Over two weeks, I've created two separate painting studies each approached with differing techniques. The first image is from the approach of drawing into painting and the second is drawing and painting. The difference between the two is;
Drawing into Painting: An approach where drawing is the primary focus of the painting. It's when a detailed composition is developed onto the surface with either a graphite pencil or charcoal. This process is linear in nature yet can be rendered into something more expressive.
Drawing and Painting: This approach involves a constant dialogue between painting and drawing. It starts with broad strokes of paint that are then refined using line work. It's a back-and-forth journey of adjusting colours, tones, and blocking to build form. This painting vocabulary is both quick and expressive yet provides an opportunity for detailed refinements.
The surfaces of these two paintings below are different, the first image is on board and the second on canvas. I much preferred painting on board because I felt that the oil paint and the low toxic medium I was using allowed a less restrictive, more expressive surface to paint on. The oil paint dried quicker and I felt that when I went back into the artwork over a couple of days' break, I was able to build this depth from each layer. Because I was painting so transparently, I liked how I didn't lose any information from the previous day and so a story was building.
For the canvas painting, the Drawing and Painting approach felt too open for my liking. I didn't trust myself during the whole process and didn't understand the instructions properly as painting this way was so foreign to me. Yet with some feedback from my teacher, I tweaked areas and brought new life and enthusiasm into it.
Both of these approaches were foreign as I'd never manipulated images before so having to paint them completely took me out of my comfort zone.
Through this discomfort, I found a love for painting in this way and a surface I enjoyed painting on. For my final piece, I will paint on a bigger plywood scale and see where that takes me.
All artwork is available for purchase, to enquire click here.
Comments