Sol Invictus

To say the least, I did not finish Sol Invictus for the Kirby Hook In's Celestial Challenge. So I continue to work on the piece. It is inspired by the angel face mosaic that was recently uncovered in Istanbul, in the famous mosque Hagia Sophia.

I am working the piece from several colors in my Goodfellow color family, the family that is based on the yellow dye formula Goodfellow Yellow 105.

Goodfellow Yellow 105
Sunkissed Gold 157
Ellendale Orange 126
Russet Red Jack 143
Moorland Moss 106
Will 'O Wisp 158
Fincastle Brown 141

I also used some strips of Moorland Moss 106 dapple dyed wool around the eyes to get a variegated effect. I'm out to lunch on the background, although I think it will be dark and some overdyed textures. I'm thinking Fincastle Brown 141 at the moment (the dark color tipping the rays).

I am at the point of tweeking the face, so I just converted my color photograph to black and white so I can see the values better to make sure that they are what I want them to be. If I see something too light or too dark I will pull out the strip and replace it with another value. I hook by thinking about values, where the light and shadow is on the object I'm hooking. I try to cluster my colors at the same time I mix them so I'm using the same value of different colors here an there (like in the forehead). Immediately I see that there are two strips under the right eye that are too dark and one over the right eye that is too dark. So I will replace those with lighter strips.

I'm back

I turned in the last index at midnight on Tuesday. Been trying to catch up on sleep. I need to turn to write a couple of presentations for a conference the week before Thanksgiving. So I won't be posting regularly until after Thanksgiving when I will catch up with the Ten-Minute round-ups and start thinking about Christmas projects I want to do. Things are so hectic I am even going to miss guild this Saturday - because I have to continue writing my presentations.

In the meantime while I have been working on putting together a PowerPoint show for a paper I am writing on astrology and ancient religion, I came across this fantastic antique painting of the face of an angel that was uncovered in the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul. Wow. I have to hook this into a rug as the face of the sun or moon. Complete with terrific colors and border designs. Can't wait to get started, but it will have to wait until after Christmas.