CHAINS, PART 4

As mentioned , the painting was coming along fine until I seemed to hit a roadblock. The main problem was that I simply didn't know what part of the painting to work on next. Usually I finish most of the washes before getting to the details but that approach just wasn't working here. I did darken the lower section and add another lighter wash over the shadowed areas but then I was at a loss as to what next to do. Dispirited I fiddled with it here and there and before I knew it, a week had gone by! Not that I was working on the painting all that time, but the work seemed not much further along than the last time I blogged about it. About the only thing I could think of doing in the meantime was to start work on the chains themselves. That was hard work! There were so many links, shadows and textures to work on - all of which had to make sense. Slowly I figured out what went where and as I did my mood started to change. Finally I could begin to see the way through and was ready to finish this one off. I reckoned the final washes and smaller details would come a lot easier now that I was over the hump.