This painting is on a full sheet of yupo (the plastic "paper" that artists have been using for a while).
Sandy had us do a lot of thinking before we ever touched paint to paper: First, we needed to have a photo we wanted to paint. Then we were to draw grid lines on a piece of tracing paper (same size as the yupo). Then smaller grid lines in a smaller size box in what would be our focal area of the painting. Inside that smaller grid lined box we needed to trace what we wanted to paint. Then we had to create a "good white shape" a la John Salminen, where the whites of our painting would begin (but not necessarily end).
Then we needed to let our inner 6-year-old come out and draw on the tracing paper what we wanted the painting to say - how the subject made us feel - what to add and where, not paying attention to perspective or depth of field or anything. Painting like a Chagall.
So...I came up with this (sorry the photo doesn't show it well because it's pretty thin tracing paper pinned on my bulletin board).
I used a photo I took at the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine. So....alligators but not scary, in fact, very friendly and pretty and, hey, why not lady gators having a day at the spa? So I ran with that...and came up with Lizard Ladies at the Spa.
Here's a closer view of the ladies - see how pretty they are? And their pretty bows on their tails?
I need to make some adjustments but not too many. And it was fun creating all the texture using squeegees (yep, the kind you clean your windows with), foam rollers (like you get at the paint store), stamps, and lots of granulating colors.
Sandy said mine looked like a Miles Batty. I have to look up his work and see what he does...
3 comments:
You can call it a Spa Special! Miles Batt ... an excellent teacher, I'm told, who will be teaching at Kanuga in North Carolina next year. Yeah! Another workshop:-)
This is a fun painting, and as much fun to have watched you paint it too!
Rhonda,
This looks totally cool! I have read Sandy's blog where seh refers to using a squeegee on Yupo, but I still can't picture how that works...doesn't it wipe off all the paint? Is the paint wet or dry, is the squeegee wet on dry Yupo? Interesting stuff, this Yupo.
I did check out some Miles Batt paintings - he's won a lot of awards at state level and national level watercolor societies :)
Susan, you might ask Sandy to explain it - she does it more than I do. I just used the skip skip skip method, not pulling straight across the paint. It also helps to have the paint not wet but drying just a bit to pull and create texture. The squeegee is dry on semi-wet yupo. But she can explain it better - just ask her on her blog and I bet she gives you a demo, too :)
Post a Comment