Q: "how long did it take you to paint that ?"
A: "comin' on Fifty years"
Humpback Whale piece with base layers of paint
What's involved in creating a painting?
- lightbulb moment: "what if...?"
- research images of whales, their habitat, their plight, ...
- do some sketches of whales, deciding on what kind of whale to focus on
- do some sketches of seaweed and other sea creatures
- sketch out plan for composition
- think about what I have so far as I drive in my car, take a shower, do the dishes...
- rework my initial concept
- consider color palettes
- mix colors and note the mixing ratios in notebook
- rework colors and start again
- decided on size of panels and order them...make sure I can afford them...wait for them to arrive
- sketch out initial composition
- lay down base layers of color
- lay down tissue paper layer and cover that with 'acrylic ground for pastels'
- wait for it all to dry
- go over tissued areas with gouache where wanted
- paint over tissued areas with acrylic to define seaweed and sea life details
- order collaging materials from Australia...wait for them to arrive in the mail
- separate collaging materials by color
- cut and arrange the collage materials. Glue them down
- Sand the edges of the collage materials to clean up the edges that hang off the edges
- cut tissue paper into intricate seaweed shapes to try an idea...glue them down. Rework idea to make it work...involving painting with a glaze of white ink, drawing with ink and graphite...
- begin embroidering barnacles and detail on the whale's body...mostly done late into the night
- ....to be continued
“Please click through on the above image to see more photos of my process...
Please follow me on Instagram (link on site) to get weekly updates on my process to get to the solo show of “Beasts” ”
In addition to working away on the Beasts series I am also working away at the Make Art That Sells bootcamp and preparing myself for the upcoming Global Talent Search. Sketches and refining sketches for the current MATS bootcamp assignment:
Sketches and Refined Sketches for MATS bootcamp assignment