Early Morning Commute

Early Morning Commute
by Jane McElvany Coonce

This is my first attempt at using the techniques I learned from the Frank Eber workshop.  I took the class last May and really haven't had time to practice what I learned.  But I love Frank's work and am determined to practice the technique that he taught. It's a very wet into wet technique that has about 3 or 4 steps.  It's also a very nerve racking technique.  After you draw your subject matter on the paper, you mix up a big puddle of your light background color and begin putting it on dry paper, leaving a bead as you stroke across the paper.  You keep the bead moving down the paper so that you don't end up with a hard line.  You can't stop and answer the phone, and you have to plan where you are going to leave the white of the paper without using mask. You have to make sure the bead doesn't go into your white areas.  It's very stressful.  After that layer dries, you go back into it and build up the next darkest part of the painting.  I learned a lot by doing this piece, and I'm sure the more I do, the less stressful it will be.   I started this one a while ago but finally finished it this week.  I've got another painting, a portrait,  I started eons ago that I'm almost finished with and I'll post that next.
 Let me know what you think.