This week I have been thinking more in depth as to what I would like my final outcome to be, and so I’ve been working on composition planning as well as building on my painting technique. I have also planned which materials and recourses I should need to undertake my final piece and have purchased them accordingly.
This painting was an exercise to loosen up, and to break the ice a little as I was feeling a little timid with my brush. It also got me to break away from small studies and reminded myself what it’s like to work on a larger scale. I applied the paint rapidly also using a pallet knife at times, using colours that suited my feelings at the time. I’m especially keen on the outcome, for it looks a little sloppy – I would prefer the colours to merge a little more, but I value the process as I felt a lot bolder and more comfortable with my brush after having completed it.
In having loosened up and used to working on a larger scale again, I made the a1 study above as a composition idea which is a collaboration of lots of my previous smaller sketchbook studies. I would say this piece has helped me move forward with my project as it allowed me to see my ideas much more clearly as a whole, alongside one another, and provided me with a a clearer direction in which I should aim my next areas of experimentation. Again, I was looking carefully at Brigitta Kocovis’ works I showed in my previous post while I made this, especially her painting I show below, I was attempting to achieve a similar effect of layering lighter acrylic colours over dark to create that slightly opaque pasty effect, as she does. A peer mentioned she liked my loose, messy style and this had encouraged me to embrace it, while being sure to draw and paint with care of course.
In realising I wanted to paint the figures semi-realistically over a textured, slightly suggestive background I made the studies below, really focussing on my pallet and painting through building up layers. For the acrylic studies I built up layers by blocking out the light and dark areas (using raw umber and white washes) and then working into them further using a variety of peach tones. The oil study, was done in a similar manner although I didn’t go in with so much detail as I was afraid I was going to overwork it.
I like the sense of light across the face that I captured in the study above, and the almost blurry sensation I have created by using a very dry brush towards the edges, however the paint appears a little too caked for my liking, in comparison to my other acrylic portrait study below, which appears much more fluid and lively in comparison- most likely because I was more confident, being it my third portrait study.
Next I made some quick additional composition sketches, below, featuring my mum and I , that I may use to create some small paintings, supporting a bigger one. People have often said my mum and I are much alike, and it is only now, as I’m much older that I am beginning to realise how much we reflect each other. The drawings of my mum are from photographs of when she was a similar age to me, and therefore I am exploring me as a reflection of her, which filled me with sense of closeness to her, as well as a sense of fulfilment.
This second sketch also featured a younger version of myself , for I often reflect on myself as a child and how she would view my current self, which is why I drew her throwing cigarettes in a bin bag for as a child I despised smoking, a habit I now hold as a teenager. I like the way each figure wears bits of yellow for it links them and reflects their connection, my drawing here too is quite loose which came about form drawing with flow.
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