"Four Seasons Home"

(25 x 36 inch oil on canvas)

(Day 1)

i have this painting requested and commissioned by a co worker that has been waiting for a long time for me to grant her request to paint her home, i was honestly kinda hesitant to make this painting as its was not clear what she really wanted, and she was requesting for so many additions and designs for her painting, but basically what she wanted is her House to be painted as a memory and also she wanted a four seasons design, with a sunset and sunrise, and she also requested to have like 4 different flowers to represent her family, i took me a long time to wrap my brain on how i should present it to her, the only reason why i took this project is the challenge and the things i might learn from making this art. And this painting really has been long waited and i had to delay of finishing this painting as it has been a very busy year for me, because we moved in our new home, and i did a lot of renovations and also made my studio man cave as beautiful as how i envisioned it and its finally done, so last night i had a chance to sit down and continue what i left off after 4 months of not touching this canvas.

Enough talk!, let me show you my processing for this painting.

• First step is always prepping my canvas with white gesso, and using my template of the "Flower of Life" and using a thick gesso and let it dry to give an embossed effect.

• Second after the gesso was dry which took overnight to harden the embossed design, i sketched the House of my friend that is located in the Philippines, (by the way she lives now here in California and this home is her investment from working hard here), and centered it in the canvas*

• Thirdly i forgot to take a picture of the next step before i painted on it, so i covered the whole House design with masking tape, (so i can just peal it off later after im done with the whole background, then painted half on the right side with black acrylic and half white, it should represent Sunset and Sunrise. Then used Alizarin red, Indian yellow, Pthalo blue and Titanium white and blend it making the middle part where the sun is lighter.

• Then while the canvas is wet using linseed oil, i just used a clean brush and a dab of white and let it blend with the clouds, so i divided it into 4 sections and using a clean brush with every section. it should create my 4 seasons skies and clouds.

• Then for the fun part, i painted my background in this sequence for the seasons starting with "Spring, Winter, Spring, Summer" its still in progress so everything can change in an instance if its not pleasing to my eye, with the Falls on the very left side, i might eventually change it to something else, for the winter im just adding some Pine trees, and also a Christmas tree inside the house, the front yard is still a thinking in progress, might place a snow man and deer, for spring as you can see the fields divided, half is lavander and half is just a green fields, in this section i might add alot of flowers, for summer, is just simple with poppy flowers and dry grass.

• for this part she requested for a fountain, so i added an outline for now, and added a path towards the house, and added more colors for the trees, its really hard to focus on the whole picture with each section should represent the seasons and i have to combine everything that she wants in the painting
  
• so i just touched the brush after months of not painting and only had 1 hr, enough time to assess whats the next plan, so for now i made some corrections, took out the fountain, and just made a flat snow, im planning to focus on making details on the house tomorrow and then finish up with the front yard with flowers and different animals and designs. for now this is what i have so far

Thank you for viewing my art blog hope you learned something from it, and have a wonderful day, and Stay inspired and keep Steeming!!!