Current in the Studio
Hey Stranger!
As you know, I’ve been settling into my work schedule before returning to my studio. I have lots to do this summer so let’s talk about the plans and what’s going on in studio this week.
I have 2 pieces I’m currently doing in addition to multiple commissions. Along with two jobs, and general thesis research, and my personal life. You get the gist, a lot. I have such a habit as someone with ADHD to bounce between works. I cannot focus on one painting at a time, the whole way through. When I had my spinal injury, I was forced to do one work at a time and it was so hard, because if I choose to take a break from the piece to process frustration of whatever stage its in, what do I do if I don’t have another painting to get distracted in? It’s safe to say that it’s normal for me to have 7 paintings to do at the same time. However…..that’s too many at once and I have yet to figure out what the happy number is.
The painting goals for the summer:
technique:
-alla prima sketching
-color grids
-try different surfaces
-more palette knife work
-try plein air
imagery: -hands, they are still my nemesis so I have to practice!
-stop leaving the backgrounds so empty, more cityscape or other stuff, just do more with backgrounds
-practice painting tattoos
-experiment with distortion and liminal space
Which leads me to what is currently on my easel because I feel settled in enough to start working towards these. I have 2 paintings I’m currently swapping between. The first is a painting I pulled out from a year ago. A grisalle self portrait study I abandoned because I wanted to start practicing direct painting. I was hesitant to continue working it at the time, because I was playing with perspective in the background. Perspective is something artists learn in foundations in art school, and is essential to the kind of art I work with (representational painting). Nevertheless, it is one of the basic elements of drawing I struggle with! So reader, I looked at the painting and obviously said: “why did I stop there, I needed to keep going!” and put it on my easel. I fixed the perspective of the background, and changed some minor errors in the face with fast drying medium. When I get to color this next week, I want this one to have atmospheric, chiaroscuro lighting. I was focused on the baroque period when I started the painting. Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi are two of my biggest inspirations from the baroque period. Below is the inspiration, particularly the candlelight. However, I don’t work in glazes. I am considering if I want to glaze color onto this or go thick and risk losing the drawing until I work it back in later. I may glaze it, because it is a technique I still want to have and it is what fits what I already have down: a finished drawing in grisalle.
The previous semester to painting this study I had done a 22x30” self portrait in chiaroscuro lighting. So the idea was to push that further and continue my studying of how to paint a portrait using my own face. Even in this drawing however, there is still a distinct habit: empty background.
Here is the initial sketch of the portrait I wanted to do. The perspective in the background was already very off, as well as the hand holding the lighter. When I moved to the painting, these were the two struggles I had last year. When I sat down with it this week I made a plan of what I wanted to change. Below is where it is now.
The second painting is a tattoo and hand study. I also wanted a challenge, so I chose to do interlaced fingers. I used sap green for a transparent base over a charcoal sketch. It’s been a fight in the color layers so far, but I have been experimenting and just letting myself be messy.
I did not plan anything about the background for this one and I already regret that choice (yet it appears to be a habit I have). I also am unsatisfied with how the hair looks. I think I chose random colors and did not focus on value very well, so now there’s much to fix with it. The fingers I surprisingly don’t hate, but they are muddy and have lost some structure. An age old dance to learn with painting. You lose structure, you find it again, and lose it again and the cycle goes on and on until you feel satisfied with where it looks and finally stop. I don’t think I have a painting yet where I have reached that satisfaction of the image in its relation to structure. I have a distinct style, but I am still sorting through what choices I want to keep and which ones I want to toss. Not planning the background and settling in the color choices I make for building an image are two habits I want to lose.
I have tried different things to dissolve these two habits, I like photoshopping with planning out what I want to paint. I get better and better each time I try it too, but backgrounds are still difficult. For the issue of color, I need to revisit practicing more color grids so I understand my color mixes better, because I’ll have taken the time to understand how my materials interact with each other, hence, why it is in my summer painting goals.
I think my favorite part of this study so far however, was using sap green for the first layer and the stage the pinky is in right now (the above picture). I just put hints of where the fingernail is. The quick swab of red and yellow and the alternating directionality of the brushwork worked nicely. I just need to keep refining it.
Additionally to these two, I have commissions to do and I have been oil sketching outside to relax and unwind. Those will be in a different post!
Til next time Stranger!
