WIP. Saint Matthew and the Angel

Keep at it.  Paintings will always go through a stage where you think you have ruined it when you develop it from such a good basis.  Very dramatic.

A great start Denise and interesting to see the stages so far. You’re working from a great masterpiece and I’d say that you’re doing a great job so far …. I’m eagerly awaiting completion, but don’t rush it!

Goodness, Denise. I don’t know what you’re worried about. Stunning even at this stage. I certainly don’t have your patience!

Funny old thing is art. The highs and the lows…feeling dispirited, pushing through and emerging more optimistic and with a will to continue. This is looking so much more positive Denise - you can see beyond the trees! This is the moment I shout CHARGE!!! ( well, you get what I mean, I’m sure).

I've not commented before because, though I've used  similar method - in my case, with genuine Flake (i.e. lead) white, and Terre Verte, I've not used quite this method, and certainly not on so complex a composition as this one.  In theory, the idea is to get as much of the drawing - drawing with the brush - done in monochrome as possible, and then to glaze over it: in my experience (which is limited with this sort of thing) you always need to keep strengthening the drawing (and sometimes to subdue it): and will often find you need a lot of glazes; working in oil, this makes for an extremely long process: much quicker with acrylic - though while that's true in terms of paint drying time, you may need more layers, and acrylic medium, to stop things getting flat.  Proving once again my contention: that the only "easy" painting is one someone else did - I've never yet found a painting easy to do; though have generally enjoyed doing them (well, after 55 years, I suppose you'd have to enjoy it or it would be sheer Masochism to keep doing it...).   The other reason not to comment here, in terms of offering any advice, is that you're an experimenter - that's what you're doing here and what you do generally: you work out your own processes, taking what you can from historical precedent and essentially just trying it and persisting: which is much the best way to do it if you don't have art school training (and probably still the best way, even if you have).  I wouldn't want to stand in the way of that, because it's so obviously working for you - and much faster that I've ever observed in anyone else, except perhaps for the late Paulette Farrel, whom I was able to help years ago: after which, she took off!  I don't claim the credit - though I'd love to...  All she needed was to think about volume rather more - when she got that, she was a lot more adventurous than I've ever been.   You, I think, have that already - you understand shape and volume: my one bit of advice now would be to identify the things you're not so hot at (if there are any!) and - when you've finished this fabulous project - work on those.   I wonder what white you're using - I doubt you'll have been able to get your hands on genuine lead white (and if you have, tell me where you got it!) so you'll have to wait that little bit longer for the paint to dry enough for you to glaze over it.  If not lead white, I would have suggested Alkyd white - dries much faster than Titanium White in regular oils.  

Cat, I think you're already at the stage of advising many of us on here. You have a great eye for form.