Venus and the red planet - step I... Still at it!

I took some time today to start a new painting to see how far I could go with soot alone as underpainting. I realized quickly that using ivory black and then charcoal black was the only way to get where I wanted rapidly...

I finished this first step on the grass, in order to stick around with our grand kids...

I took the opportunity to do my own version of "Déjeuner sur l'herbe"!

Sweet surrender final - A first with chimney soot!

This last pass was done in a "trial and error" mode looking for a balance throughout...

I didn't mind the previous color scheme but felt that tipping the scale towards red would be more conducive to communicating passion. With this new approach with soot, I hope to remain on its wave length throughout the painting process (I'm after a blurring effect). This shouldn't be too difficult since transparent paint over soot is nothing more than tinted soot, its staining effect being that powerful! Ironically, as a result, even the opposite side of the canvas has some potential, something I may exploit with cotton/linen canvases...

I first learned of such a technique through the web site of a South American Chinese black ink painter using rice paper as support.

As a side bar, I've been looking at a subset of my recent paintings...

In light of this, it wouldn't be bad to introduce "softer" subjects... as a counter balance to sexual innuendos, blatant physical violence and blood sucking vamps! Still, I never had so much feedback since I decided to speak up my mind using paint! Evidently, I'm just joking!

Note to self: "I've been prudent with this first attempt with soot. Clashes of extreme colors with black and grey should be next on my agenda. Splatter marks would be nice. In terms of colors, green still escapes me as a skin color... gotta vanquish that demon!"

Sweet surrender - step II... Another type of deconstruction!

With this second step, I've opted for a more stylized approach, separating the hair from the face to create a certain tension...

Because I want to keep intact the "out of focus" look, I think I will rely primarily on brush marks for textural effects... and see where this will lead me. This painting could be the beginning of a sub series using soot to really convey a smoke effect that goes in line with "Smoke and mirrors", the name for the main series I'm working on.

Sweet surrender - step I... Getting my hands dirty!

This is my first attempt at integrating chimney soot in my painting process...

I washed some transparent colors over this base before proceeding with thicker paint in selected areas.

 In the finalization of this one, my intent is not to lose too much fuzziness while going for some textural effects. This is likely to be a trial and error process!

Note to self: "I still need to master that barbaric medium when it comes to shades of grey!"

Moonlighting final ... Brain supplanted passion with this one!

As I parted from my original idea, this painting became more of a ground for experimentation...

Nonetheless, I like the way the idea behind it evolved... definitely some smoke and mirrors here! The painting after some further modeling...

I now want to give a go at "chimney soot" on raw cotton canvas, perhaps an opportunity to develop my own pictorial language... one that combines everything that matters to me!

Moonlighting - step IV... Seeking a balance overall...

This is my fourth painting with this type of canvas (tightly knit raw cotton)... so I'm still looking for an optimal technique in a way. The fourth pass became multiple passes which still left me with unresolved areas...

Some palette knife work may help me with color nuances. At this stage, I'm only looking at creating a fairly convincing image that looks a bit rough on the edges... the hell with technique!.Luckily, I haven't lost too much canvas texture...

Moonlighting - step III... Firming up the color scheme... and the title!

I dedicated an hour and a half to this third pass, attempting to get closer to a final product...

I still need to resolve certain aspects of this composition, particularly the bottom of the boat. Also another color pass will be needed to get out of the dirt... a necessary evil after using charcoal as an underpainting.

Note: I couldn't resist slapping a new title to this one... just for laughs! "Moonlighting" means having a second job... this painting is now a good candidate for my "smoke and mirrors series"!

In parallel to this, I decided to put my money where my mouth is...and proceeded this afternoon with my experiments on chimney soot...

The tightly knit raw cotton canvas on the right gave the best results (it has little texture)... I couldn't tell the difference between canvas and rice paper! In that respect, the raw cotton/linen, not shown here, was not bad either.

In a nutshell, it looks like soot will suit me... for the second phase of my "smoke and mirrors series! On the long run though, I may need to take my chimney to the cleaners... or become friends with chimney sweepers!