underpainting

So here are the underpaintings.  

This is done in burnt sienna oil paint, I use Old Holland and Williamsburg paints because of their concentration of pigment.  All early steps are done in thin transparent layers, gradually building up to rich dark shadows. 

The idea is to have a skull of Neanderthal man 

with a halo made from the moons of Saturn and 

Jupiter.   

Why?  I'm not sure why, these kinds of paintings are 

more of a question than an answer.  What do these things have to do with each other is the question.  

I think about this as I make them.  

There will be three main parts to these paintings.

One, the skulls themselves-I've always been fascinated with Neanderthal man and what became of him.  

Two, the decorative element on the skulls. 

This will take them out of the realm of the textbook and turn them into something more mysterious. 

Three, the moons themselves.  I wan these to be a sort of halo-I think about the halos in old paintings and how they are usually a perfect circle, representing an otherworldly ideal.

The moons will form sort of the same function in that they are a contemporary representation of something otherworldly.  We are as sure the moons of Saturn exist as a monk in the 1500s was sure that heaven exists.