At the risk of becoming boring...I started, so I'll finish. Wishy washy part 2.
Once the final background layers are dry and to my satisfaction, I pop a clear wash onto the body, leaving some areas clear. I was once told that I was 'lucky to be able to draw stuff what comes out of your head' (or words to that effect) but the fact is that without having had an art education, and done my fair share of tedious still lives, I wouldn't be able to depict the 'stuff in my head'. You have to know how light falls, how to make a body appear heavy and slumped, and you have to know it well enough to paint it when your subject not in front of you. In many ways, a still life would be easier. So the reason for leaving dry parts is because I want the paint areas to have different surfaces, even though the ear and the tail will be the same colour - to make the character more believable as an object.
I also use several sized brushes and when I am painting I will often have two in my hand, one for the wash work and a slighly smaller, finer pointed one for getting up to the edge - rather like chopsticks.
Here I've floated the body colour - a manganese/cobalt/indigo blue mix - into the clear wet, and am tipping it this way and that, adding more colour and making sure it dries evenly - and that the darker bits of paint are where I want them. I also want the light areas to match up to the lighter parts in the background - so that the light from the window really appears to fall into the room and over the elephant. Seems obvious when written down, but it is another little way of making the picture 'real' to the viewer.
The finished and dried result. I was really pleased with how the nicely granulated paint works on the body, it did all the work of defining the body. So for once I left it alone, and held off bumping it up with pencil work. On the back leg join you can see where a patch of indigo has separated from the main mix, which is why students are told not to mix colours. And is precisely why I do. Because I like the effect.
And from then on it is simply a matter of finishing off - a bit more painting, some coloured pencil work to define the shadows - the deepened indigo/black serves to visually 'push' the body even more to the foreground. I cut it off on or near the gummed tape...as this is how I sell them. It gives the buyer the freedom to have as little of the image or as much as they prefer, when it is finally mounted and framed. If I were framing this for exhibition I would leave as much as I could, to emphasise the empty, lonely feeling.
But as I am getting this made up into a card too, I have a trimmed size for my own use.
And that's that - one painting. And a cracked cup.
Once the final background layers are dry and to my satisfaction, I pop a clear wash onto the body, leaving some areas clear. I was once told that I was 'lucky to be able to draw stuff what comes out of your head' (or words to that effect) but the fact is that without having had an art education, and done my fair share of tedious still lives, I wouldn't be able to depict the 'stuff in my head'. You have to know how light falls, how to make a body appear heavy and slumped, and you have to know it well enough to paint it when your subject not in front of you. In many ways, a still life would be easier. So the reason for leaving dry parts is because I want the paint areas to have different surfaces, even though the ear and the tail will be the same colour - to make the character more believable as an object.
I also use several sized brushes and when I am painting I will often have two in my hand, one for the wash work and a slighly smaller, finer pointed one for getting up to the edge - rather like chopsticks.
Here I've floated the body colour - a manganese/cobalt/indigo blue mix - into the clear wet, and am tipping it this way and that, adding more colour and making sure it dries evenly - and that the darker bits of paint are where I want them. I also want the light areas to match up to the lighter parts in the background - so that the light from the window really appears to fall into the room and over the elephant. Seems obvious when written down, but it is another little way of making the picture 'real' to the viewer.
The finished and dried result. I was really pleased with how the nicely granulated paint works on the body, it did all the work of defining the body. So for once I left it alone, and held off bumping it up with pencil work. On the back leg join you can see where a patch of indigo has separated from the main mix, which is why students are told not to mix colours. And is precisely why I do. Because I like the effect.
And from then on it is simply a matter of finishing off - a bit more painting, some coloured pencil work to define the shadows - the deepened indigo/black serves to visually 'push' the body even more to the foreground. I cut it off on or near the gummed tape...as this is how I sell them. It gives the buyer the freedom to have as little of the image or as much as they prefer, when it is finally mounted and framed. If I were framing this for exhibition I would leave as much as I could, to emphasise the empty, lonely feeling.
But as I am getting this made up into a card too, I have a trimmed size for my own use.
And that's that - one painting. And a cracked cup.
