Finished work · Seattle Prize
Nov 2025 – May 2026
77 x 77"
7 posts and 12 photos from the studio, in the order Tenaya made them.
Follow the making ↓The process
First post · November 5, 2025
Some exploratory studies and roughs, branching in different directions from the same root theme...stay tuned for which grow int a fully fledged painting.
Stage 2 · November 26, 2025
Almost finished with the transfer process for the new painting. Before I ventured into classical painting, I came from the world of comics and graphic novels, and this stage always reminds me inking over a pencil draft of a page.
Stage 3 · December 15, 2025
Now that all the prep work is finished, it’s on to the underpainting. There are many ways to approach this stage, and I don’t always handle it the same way. Sometimes I’ll start with a single-tone wipe-out and then move directly into full-color overpainting. Other times I use an ébauche approach, washing in the main color relationships from the start. For this particular painting, I’m working with a two-stage underpainting: first a wipe-out, followed by a selective “grisaille.” I use the term grisaille loosely here, since it isn’t strictly black and white—which would push the painting too cool for what comes next. Instead, the “gray” passages are built from mixtures of umbers, raw sienna, and white, which should be more suitable for the color layers to follow.
Stage 4 · January 21, 2026
Working on the base layer of the hair. It’s one of my favorite subjects to paint, since it allows for play with rhythms, swoops, and swooshes within the larger compositional theme. I like to bring it to about 80% finish on the main pass so I can work wet-into-wet on the edges, then reserve the remaining details for a final pass.
Stage 5 · January 29, 2026
Onto the primary pass of the drapery and hands. I generally try take this stage to about 75%, leaving room for glazes and adjustments in the upper layers. I painted the surrounding sky at the same time to work wet-into-wet edges (harsh edges can sometimes be a pain to deal with once dry).
Stage 6 · February 13, 2026
Moving on to the overpainting stage of the face: placing paint “tiles” over the underpainting’s structure, then gently blending them along the direction of the form.
Latest · May 19, 2026
Overpainting stage of the torso- I usually take this to about 80% completion, leaving room for subtle color glazes and adjustments.
