CommissionII: The Rub In

This stage is particularly fun to do. After the raw sienna is dry, I use burnt sienna to lay in the initial large shape. The only thing you can really see of this step is the line above her head and down her arm. This shape should be the largest possible shape and should really never be more than a pentagon. A hexagon is really pushing it. Two triangles would be better at that point. I digress. Mostly I'm trying to frame everything in the picture so part of his head isn't chopped off because I started with her nose and worked out. You start painting the whole picture at once, and work to become more and more detailed!

So after I did the large shape I used gesture drawing to get a basic idea of where everything went. This is where I regret not taking a photo because I was working too fast and thought, "This will be visible in the end!" Unfortunately I was wrong. The rub out killed a lot of my original marks because I didn't stop to let each stage dry. A lot of gesture got rubbed out.

The basic concept i use when doing gesture is to do a drawing without much detail that correctly places large main elements. This would be like "two heads about here and here where this one is slightly higher" and "I have to fit these five components across the picture, let me make sure I don't make them too large: arm,torso, arm,torso,arm" except I don't draw a full out arm or torso and definitely never a head. What I do is draw myself reminders and markers, mostly with a long, continuous, searching line.

Then I use the Giacometti technique to put everything in the right place. You might be able to see the small places I actually drew my vertical and horizontal lines. I didn't do much and now I'm paying the price. There are a few problems I am facing at this stage of the drawing that could have been fixed by better implementation of the Giacometti method.

But I jumped ahead to the rub out stage, ready to get to some real painting after such a long stretch away from it.

This part is usually pretty easy, if you laid yourself some good ground work. Using your marks and measurements, find the dark value shapes in the painting and draw those in the correct spot. Rub out if you make a mistake. If you start using too much paint, or it gets too thick, use a /dry/ rag to rub out. It will take the excess paint and leave your drawing. Continue painting.

I had two problems I was fighting with: myself and a washed out seventies photo. I hadn't laid the proper ground work and there were no dark values to speak of. Well, besides her hair and his glasses and the print on her dress. I couldn't tell if the original had been washed out a bit or if it was just that old. I made up some extra shadow to really make it pop, and I hope ultimately look more realistic!

I finally had to quit and go baby sit my favorite kid ever: River! Hence the late update as well.
Well, I won't get much done painting tomorrow because I am going to do more fun things with Rachel! Hopefully fiber arts or soap related! So, not much painting but hopefully a crafty blog post!

See ya then (well, you know what I mean!)