The photograph I used was one of my few taken in Lithuania during the summer.
I chose this photo because it consists of very subtle colours that harmonise the whole image. In my previous two paintings, one focused on the sea whilst the other one was a forest surrounding, which meant I used differer painting techniques, Hence I like how this image contains the combination of both, as this will allow me be combine the techniques I learnt from the tow previous paintings together more effectively, hence resulting in a more refined and unique painting. I must note that when I printed out this image the colours were even lighter and less bright as seen originally on the screen, hence my painting was also painted according to the colours from the printout.
As you can see from the images above, I started off by painting the whole board with white acrylic paint and a large paintbrush, for a light and clean surface. I then began painting sections of the sky also using a mixture of acrylic paints, however this time I applied it with a damp sponge as this is the technique I have previously used with Joseph M.W. Turners inspired experiments, This way unlike when using a paintbrush, it allows the colours to softly blend together and this is exactly the type of technique needed to recreate the very light and soft looking sky. Although looking back at my image the sky in it is fairly light and not as in depth as some of my previous painting photos are. From the images you may see I did in the beginning apply darker blue tones, that however I later covered up with white acrylic paint. The whole idea of this was to layer different tones of blue to create an undertone for the fairly light sky and give it some subtle depth.
I also started to glue down pieces of paper (both white paper and glossy book paper) this way I wanted the painting to build up some texture and not make it all just a flat smooth surface. I took this technique from a previous painting bellow;
As you may see the paper in the lower left side brings out some detail and depth from the painting making it less flat.
After finishing painting the section of the sky, I began focusing on the forest area both in the distance of the image that is less clear, and the trees closer to the sand area.
Like in my previous painting (image bellow) I used the technique where I applied a stroke of oil paint onto the board and then pressed down onto the colour with turp substance which then caused the colour to leak down. However because I was only painting sections of the forest I did not want the colour to lead down all across the board to begin with, hence underneath the colours I stuck down some masking tape, which would stop the colour dripping down further down the board. Because I found the oil paint colours too intense, after they have dried, I applied a thin layer of white acrylic paint over the oil paint to tone it down and allow it to blend with the rest of the painting.
As I mentioned the painting above, is the painting from which I initially discovered the layering of dripping oil paint technique. However the whole inspiration to achieving this came from refinement of an experiment in the style of Vytautas Kasiulis.
After doing some initial painting on the tree sections, I went on to start painting the sand area of the painting. The trickier part of this section was the fact that the sand has a lot of different shades and colours, that were harder to mix up, as I did not want the whole of that section to consist of a singular colour which would make the painting look 2D and unrealistic. Hence once I would mix up and appropriate colour and paint it on to the painting, the remainder of the paint I would tint with white acrylic paint to get lighter shades of the colour. For some very light sections of the sand I smeared some tea stain over the white acrylic paint, as the tea created a thin golden yellow translucent layer which slightly highlights the lighter areas and makes them bled in with the whole context of sand. Once I painted the base background of the sand, I repeated the technique of dripping oil paint with the sand, by mixing a light sand brown oil pain colour and applying it all round the lower part of the painting. This added some extra detail that does not stand out too much but compliments the other details and colours of the painting.
To finish the painting off on the lower right side of the painting I added a clear paint mark which I then layered over with white and green paint, to create a beginning focus point for the viewers. This works effectively as all the other colours in this painting are quite light a subtle whereas the bold green paint line highlights and makes a section stand out. Whereas if I would have painted the whole painting bright, it would look overwhelming and intense, with no specific focus point.
Above is the image of my finished painting. Overall this whole process of painting has allowed me to refine and gather my ideas, skills and techniques. Working on an even larger scale has proven to me that scale does matter for landscape paintings, as it allows the image to appear more spacious, making it feel like the person observing the painting is actually there. It is also more comfortable to work on a larger scale as it allows more space for better mark making and more possibilities of incorporating a larger variety of techniques. I now know that for my final piece I will not go down in scale, as the results will not bet as effective, and not as visually appealing to the eye. I also think the actual photograph that I used in this painting works very well with my landscape theme, and I will most likely paint inspired by it again, possibly for my final piece too.
Looking back it me previous evaluations and thoughts of my other work, thought this creative process I realised that in the start I intended to make my paintings and other artwork bold and possibly unrealistic in colours like my artists Scott Naismith and Kasiulis do, because I thought it was a very abstract and unique way to paint, because the artist have painted this way too. However after doing plenty of artist influenced experiments and painting series of successful paintings I now understand that being inspired by an artist does not mean painting with bright and lively colours like they do, it is more about understanding their mark making and technique, even the reasons they paint this way, that then influences me to find my own techniques like the dripping oil paint and the blending of acrylic paint with a damp sponge, I feel like my abstract landscapes do not need to be bright and unrealistic in colours anymore, I actually noticed that in the beginning I wanted my work to look more like Scott Naismith's, but now as I progressed I understand that more of my work now relates and is inspired by Turner, both in terms of his techniques, art movement and the use of natural, subtle colours. Even then I still adapt Naismith's and Kasiulis's techniques into my work too.
Now that I feel sure about my style, media and ideas, I will continue to focus working towards my final piece.
No comments:
Post a Comment