Tuning in.- get a feel for what the paint needs

I find that I enjoy being with the painting for the lengthy space of time it takes to finish it. All the layers help build the work slowly always adding to the depth of the piece.
I´m not intresed in controlling the paint, instead I invest my time by listening to what it needs, each piece is different, from what I color I choose, for underpainting, the palette I use if I need glaze etc.
Some of the questions that come to mind in the process are;
How can I guide the viewer to wonderment
Does the image needs to be understood in one Reading
How much amount of paint to contrast the main objective
Is the painting interesting all by itself

Last paintings I´m looking the importance of underpainting along texture
adding some values with color itself, so I tried metallic color and then fosforecent hues to contrast feathers
Lesson learnt is I need more accuracy within the figure shapes nevertheless, I look forward to use these kind of mixing, in a different painting, taking care on details:

                                       

                                             Hummingbird ref PO654

Nigth Gallery
There are times when I want to paint something different, in a different way, with a different purpose,

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes; Art is knowing which ones to keep.-

"All I want for Christmas is you" (ref PO653)

The color violet
Wheather used right from the tuve or mixed from reds and blues, violet can act as the star of a painting, helping set the mood or add life to shadows;
It´s helpful to make a page of color samples , showing every combination of blue and red to produce violet; .- it´s amazing how different  each combination can be
For the very darkest I use alizarin crimson ultramarine blue and a touch of burnt sienna making a very rich black, that I can vary more to the blue, red, or Brown as needed I also used violet to shadow yellow objects
For the following excersize; I combine with black "?" for contrast because I wanted to highlight wáter white tone insted to graduate but this is because I tried to create interes references,

                                                     Ref PO651

        Acrylic over canvas - impasto colored and texturized and then used as
        undepainted base
               "SHADOWS, SOUNDS AND HAPPY THOUGHTS"

Using backlighting for a brillant effect;

Backlighting often gives the picture a greater sense of brillance tan any other lighting direction, putting the light behind the subject creates opportunities and challenges that are very different from the more standard frontal lighting.
I did this painting as the previous post but now the color impasto above the ship is quite thin so the operating´s ropes are still visible

                                                    Ref PO648

Quick and accurate strategies;
This painting was taken from a photography, to do it I stablish first the basic color harmony covering all the canvas with a handful of accurate colors in order to to get on with the painting much quicker, blocking in ligths and center of interest adding darking values just enough at early stage, to help set up the ligth keeping the brush strokes loose and broken, ---let the brush do the work the color is just about rigth for the suggestion of detail because the underpainting I apllied previously to the inpasto makes the difference, --given the impression of being much further along that it really is
Ligth and dark are the main key, so I added more darks thougthout, this has the effect of focusing the ligth more toward the áreas I interesed
I finished the foreground to brought the whole painting up to a consistent level of finish , in order ligths pops thats why painting like this take relatively short time;  the key is the underpainting and dark definition áreas"

                                              Ref PO647