This is the main subject that I painted the last two days, along with touchup work across the whole painting.  I had some trouble with the horse.  I kept making the neck of the horse too long, resulting in a perfect llama.  The face of the horse looks a little like a camel in this photo, but it’s a horse when viewed from the floor…..no, really.

This is a good point to view the painting as a whole.  This is actually the first day that I took down the entire floor of the top scaffolding.  I’m pretty pleased with what I have so far.

Here is the Parliament building in a finished state.  It looks a little curved here, but from down below it’s straight.

I got about half way with the Parliament building today.  It’s quite a beautiful structure.

Today was very slow and arduous, I absolutely had no energy.  But I finished what I needed to for the day.  Will likely have to work this area more later on.

Today was a good day for painting.  The hotels are 95% finished and I really like the shore line.  I’m wishing that I had initially blocked the hotels in with something a little more colorful.  That blackish wash is really graying the building down.

Here is the Oriental Hotel and some of the other hotels a little further along

I had the fortune to participate in an annual ceremony to bless an office building this morning.  It was beautiful – the monks were so peaceful and kind.  And the food was incredible.  I got around to painting in the afternoon.  This is a pretty good start on the Oriental Hotel.  But when viewed from the floor, the building is a little wide – shouldn’t be to hard to change

Today was a little slow.  I finished the left hand of the male figure (not shown here).  I also put down a thin coat of blue/brown to outline the buildings along the top of the painting. I decided to move to this area first, since I will be able to take down the top floor of the scaffolding as soon as I’m finished with the skyline.

I blocked in quite a bit of color today.  The boat is very red here but I will come back later and drybrush other colors onto the side of the boat.

Today was a good day.  I finally achieved a good likeness in this figure’s face.  I had to listen to some good music to get back in rhythm and it worked like a charm.

Today was a bit rough.  My figure looks like abit like Sigourney Weaver, I had to take a 1-1/2 hour nap, and my daughter cried when she asked me to hold her through the computer's microphone.  But I'm still plugging along and look forward to tomorrow.

This figure, at least the painted portions, is about 90% finished.  I'll let it dry first before I try anything else.  Up close this barely looks human.  But from far below, as viewed here, it is a pretty good likeness.  I painted with my fingers to get it to work and had to squint constantly to mimic the effect of viewing distance.

Here's a good start on the face of the first figure.  Once I got down on the floor to look at this, it appeared that the face was tilted back, a result of the painting being so high. So I tilted all of my reference photos to account for the skewed perspective.  You can see if it worked on Day 4.

I blocked out the silhouettes of the couple.   Why did I do this?  I don't know, why not....

Here I've lightly washed in some color to knock out the bright white.

Here’s that big blank canvas.  I added two coats of gesso to the wall.  Then I added grid lines and outlined the couple in the portrait.

Well I made it here - about a 24-hour trip total, with one stop in Japan.  All of my supplies made it here in good shape.  The only problem is Odorless Mineral Spirits, the solvent I use for painting and cleaning my brushes, is hard to find and about $120/gal here.  Here's a photo of the scaffolding.

At this point I created a full color sketch in oil.  This painting is 18" x 36".  I'm happy with the portrait and the left side of the painting.  The right side seems too complex and doesn't quite mesh.  In the final painting, I plan to eliminate the elephants and clearly define the front of the boat.  This will simplify the right side of the painting and enhance the illusion of the boat floating in water.  To zoom in on this painting, click on Artwork (to the left of this blog).

After executing many drawings and sketches, I created a more detailed value sketch using thinned oil paint.  This painting is 12" x 24".  To view this painting more closely and labels identifying the subject matter, click on Artwork (to the left of this Blog).

After discussing many possibilities, we decided that the painting would contain a portrait and several sights from around Bangkok.  After selecting the subject, I began preparing for the trip.  First, I developed several simple sketches in ink and charcoal to become familiar with the potential elements of the painting.  At this point, I was experimenting with the values and shapes resulting from different arrangements of the subject matter in the painting.

Beginning on December 14, 2007, I will be posting daily photos of a project in Thailand.  I'll be painting an 8' x 16' portrait/landscape on a living room wall.  I hope you enjoy the progression of the painting!