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December 27, 2005
The first three stages of a painting
The Outline, getting the shape down
The Bodycolour, starting to fill the form in.
The Background, in amongst the splattery stuff.
Again, this isn't a small painting, it's larger than life: 1110mm x 2390mm, oil on panel.
There's a long way to go before it gets carried off to languish in The Racks. The figure will be worked over to find the underlying muscle and the light kicking off the skin. The background will get knocked back. Sometimes it goes almost back to white, but the dark tones will still break through in places, particularly round the form, where it will begin to fight with the lines and make them into edges, make them into roundy-corners which disappear.
The background is part of the history of the painting, but it has an important role to play helping create the depth of the painting too.
Posted by john at December 27, 2005 12:05 AM