The life of a painting.

I spent this weekend working on a new piece to be submitted to a gallery show call for entry. Yesterday at 5 was the deadline. I realized at 3 that I was not going to make it. Big bummer. At the end of the day it's my fault for leaving it so long, but all is not lost. I really loved what I created. I took pictures along to journey from concept to final and wanted to share my process.

So, first is the concept. The theme of the show is hybrids. I started working on rough concepts a couple of weeks ago.



Usually I start by writing my ideas down and drawing super duper rough sketches. This is how I narrow down to one idea. At this point in this particular case I had to set everything aside to work on another project.



I came back to this painting a week after my first sketches and did another round of roughs. These ones are based around the best idea I had from the first round. I wrote down my palette colour ideas as well.



One last final sketch. This one is pretty much exactly as I want the final painting look. I'll usually write down where I want to see each of my palette colours so I can be as efficient with my paint as possible.




Next step is to transfer my idea to the final canvas. In this case it's a stained wooden panel. Here I used a pastel pencil to sketch it out but usually a pencil is my tool of choice.



Paint time! I try to lay down the large blocks of colour first.



My first painting teacher in college said to us once that if you're going to paint, then use paint. It's not the time to scrimp. So I went out and bought some new paint! My talent takes me far but the paint itself is so important!



From that point it's hard to describe. I don't start from the top and move my way down. I'm all over the place! Wherever my mood strikes me. It's hard to say how long this will take me. This particular situation took me the better part of a weekend.




I also started using this awesome water dish that my Mom gave me years ago and it was promptly put in a dusty corner of my book case. It's got grooves to lay your brushes down without crushing the tips and a ridged section to help remove paint better. I LOVE it! Thanks, Mom!



So, though I didn't get it done in time for the deadline I did finish it today, and my furry intern totally approved.



It turned out as I hoped it would. It's been a while since I've painted so it was good to get back into it in the least. I'm already working on my next one!