The final drawing for the center painting. Decided on a few things while I was getting toward a final image: The main subject matter, the matriarch and two children, were increased in size and moved to be more prominent. Also removed the four other guest, as it was feeling a lil to cramped, plus they played no major roll, at least not in the center painting. They will more than likely be moved to one of the other paintings, as their purpose will be better suited there. I'm not completely ready to give the whole story here, as it is changing as the piece is completed. Some of the allegory and symbolism used can be pretty easy to understand, mainly the ones that are fairly obvious, the hour glass and bee emblem for instance. There is other information but there is no real way anyone else will see it until I start to develop a visual vocabulary with a series of these paintings. I'll try and post something more complete on whats going on here the night before it's shown.
After I get to a point where I'm happy with the drawing I seal it down first with spray matte finish, and then some type of gloss polymer medium like gloss varnish and medium from Liquitex. This gives me a smooth shiny surface that makes it easy for an acrylic wash to be applied. I put the matte spray finish on first to keep the vine charcoal or what ever drawing utensil you used from mixing with the gloss varnish medium. I'll post the next set of pictures with the acrylic wash and under painting as soon as that next step is done.
