Cheese Portrait #1: Colby Jack

I am doing a short series of Cheese Portraits in egg tempera.

They are from life, so need to be finished in one session.

Today I did Colby Jack.

This is not a good photo and I haven't posted these to socials, because I want to do it as a whole group.

It might get more work too, I don't know yet.

I brought a block of cheese to class and made this thing, because I had no idea what I was doing.

This was actually a very difficult painting, more than I realized when I started it.

That yellow-orange color is hard to work with value-wise, plus the marbling.

It might have been easier in oil because the palette can be pre-mixed and stay open, unlike egg tempera.

And it had to be done alla prima.

I'm still not sure if I quite "got it", but whatever, it's good practice.

It's 4x4, mini.

More cheese next week.

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I feel like I am very all-over-the-place artistically.

It's a little overwhelming but at the same time I'm doing it to myself so there must be a reason...

I'm now all over the place with my plein air palette right after deciding to stick to ONE standard palette...

Just in the last few months I have gone from all sorts of plein air to cat fur to topiary cats to 1400s virgins to Beelzebub to anglerfish and now... cheese.

I said to Doug, I am all over the place.

This is worrying; maybe I am lacking consistency.

Doug said it's ok and a good thing and fine, and I'm exploring my world artistically and not something to worry about and to just be myself. And then he told a story about Picasso which was relevant and encouraging even though I hate Picasso.

While I trust Doug and he will give critique, he's also one of the most positive and supportive people I have ever met so maybe he's too positive- leaning?

I don't know.

Maybe I'm just having too many dark thoughts about Life in General, which I'll write about later.