Work in progress

I started this today while waiting for a couple of other pieces to dry (slow drying is the joy and the curse of oil painting). It's similar to my earlier painting of blue jeans, in that it's stuff hung on my wall in strong raking light. If I keep this up, I'll have a series.

This is 12 x 16", oil on 1/4" lead primed hardboard panel. I sketched in the basic forms with burnt umber mixed with ultramarine blue (thinned a bit with turps and a touch of linseed oil), then laid in a first layer for the background and main shadows with various combinations of flake white, burnt umber, raw sienna, and Doak's wonderful Alger blue (a variation on cobalt blue). Next I'll start to work up the general forms of the boots. My plan is to do this without black. (Not because I'm one of those "I never use black" kinds of artists, but because that much black would be deadening. Plus, it'll be a fun challenge.)