Emma's final big assignment

This is supposed to be the penultimate assignment in Emma Petitt's class and, as such, was supposed to take place on canvas, not paper. One addition to the process was to make a mix of gesso, plaster of paris, and wood glue (ick, I know) and slather it all over our 16x20 canvas, to give extra texture upon which to paint our backgrounds. The grooves and swirls made by this mix, once dried, let the paint sit at all different levels and create additional interest.

I had two problems with this: Number one, I didn't really feel like making this mess in the middle of a hot July afternoon, even on a shaded patio; and number two, I didn't want to "waste" a canvas on painting this assignment, because I would feel like if it was on canvas I would need to hang it, and I don't want to hang something that appears recognizably in 400+ other people's homes as an accomplishment of a class we all took. Yes, I want to do the assignment, but I then want to go on and make the method my own, with a different model, different colors, and so on. So, I pulled out my 12x16 watercolor paper instead, gave it a nice thick coat of gesso (which I swished around thoroughly so as to make it more textured), and did the assignment on that. (You can't use the above gloppy mix on paper, it's too heavy and the paper won't support it.)

Doing the "swirlies" with the gesso really gave the piece some extra underlying texture, I have to say. And I also liked Emma's color base this time, with the addition of the Prussian Blue and then the Naples Yellow to just brighten things up slightly. I didn't have Prussian, so I used Blue-Green, which is similar but lighter.

Here is the finished base substrate, with the gesso and the five colors all applied in subsequent layers that dry in between.

The assignment was a little different this time, for two reasons: One was that we were including hands, arms, and some torso in this one; and the other was that there was no "live" model (i.e., a reference photo), we painted this as a straight duplicate from Emma's artwork. So this piece probably looks more like the original than any of my others, since I was directly copying the teacher's work instead of doing my interpretation of a reference model she had selected—another reason I'm glad I didn't do it on canvas!

The hands were challenging, and some of my fingers came out looking like someone both double-jointed and spatulate. I think that when I have to copy actual, real fingers from a photo, I may do better—we'll see. But the procedure was quite similar to previous efforts, and I enjoyed deciding what to hide completely, what to drop back with a thin layer of over-painting, and what to leave strictly alone. This is a fun style, and I plan to continue it with subjects of my own.

"Last Girl"—gesso, acrylic paints, charcoal pencil, Stabilo All, on Fluid 140-lb. coldpress watercolor paper, 12x16 inches. (This didn't photograph well; I had to scan it in two parts and stick them together, so this has a bit of a seam between the two...)