tea break painting | process. or why using acrylics is akin to beating yourself over the head with a large metal spoon

The journey from sketch to almost finished study for a future painting, which will get painted who knows when, as I’ve now distracted myself with something else for the time being. Here’s the progress, and the things I can take from the process to try and improve it when it comes to producing the final.

Session 1:

Preliminary sketch from sketchbook redrawn for larger painting study:

Starting the underpainting with burnt sienna (left). A little more underpainting, adding alizarine crimson (right). Still failing to successfully master photographing the development, though:

Session 2:

More underpainting, stippling and fan-brushing tones to background, adjusted hair position slightly, starting to add some darker tones. Minor events at this stage – an acrobatic brush and a cat requiring impromptu paw-scrubbing after dipping one into the paint:

Helper cat iz helpin (and was moving about like bleedin’ lightning as I was trying to take this):

Session 2(a):

Interim session involving no actual painting. Lack of decent sleep and work eroded the process a little this evening. Instead, I took the last session to the tech for a bit of experimentation without the fear of losing undoability. Bringing the scanned image into Photoshop, I swooshed a little transparent colour over part of the background and the dress to try and give me some idea of hues and opacity of next paint glazes:

The result in actual paint is likely to vary somewhat, and I’m not yet committed to the colours. But it’s nice to be able to play about with things indicatively.

Session 3:

Ok, starting to add colour. As per the Photoshop colour experiment, I took some washed down greeny/blue over the background – almost paying the price with over-wetting the paper next to the arm holding the tea-cup (spot the dodgy bit). Need to tread very carefully with drier paint round this area from now. Adding pale blue diluted mix to dress, muting down the underpainting quite significantly:

Session 4:

Unhappy with the background in contrast to the foreground, I set about lightening it up:

I think I’m losing the painting right now. I’m having a real battle with the fast drying time of acrylics. But, it’s a study – an experiment, so if it all goes awry, it’ll go down as one for experience.

Session 5:

If in doubt, do something completely different.

That background had become the bugbear of everything, so I decided to try something else. Well it was all going a bit ding dong, so I had nothing to lose:

Session 6:

By now, you’ll have sensed that I only work sessions in short bursts! I need to start working on the big furry as he’s taken a bit of a backseat until now and got neglected in this session.

Session 7:

This was the bit I was dreading the most – painting in the skin and facial features. Apart from the obvious fear of developing a Judy Finnegan-esque hand tremor whilst painting in the finer details, it’s just one of those points where there is the potential for me to really make a mess of things. However, I told myself that I could always just paint over it and rework it if it all went to the dogs.

A few alterations were made to facial features as I went. Still looking a little flat at the moment – to be rectified in next session.

Session 8:

Adding highlights to face (above) – Titanium White is a girl’s best friend. Covering any remaining underpainting.

Adding finer details and depth to shadows with watercolour pencil:

Ok, right now I’ve made a screw up with the pencil shading on the face – too harsh down left side of nose. Looks like Little Miss Prim and Proper has attached a wayward slug to her face. As Winnie the Pooh is alleged to have once said: ‘Bugger!’.

Luckily, because these here pencils are of the Pot Noodle approach to painting, ie. just add water, I could make a slight blending adjustment and pull it back a bit. ‘Hoorah!’ said Christopher Robin “Let’s all go down the pub!’. I’m sure he’d have uttered something to that effect.

My scanner’s doing odd things with the colour and appears to be making her look alot more psychotic and hard-as-nails than she is to the naked eye, so here’s a quick photo of where we’re at now:

Things I have learnt along the way are:

• Acrylics are great for working in big, even colour, but can be a complete nightmare for blending. I clearly need alot (read: several years’) more practice in this medium.
• Not to panic when something goes wrong. Painting over dross is quite liberating.
• The final piece will need alot more glaze layers than was attempted in the study. The face will also need some careful work to stop the chick looking like she’s has a cold rod shoved up her back. The facial expression is devoid of any kind of personality to me, so this will need to be completely reworked.
• The need to check the proportions of the arms for the final. One is definitely longer than the other. Entertaining if nothing else.
• Never use poor quality paper when using acrylics which you intend to water down, even if you think ‘oh, it’s just a study’. It has a tendency to disintegrate and, consequently, infuriate. 140gsm wasn’t cutting the mark and the type of paper I was using was a bit too toothy.
• Ok, so it’s no masterpiece. But I’ve managed to learn things to develop for next time. Like switching to oil paints, for starters…