This painting has been a series of screw-ups, recoveries and happy accidents from the get-go...Originally this was supposed to be the "Eddy" canvas from the abstract blogger set that I'm working on...
It started out with a basecoat of orangey yellow... then I painted this random "J" shape on it in yellows and oranges... all swirly and interesting... and it was okay, but it needed a little work in one section, so I overpainted the whole thing again in the same shape when it dried... but I overworked it and the whole thing just didn't work anymore... so I actually rubbed all the paint that I'd put on with a cloth, which kind of smoothed out the original shape too...
Then I tried a rounded shape, kind of like a sun... you know... Eddy... Sunshine... it's a whole theme thing... and I quite liked the look of that... although the round idea was kind of the same as one of the other canvases I was working on...
After Tuesday's shopping expedition, and the fact that I'd decided to go in a whole other direction for the "Eddy" canvas, I thought I might try something in the gold paint on this one... so I tried out painting an Asian character in the middle of the "sun" (partly to test out an idea for another canvas)... but I didn't like how it looked when it was done... and ended up painting the whole thing over in gold...
And I realised that a whole gold canvas looked tacky, so I wiped the still wet paint off again with a cloth... but it only partially came off, leaving this faint gold sheen to the canvas... which actually grew on me as I left the whole thing to dry.
So I decided that it needed something in the "foreground"... fine stripes or something... maybe something grass-like... and that ended up being the new silver paint (with a little black thrown in to darken it down)... but for whatever reason, I'm having a ton of trouble getting my lines to continue the full length of the canvas... and was going to go back over the first line I made to fill it in... then I looked at it properly and realised that I kinda liked the effect of the "vanishing" paint...
It's a shame the camera can't pick up the gold and silver paint properly... but all the stuff that looks grey is actually silver...
A similar layer in black came next, and technically I could have stopped there... although it did look a little heavy I have to say, so the white was the final layer...
It's quite possibly the MOST abstract thing I've done so far... but somehow it came out feeling very "Africa"...
Oh, and for the record, this one, and all the blogger canvases are 20cm x 25cm... because I know at least one of you will want to know... *grin*
Current Mood:
6 comments:
*not taking the bait* :P
It's good. I see what you mean about Africa. Zebras, Trees, Sun through the long grass. Tigers (although they're not Africa...) I like the way the orange radiates out from the yellow. Also could be a bonfire - guy fawkes night?
Tres cool!
^^ That was me in case you didn't guess :P Already tripping up over my blogger accounts...!
LOL. I kind of feel guilty for causing all the complications and issues. You do know you are a very talented artist, don't you? :)
Tom: I did wonder who that Anon comment was... lol... and yeah, you names just about everything I was thinking of when I came up with the whole Africa vibe... except zebras (the black and white striped thing)...
Sunshine: Don't feel bad... it was my own fault for going in completely the wrong direction with your canvas... the one I'm doing now, although it's had a couple of false starts (that's my paint's fault though) is working much better... And thank you for the compliment... however in this whole painting thing, as in everything else I do my artistic vision outshines my actual talent... sad, but true...
I'm not an expert on painting here, but if you'd wanted to extend the paint the length of the canvas, would a palette knife do that for you?
On the other hand, I like the fading out...
I don't know anything about the technique or "feel." All I know is that it looks fantastic. I would totally hang that in my apartment. In fact, I may try to copy it, maybe with some different colors.
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