Slow going Oathish of the Horatii series (in progress here) based on past commissions source material. The process got more interesting when it became also about painting the source material and how that faded and degraded, unlike Dorian Gray’s portrait, it didn’t have any effect IRL. Also, you’d think random ripped up sources, would be more forgiving compositionally, but it’s actually the reverse.

A little gouache painting for John and Katie.

Obsessive. After painting 2(!) commissions of David’s Oath of the Horatii many years ago, I tore the cheap, paint and dirt incrusted source material into random strips on the studio floor and took some shots of them, then forgot about it. Then I found them on my computer, printed them out, stretched some canvas and blocked them in, with the idea of painting all the smudges, tears and wear. It was really hard, plus it started to seem like a pretty stupid idea. So I gave up. A year later I thought I’d take another crack at it. By then the photos had done that weird digital random color shift fade. I couldn’t reprint them because after all the new ink I bought, my Epson printer was telling me that it wasn’t REALLY Epson ink but it is! Look at the stupid box you stupid machine. And I do not want to be on tech support all day for something that’s by now looking like a mega stupid idea. So I moved on to do what I was supposed to be doing anyway (working) which is after all much more pleasant and rewarding. So another year later here I am again, during this break painting them again. Because now that they are fugitive blown-out source materials  that are themselves getting covered in paint, of the original low quality source materials torn up and photographed and output on a crappy printer and they are literally fading away as I try to paint them and I’m slow because it’s been awhile so now my all likely hood they could be blank by the time I’m done, I’m happy. (BTW This one is the least faded).