05 April 2024
LFI assignment...
31 March 2024
Beautiful substrates
The definition of a substrate in art is "a foundational or base material on which another material is applied or mounted." But the definition in biology is what I like to think of when creating one: "The surface or material on or from which an organism lives, grows, or obtains its nourishment." In other words, applying that one to art means that your figure in the forefront is growing organically from out of its background.
My mentor for creating substrates was and probably always will be Emma Petitt. She is the one who taught me to use a roller to apply random strokes of a variety of color to my ground, allowing them to cover, reveal, or blend with one another to create something special; and then, over the top of that (which can be plenty all by itself) I also discovered the joys of applying stencil images to highlight colors, shapes, and styles in service of the image I intend to paint over them.
I haven't done one of these in a while, being content instead to use more stark, one-color grounds in order to focus all the attention on the figure. But in some cases the rich background "grows" the figure from within it, and I'm hoping that's the impression this portrait ends up giving.
I call it "Nereid," which in Greek mythology is a kind of nymph, a female spirit of sea waters. In this one she has just burst from the water and is shaking her head, scattering drops everywhere as she sheds the excess.
I had some tough decisions to make on this one. I am not experienced in painting water, so although I initially considered painting a pool around the lower part of her, I was sufficiently in love with my substrate in order not to want to mess it up with something that might not look as realistic as I would have liked; I will practice that on some other painting without as much invested. I also couldn't decide, initially, whether I should paint her in much paler shades of white and cream with bluish/greenish highlights, like a fish that emerged from the deep. But I ultimately decided that nereids probably spend a bit of time in shallow waters or preening on rocks like the Little Mermaid, so I kept her in mostly realistic tones.
The light was interesting in this one, because it was sort of top down from right to left, so she has highlights and darks on both sides of her body. The perspective was also a challenge, with that upturned chin and nose, hidden forehead, and weirdly angled ear. Finally, I think i reworked that hand about five times, having trouble getting all the fingers the correct lengths and shapes and applying the highlights correctly. But I'm done...I think!
"Nereid"—pencil, acrylics, and stenciling on thin birch board, 12x16 inches.
11 March 2024
More in the theme
I enjoyed playing with a new tool to get her hair just right: I had ordered some plastic scrapers meant to be used with Gelli plates that one of my Let's Face It teachers had recommended for making stripes or patterns in oil paint, and I used one of them to "scumble" the colors together and put some texture into her soft cloud of hair.
03 March 2024
Sort of a theme?
I continued this week with using the same color palette and with exploring mythological themes for a new painting. I had a vague recollection of reading one worldview in which the Moon is a Triple Goddess, with the waxing (growing) moon being the maiden, the full moon as the mother, and the waning moon representing the crone. Although I wasn't entirely comfortable with the symbology—are middle-aged women only worthwhile if they are mothers? and are crones really "waning" or diminished in some way? I think not. Nevertheless, the idea, preoccupied as I was last week by the maiden portrait of Proserpine, stuck in my head, and then I came across a reference photo that seemed like a cross between a goddess and a saint, subject of the portrait I painted before that one (Saint Side-Eye), so I decided I could take this vague legend and make something fun from it, even if I disagreed with its characterizations.
The result is this woman in the full flush of the middle of her life, cheerfully giving a blessing. I dressed her in the red oxide color I've been using, thinking of a Blood Moon, and gave her a necklace that harks back to an early witchy symbol for the three-part goddess. And then, just for fun, I also gave her a halo of sorts. (I thought about hanging a blood moon in the upper left corner, but finally decided it was too literal, and maybe also overkill. But...?)
The painting went smoothly until I got to the decorative bits. I did an undercoat of the red oxide on the necklace before putting on the gold metallic acrylic medium, because in the painting of Saint Side-Eye I liked the effect of the red peering through the gold, and I thought it would go nicely with her dress; but for some reason it was harder to get the gold to cover the red here. It also looked flat, which was perfect for the saint's halo but not for a necklace, so I ended up giving it some highlights and dark edges with regular paint.
I didn't want to undercoat the halo red first, because it would be too stark against the light ultramarine background, so I went in directly with the gold paint over the blue, but it didn't work at all. Then I decided to put a film of white paint over it, but that just killed the glow. So I coated it again with the gold over the white, but that was splotchy and looked like she had made herself a homemade halo out of a paper plate or something. So I went back in with the blue background color and, instead of an unbroken perfect halo, I did a sort of "rays" effect with alternating blue and gold, so that it became an extension of her blond hair. I'm not completely happy with it, but I think it works okay.
The only other element with which I had a problem was her gaze. In the reference photo it is a direct look at the viewer, but no matter how conscientiously I tried to duplicate it, I couldn't get her to look at me! I have noted this problem before, and still haven't figured it out. I would have liked the portrait much better if I could have achieved it here, though, as she had such a friendly, cheerful, intimate glance.
This is "Selene"—acrylics and gold medium on thin birch board, 12x16 inches.
13 February 2024
Old medium, new technique
Lat week's LFI2024 lesson was with watercolorist Unyime Edet, and it was an adventure in using a familiar medium in an unfamiliar manner. First and foremost, he paints with a flat brush, which I have never done in watercolor—the general approved method for watercolor is round, with a point. Second, he paints the darks first, layering up to the light instead of starting light and adding in the darks in layers. It's challenging to save the whites when you work like this, but it also gives dramatic contrasts. I also liked that he noted the actual colors you use don't matter, it's more about capturing the values, dark to light. I follosed his lead in using a deep purple for the darks, and I think it worked well.
The reference photo he used for the lesson didn't appeal to me that much, so I decided to be my usual impudent self and paint the teacher instead. This is my rendition of Unyime, using his flat-brush technique and starting with the darkest darks on the left side of his face. I lost some of the whites and lights I wanted to save, but overall I was surprised at how effective it can be to paint with a flat brush, defining planes rather than blending. I didn't do his technique justice, but I made a start on it, and his was a fun image to capture.
"Unyime"—pencil and watercolor on coldpress watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.