I started this as I was working on another painting. whenever I was waiting for the first painting to dry, I was working on this one.
"Venus Arisen" oils, 18x24
I've been thinking about a "birth of Venus" type painting for a while. Like most others I sketched out various ideas from the frontal perspective. Which meant mine was just a variation on all the others, which are numerous. I decided to use sea creatures as metaphors for the humans that are supposed to be there at her birth, allowing me to add my own take on the scene.
Here are the progress photos I have been taking.
I just did a simple outline of the objects. Usually I do a fully rendered drawing, but decided not to do that with this painting, do to it's relative simplicity.
Then decided to just do an underpainting for the image as her skin tones are the central to the image.
Blocking in colors and tones for the rest of the painting.
where it currently stands this evening (3/19). About 50% complete.