All finished! I wish. But I have finished 4 of the pictures, so, as Meatloaf would say, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. Especially at the end, I just found it impossible to pull myself out of the detail – you’re always worried about ruining a picture at that stage anyway, and I seemed to have very fixed ideas about what I wanted to do.
Still really pleased to get 4 done. As I thought yesterday, I finished Picture 5, St. Albans Abbey, pretty quickly this morning. However then went into town and chatted till lunchtime. After lunch worked on Picture 4, finishing the market stalls, ending up just going for an almost abstract pattern to represent the fruit. Then switched to Picture 3 – wasn’t at all sure I’d complete this, as still had a lot to do. Solved the fruit problem by using Oil Pastels, and collaged on the main figure, which worked well. Pushed on and completed this with all the architectural detail penned on.
Then finished Picture 2, the basket-weavers, which just needed the second basket collaging on. Still not entirely happy with the figures, but overall really good atmosphere on this one.
Then went back to Picture 4, the indoor market, and collaged on a couple of figures. I really like the bottom half of this, but not sure at all about the upper half, feels a bit empty and disconnected. But overall a good atmosphere and closest to the effect I was trying to create.
So overall, a great week. Really enjoyed it. I feel I’ve learned so much by pushing and trying to accomplish something so challenging. Well worth doing. Even the last 2 picture probably have a days work in them only, so then I will have 6 large pieces – plenty to choose from for the St. Albans show anyway.