her, if she saw me, to tell me she was happy now and finally got to carry a gun. Great. Now I am scared.