Process: Part One

I thought it might be fun to document myself making a new artwork from start to finish. It's something I've never done before. I have a bunch of projects in the works, everything from the Accordion Sketchbook to illustrations for a friend's novel. In fact, for the first time in a long time, I need to make a list of projects to remember them all. It's all part of my master plan to not be lazy.

The following is just the first part in the process of the painting. It's called an under-painting. Think of it as an elaborate, painted sketch. I should mention that I don't work this way all of the time. Each artwork takes me on a different path and this one called for a full on painting.


1. The first step was the idea. I can't really document that without an fMRI, so you'll just have to take my word for it. So the 'first' step is the initial sketch. Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out how I want things to look; composition, lights and darks, sizing of the elements, etc. But in this case I already had a fairly clear image in mind.






2. Next comes all the prep work. I stretched some canvas right onto the wall and primed it with several coats of gesso (basically an acrylic paint that provides a smooth painting surface) and sanded between coats. Also, I took some reference photos, which you can see taped to the wall. Sometimes I will work from life, but since I was using my own hands as the reference, I'm working from photographs.





3. Here are the supplies. The paint color is raw umber. The reason I use this color is because its drying time is quick relative to other colors of oil paint. But in order to slow the drying time just a bit, I've added a drop of linseed oil and a drop of clove oil. These will help keep the paint pliant for longer, but not so long that I'll have to wait weeks to apply another layer (like some other colors). Also, I coated the canvas with a really thin layer of linseed oil. More on that in a minute. Funny aside: I bought that tube of paint in 1998 or so. At the time it cost about $15, as you can see from the price tag. I just looked to see what it would cost today and saw one retailer had it for about $24.



4. Here we are with the canvas coated with an even (ish) layer of the raw umber. Now the reason for the coat of linseed oil on the canvas becomes clear. The oil makes it easier to spread the paint around to get an even halftone and it will be really important in the next few steps.








5. & 6. So here I'm starting in on the image. But I'm not applying paint, I'm taking it away, in this case with a cotton rag. This is called reductive painting. Since the canvas already has a halftone ground, I can remove paint for all the light areas and apply more paint for all the dark areas. This is why coating the canvas with linseed oil is so important. It makes the paint move across the surface easily and makes it possible to remove paint.

















7. Here's where the drawing comes in. I used the
sharp end of a bamboo stick to scratch the drawing into the paint. It's the same reductive method as above. The nice thing about doing it this way is that if I make a mistake, all I have to do to correct it is paint the mistake out.








8. As I was painting, I decided to make a change to the original idea. That's another nice thing about this method. The paint is going to stay wet for a while and can be moved around easily. I wanted to make an indication of everything being encompassed in an expanding circle. So I painted in some dark areas around the edges to indicate the circle.







9. & 10. Now that the linework is done, I can go in and wipe away all of the lights and highlights on the hands. I started out very general, just roughing in the light areas and then getting more and more specific so that the form begins to 'turn' in space. This is how one creates the illusion of three dimensions on a two dimensional surface.






















There you have it! A very basic under-painting. The next step will be to go in with a fine brush and add in some more detail. After all of this dries, I'll come back to it and start the 'real' painting and add color. When I get to that point, I'll put up another post with new pictures.

I don't usually title my artwork, but in this case I was thinking of some funny titles. Maybe it will be a long, silly, Salvador Dalí-like title; maybe 'While Having a Dream, the Large Hadron Collider Somehow Confused Theology with Physical Cosmology'. We'll see, we'll see.

Oh, and if Richard Saunders is reading this right now, guess what I was listening to while painting?

Early Influences: Francis Bacon

Head 1
1948, Oil on hardboard

Way back in the mid-nineties, when I was in high school, I was working on some sketches in my art class. The sketches were of a weird little creature being clutched by a fist, while in the background there were other little creatures hanging on hooks. Did I mention that I was a strange kid? Anyway my teacher, Mr. Bates, took a look at what I was working on and told me that I needed to get a book on the artist Francis Bacon.

Right after school I went to the bookstore and found a book about Bacon. It was a good overview, had lots of color plates and I just fell in love with the guy. His artwork was dark, disturbed and amazingly executed. The subject matter, crucifixions, popes, contorted figures, bizarre rooms, grotesque portraits, fascinated me. Even though I’ve always been a happy guy, this type of imagery has appealed to me ever since.

Self-Portrait
1971; Oil on canvas, 14 x 12 inches
Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Throughout the years I had a few chances to see his artwork in person, but it was only ever one or two paintings. That was until last Spring when the Metropolitan Museum of Art held an enormous retrospective.

From their press release:

The first major exhibition in New York in twenty years devoted to one of the most important painters of the twentieth-century, Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective features 130 works (65 paintings and 65 archival items) that span the entirety of the artist’s full and celebrated career.

Study After Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X
1953; Oil on canvas, 60 1/4 x 46 1/2 inches
Des Moines Art Center, Iowa

K. and I spent hours in that exhibition. It was the first time I had seen so much of his artwork outside of books. I loved getting up close to the surface of the paintings to see the texture, the thick layers, smudges and fingerprints. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

If I can be half the painter he was, I’ll be a happier guy.
(Incidentally, the creepy drawing I did back in high school turned out pretty well)