A New Approach
As Autumn sets in, it's nice to look back at the work I've completed over the summer. There have been some commissions that I've been working on as well as following my own creative journey. This has taken the form of a series of three square format canvases which started out as a sort of experiment. I don't usually work from sketches, apart from specific reference for painting details that I need to get right.
After finding a small tin of watercolour pencils that I'd forgotten I had, I thought it might be fun to try just sketching ideas for finished paintings and then working them up to scale onto three square format canvases I had in my studio. I planned to paint these in acrylics. I didn't plan anything else, I just drew the first things that popped into my head!
I usually see my paintings completed in my head before I paint them so I thought this would be a fun way to get my ideas out quickly without the slow and laborious process of creating the composition straight onto the canvas. I hoped it might retain the spontaneity of an initial idea through to the finished piece. Did it work? I think it did!
In the tin of pencils there were only a few colours so I thought about creating a limited pallette similar to the colours in the pencil set to try and re-create the sketches but just on a bigger scale. I think it worked out well, although by the end of the third canvas I was bored and frustrated by the limited pallette and considered slipping in some more colours to make it easier and more enjoyable! I resisted though and I'm pleased that I did because it challenged me to do it this way.
The initial sketches were four times smaller than the images that were going to be on the canvas, so I just scaled them up using my eye and a ruler. I didn't bother with a grid which is often used for this technique. In the process of scaling them up, some of the details didn't work bigger so I had to make some changes. I found this interesting as I just assumed it would work in the same way. It was especially the case with the first in the series 'Weeping Willows'.
The two wolves in the sketch didn't seem to work on the bottom left corner so I moved them up and then later changed them back again. The male figure inside the tree looked good on the sketch but looked a little 'sinister' on the bigger scale! So, he had to go and just be replaced by a shadow indicating another figure inside the tree.
The next painting in the series was 'Suburban Nights'. This one worked easier on a bigger scale and didn't really change much from the original sketch.
In the sketch, the girl was wearing a red dress and it looked good, but when scaled up and with the colours changing, the red just didn't work and so I decided to make the girl more discreet, almost hidden and wearing blue.
The final piece in the series 'Moonstar Cove' was my favourite as it was a perspective I'd never done before. I have never made a composition of a landscape where the sky cannot be seen, so this was something completely new for me. The reason for this is because the scene is a place that has existed in my imagination for many years and I've never until now thought about painting it. It just presented itself to me as the third sketch I needed to do. In my imagination I often see it from this viewpoint so it just had to be depicted that way.
The perspective in the landscape doesn't make much sense but this doesn't matter to me. I wanted it to look exactly like the vision in my mind. I have so much to tell you about this place and so I will save that for another blog dedicated to it!
I really enjoyed this experiment and way of working and I might try it again sometime but for the moment I have some other ideas ready and waiting which will be painted in oils. I also have a steady stream of commissions that need doing so I am looking forward to a busy winter time in my lovely studio......
That was a lovely read and very insightful. Your paintings are always a joy to see. Thank you for sharing your processes and the finished painting.