04.26
“Tears of i Part 4” – the finished painting. Acrylics & mixed media on canvas – 920 mm x 1220 mm.
Herewith (below the finished work at left), the making of “Tears of i Part 4” which was exhibited at my “Fragments of Vision” exhibition at Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) in 2011. I usually take a quick pic of every stage of any paintings I do (if I remember). So a warning to any formally-trained artists – please turn away now. To get the basics for this work, I did a pic of myself with no shirt on (using the self-timer mode on the camera) – bending over backwards towards the camera (if that makes sense). Then I upended the photo, as my template.
This is maybe my fave painting (of mine, I mean). Yes, in this narcissistic age of social media we can admit to liking our own paintings evidently. I usually like the works that I spend the least time on (but not always). Done fairly quickly, the work seems to end up more fresh, and un-contrived. As you might notice, a few failed experiments on the way, like with the eyes. This pic was part of an exhibition about losing one’s vision. So I guess the blacked-out eyes won out in the end.
The First rough pencilling in.
Step 2 – Throw around some paint for shading.
Step 3 – more paint . . .
Step 4 ; Carry on . . . building up the blocks of shading, add some white bits for effect.