Saturday, May 24, 2008

Ava Triptych Step by Step

■STEP 1: BLOCK IN WITH BURNT UMBER






To start a painting, I first block in the light side and shadow side of the figure with burnt umber and linseed oil.

I don’t use any turpentine in my painting process, since I try to make the process as non-toxic as possible. Burnt umber has a lot of manganese in it, which is a natural drying agent, so that helps this underpainting, or “grisaille,” dry quickly. I also mix a few drops of “drying linseed oil,” (linseed oil with manganese added), into my paints, to help them dry faster.


■STEP 2: BLOCK IN THE BACKGROUND COLOUR






Next, I block in a rough background colour. At this stage I don’t worry of the colour is not exactly right, it’s mostly just to separate the positive and negative shapes.


■STEP 3: BASIC COLOUR LAY IN






Then I add glazes of colour into the light areas, to establish the basic colours.


■STEP 4: BIG FORM MODELING







At this stage I work on the “big form” modeling. I build up the forms using tones and values to show the basic underlaying structures, such as the egg shape of the head and the cylindrical nature of the body.


■STEP 5: REFINEMENTS






I start to adjust the background colour, and go more into the features, thinking about tone, and shape and edge quality.


■STEP 6: FINAL TOUCHES







To finish the painting, I put in a lot of time, concentrating on bringing each area of the painting to a finish. Consideration is given to the “hierarchy of focal interest.” So like the shirt remain looser, while the eyes and face are more refined.

10 comments:

Troy Little said...

Great post Kristy! I'm always keen to see the different processes people use. (I pour over Dave Cooper's Flicker set every few months to get me jazzed up to paint.)

You really captured Ava in these, very nice!

IstvanBloggin' said...

I like your work very much!
Have a nice day

Kristy Gordon said...

Thanks guys!

Also, for anyone wondering what's going on with the Ebay sales, they keep cancelling my listings (but still charging me) due to "innappropriate links" which Ive basically now figured out is because I linked to my website and my blog... so yeah, I'll re-list the paintngs soon;)

Marlo said...

This is soooo wonderful, kristy!!! it's neat to see your process

Kristy Gordon said...

Eee, thanks Marlo!!

Shawn William Clarke said...

very informative Kristy!

Kristy Gordon said...

nyaww, merci buckets Shawn!!

Cale Liom said...

These paintings of Ava are beautiful Kristy!!!

Kristy Gordon said...

Aw, thanks Carol!!

innisart said...

Beautiful painting, Kristy!