Sunday, May 24, 2015

"Painting Fiercely" demo at Opus

Step 1: drawing delineating main shapes (ie. dark, lights) to use as a general framework.

Step 2: block in the main shapes with base tones, starting with the dark colours first (working dark to light in oils). Be sure to keep the paint thin at this stage (diluted with turps).

Step 3: add lights and darks to the base tones (this gives the forms depth and structure). It's always important to figure out how the light is working in your picture, this will help in its composition as well.

Step 4: this is where we destroy the picture. This helps us to go beyond our initial image/source material and create something new. Smudging and erasing the colours is one way to create unexpected new forms. Try to obscure the figure so that it is on the edge of being unrecognizable.

Step 5: now try to bring the figure back into the image using your source material as a guide. This is where the process becomes give and take: reinforce the form, mess it up again when it becomes to fussy again. Repeat these last two steps until you feel like you can't do anymore to the image.

Demo Result 01

Demo Result 2

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