Behind the Scenes Prep Work

I came in to the studio to be pleasantly surprised at seeing Jeff’s painting of his daughter suddenly more resolved then when I last saw her yesterday.  He said he had worked on her a couple more hours that night, and was as far along with it as he could be without having her sit for him in life.  I asked about the highlight in the eyes, and why he had put them in at such an early stage.  He told me that her face would go thru several sanding, and repainting sessions before she would be considered done, so this highlight would be the base of creating a deeper more in depth light later on. I am really excited to see him work on that some more and see it firsthand.  After that, the painting went thru a lot of preparatory work.  One of the costumes for the little girls,  was given to his assistant, Morgan, to dye it several times till the color was right. Jeff then turned his painting upside down, and would sit afar, contemplate and exist with it for a while. Later that day,  Jeff had his other assistant, Jenna paint a thin layer on the background of the painting in a combination of burnt umber and sap green.  This is just a visualizing tool for Jeff, as this background will be completely painted over, but it helps to determine how the overall composition is developing by blocking in the background temporarily.