Finishing Touches

Obviously the white hand had to go. The white bridge was a little shaky too.  I picked up the paint brush in my left hand again. I am not really left handed. The left hand fit in the picture. We artists make all kinds of sacrifices and use all manner of lies to create the illusion. Truth is expendable in painting. Purple people come into existence at the flick of a brush. Anyway, to get back to my left hand, I could see that the quick block in that I had previously made was somewhat inaccurate. The fingers did not quite work… That kind of truth is not expendable. So taking my other hand, a brush and a little gesso I adjusted the drawing to suit the circumstance. I considered the colour. The underpainting had been a pale green. I wondered what I could get away with. A green hand would work if I were careful about the rendering. Green is also part of the colour of flesh. The first layer was burnt sienna followed by yellow ochre and a touch of alizarin crimson with a dash of ultramarine blue. Yes, quite satisfying. I took out the phthalo green and brushed over the back of the hand and grazed a few other spots in the shadow areas. Just the ticket. Now for the bridge. It needed some understructure and a few fine negative spaces. Much better. As a finishing touch I wrote a poem, bilingually as usual, and enhanced the needles of the pine tree in the foreground. Perfect. All that is left is a protective overcoat and my signature…. Not in that order of course.