Canvas

I finally got up my nerve to start a canvas this week; up to now, I've been painting all these acrylics on watercolor paper. But this one is a sort of commission; I was intrigued by the project and told the person whose reference photo it is that I would attempt to do it in the style we both admired and, if she likes it, she can buy it from me. If not, hopefully someone else will want it. Or, it will have simply been a good experiment.

The subjects are 3/4 figures of a man and woman standing outdoors in front of foliage. But the objective is not a realistic portrait—the photo is black and white and the contrasts (light and shadow) in it are extreme. We agreed that I would try to paint it sort of in the style of artist Michael Carson. This means the background will be color blocks that suggest rather than specifically convey the atmosphere, and a figure (or two in this case) made up of contrasts, with likeness not being as important as mood.

I got a bit literal with my color blocks on this, since I wanted to have both a light and a dark green and a khaki color for the foliage, some blue for the sky, some orange/yellow for sunlight, etc., and they are way too discrete and solid. But I have taken the initial step of going over them with a thinned-out mix of Naples yellow/green (a sort of green-tinted pale cream color) mixed with a little Cobalt blue and thinned out with Acrylic medium. I did one coat and let it dry, and will probably go back in with more, and then add some dry-brush paint for a "scumbled" effect in certain areas.

Also, once the two figures are in, they will cover up about 85 percent of the background, and then I can play around with whatever remains around the edges, until it is "edgier," ha ha.

Anyway, here are a couple of shots of my prep work so far:

The raw background squares...

The glaze...

And with the first layer of the "knock-back" color applied...

More to come as this progresses...