An Experiment

I'm an currently working on the fourth painting in my series and the subject in this case unlike the previous three is fair haired and hasn't got a full on beard, which I thought would be easier to paint, but no. I've suddenly become a little to tame and and finding it hard to add texture to the skin, so I decided to leave that painting and do a small experimental study.

I scaled it right down to an A4 sized canvas but used the same palette knife I use on my larger pieces to see what kind of marks and texture I would produce. And here it is.

I lost the drawing, the chin is too pointy and the eyes are little far spaced but there is something rather dreamy about it and I rather like that.

I was also abe to quickly build up texture and working quickly straight onto wet paint allowed the paint to mix together on the canvas creating some nice marks. 

I want to continue some more smaller studies but next time I will improve the drawing and possibly be more abstract by smoothing out some details hopefully to produce some nice pieces. 

Beards and Quality Paints

Beards are a pain to paint. And it seems that beards and tattoos are inseparable. However, the palette knife has become my best friend when painting beards, the palette knife and good quality paints. I have for the last few years been ignoring my tutors advice and lectures on the benefits of quality paints, I have been hearing the words 'add to the painting' and seeing my bank account drop very significantly. And with the work I was producing before arguably the paint quality wasn't that important but for my new series I finally took that leap and bought paint, Cryla Artist Acrylics. Why I ever used anything else I don't know. The colours are intense and the texture of the paint is fantastic, thick and smooth, impasto is no longer just a dream anymore, my paintings have life and a a body they never had before helped by the gel mediums I also bought. So now when I block out large blocks for the beard I block out what is underneath and leave palette knife marks behind to give texture and depth making those tricky beard a bit less of a challenge to paint.

The Painted- A new project

The Painted

After some disastrous work, months of frustrated grumbling and pig headed stubbornness I have finally had the 'ah ha' moment I have been waiting for. 

After my boring sense of place project I finally got the courage up to embark on a project that I have always wanted to try- tattoos. Since I was 10 I have loved tattoos, and since I having gotten my own tattoos my interest has only grown. 

However, my enthusiasm for the subject matter just meant I had to many ideas and I jumped from idea to idea, style to style and at the end of the term I had no artwork I felt fully fulfilled what I wanted my work to say. I had some nice graphics, some emotional responses and a load of rubbish. So I went home over the summer and did some thinking, a lot of thinking until I finally thought of an idea. I returned to university with some photographs and some studies and felt better about my third year, the important year, the year with a finally exhibition at the end. I had the notion of painting a portrait and then having the sitters tattoos forming a patterned background, sounds rather simple. 

Three weeks into term and I am already struggling, tattoos are extremely hard to paint, it is not impossible I have seen many artists paint tattoos extremely realistically, but I don't paint photorealistic, I haven't got the patience nor the inclination. In the end I had a nice portrait surrounded by what looked like children's illustrations. I was starting to get frustrated again and I was getting a little panicky thinking of my final exhibition. Then it happened. 

The sky was grey, it was drizzly and I had a 9am. I'm not a morning person, especially when my 9am was a painting workshop and I was starting to get to the point where I didn't want to paint anymore (melodramatic, yes, but I'm an artist) and seeing others surging ahead with their own projects was making me jealous. This workshop was all about artistic responses, our art tutor started the workshop by painting her own response to her journey into work and her morning so far. Watching her work was interesting especially her mark making but it was not this that gave me my sudden inspiration nor was it our task of producing a response to what she had just said, it was what she said that finally gave me my inspiration. 'Do what you want'. That is what she said, very simple and I have been told it multiple times but that's hard to do when what you want to do might not get the right marks in the assessment. She told us of a friend of hers who did what their tutor told them, they believed they were doing the right thing but in the end they didn't get the mark they were expecting and because of this moved on to glasswork and hasn't painted since. Whether that story is true or not it got me thinking, I can't predict what will happen in the assessment, I can't work to a brief, this is university this isn't A-level. I ran home from the workshop, dropped off my paints and went and bought more paints and more board and got painting. I knew what I wanted to do. 

I watched this film once, I can't remember what, I think it was TV movie based on a Stephen King book, but there was an artist in it and she painted these large expressive portraits, I really liked them and the idea never left my mind. I was too caught up with the tattoos that I completely ignored the part that I actually enjoyed to paint, and the most important part, the person. It took 3 days of intense painting but at the end of it I had a painting that I was happy with, that fulfilled what I wanted to say and the start of my new project.

So after this rather long and rather dramatic retelling of the last few months I have a new project I am calling The Painted (working title). I intend the portraits to show the dedication, and skill involved in this much misunderstood art, as well as show the human side and the commitment of the individual who choose to get extensive tattoos. I want to create a colourful series which attempts to project a different and positive side to this sub-culture.

So here is the first painting: 
Title: Adam 
Dimensions: 122cm X 81cm
Material: Acrylic on mount board
Techniques: Palette knife and brush work