I tried something new with this one, in that I did the burnt umber underpainting with a commercial medium, but it got gummy right away and consequently the paint surface does not appear smooth. I’m doing the grisaille with the medium I normally use, made of 40% linseed oil and 60% mineral spirits. At least it’s covering the first layer well enough to salvage it.
Well, I finished it this morning but I have to say I don’t like it. I was hoping to achieve a softness and I don’t think I did. I’ve been adjusting the facial features for an hour – in the photo I’m working from, the girl has a worried look on her face and I’m trying to change it so that she looks a bit happier, or at least, less worried. The paint has become overworked though, and I’m starting to strip off yesterday’s work and muddy it. Time to give up on this one.
Five hours today got me this far. I can’t finish it as I’m waiting for it to dry so I can apply the final skin colour glaze. Maybe tomorrow.
I’m trying a new technique today – last week I painted a board with a burnt umber wash and today I drew on my image with charcoal, and then painted the highlights with white. Later, I’ll do a grisaille layer, and finally colour on that. I’m wondering if my charcoal lines will show through on the final product. I’m not crazy about that.
This hair has been a real nemesis! I have scraped it off and started again several times today (see first photo). I think what I have now (seen in second photo) will have to do or I will drive myself crazy.
Lately I’ve really been thinking a lot about art and why I do it, moreover, why do I paint in a Renaissance style. I’ve started looking up philosophers and artists who are pro-representational art, and even some like Odd Nerdrum, are pushing for a return to old techniques and styles because they better convey human experience and help us to make meaning of this world. I didn’t know that there were so many artists out there doing this type of art, and that they too have had difficulty fitting into the current capitalist system of art investment (as opposed to art appreciation) and, what I feel is, the bullshit of a lot of conceptual art! Art is a visual language, and I have always thought that if I need a pamphlet to explain to me what the fuck is going on in an exhibition, then that artist/curator/institution has failed, as I have no connection to it. It’s meaningless. It speaks to no one.
Anyways, my rant has gone on too long and I wanted to say that I have decided to remove the political references as they take away from the universality of the scene. Reagan is next on the chopping block. I can still call it ‘The Allegory of Facebook,’ but I don’t need to make it so obvious and run the risk of being cliche. Without those references you can still concur that this image is about modern day struggle, be that political, social, familial or global… whatever reason resonates with you.
Well, I’m still painting in glazes here. Today I have painted the jeans and jacket with black in the shadows and then a grey or blue glaze over everything and then I work the white into the lightest areas in/on the glaze. A lot of brown underpainting still shows through and I’ll give the jacket a black glaze later when this is dry.
I have experimented here with the clothes, in that I have painted them with glazes rather than with opaque paint, so that the whiteness of the canvas might come through and give the forms an inner brilliance. I am not very happy with it! For example, the Reagan shirt just looks black, but if I add much more white I will simply muddy the shirt and it will look worse. I think I better go back and do it opaquely with a simple glaze at the end. Hopefully, I can still pull this off.
Work in Progress – I’m just debating whether or not to put another layer of green glaze with highlights. I really want richness of colour, but I don’t want to overwork the painting either. Forgive the glare.
