This painting is different from most of my others in a few ways. It's rather large compared to earlier pieces. And it's on canvas. While experimenting with acrylic on canvas I discovered that I rather like it. There's a granulation effect that is similar to working on paper. Another nice thing is that the acrylic doesn't soak into the canvas as quickly and I can move it around a bit more before it starts to dry. And at the end I don't have to worry about flattening the painting. On the downside I'm not sure I'd want to do a small painting on canvas because the texture may become too distracting. Also, stretching and gessoing a canvas are a real pain in the ass(hands). However, I'll continue experimenting with canvas and we'll see what happens.
Another note. I did my final drawing with photo reference on paper at a small scale. Then transferred that with a projector. It seemed to make sense that I would want to work out my details before hand and prevent large mistakes on a large scale. Who knows, perhaps transferring a rough sketch like I normally do and doing the final drawing on canvas would've been fine. Maybe next time.
8 comments:
soo good!
Have you tried Canvas board? I got some watercolour canvas board to use and its interesting. Not too sure what makes it different from normal canvas board but it was all 'hey, oh, CANVAS BOARD. FOR WATERCOLOUR. LOOK AT ME, AMAZING' so I bought it and tried it. One plus side is you don't need to stretch or gesso it, so that would save you that bother.
love the quality of #3!
dude, you forgot the iris. lovely piece, and my students and i always appreciate the progressions.
There is something nice about the thickness of boards within a stretched canvas. But that's less about the image and more about the piece as an object.
Jon- there's always something i love about the drawings that I try to maintain in the finals. I'm more relaxed and there's less pressure for it to be "perfect" But at the same time I don't think I'd be as happy with the final until i noodled it to death.....not the best way to die. I'm constantly trying to let go a little and loosen up some...in certain areas at least.
Bill- Damn,that's like the 5th time!
If you haven't tried it before, grab some Fredrix Watercolor Canvas - I think perhaps it would suit your process very well. I bought it because I needed Stuff To Paint On, wanted something pre-primed, and it was on clearance at Hobby Lobby, (yay! Cheap!) and ended up loving it (which is saying a lot; I loved working small on illustration board and had been forced by my professors to work large on canvas).
The weave is very, very fine - like, linen fine - so even at a small size (I have in my hand a little pre-stretched 9" x 12") it doesn't take over the piece texturally. The gesso is a little more matte and a little more absorbent than the 'usual' acrylic gesso; although to be fair, I probably only noticed that because the gesso I usually use (Utrecht Art's house brand) is very thick and shiny.
Sounds great. Thanks for the info Ramie. I'll definitely check that out.
It turns out great, Eric.
I also transfer my sketch using projector. It's really handy:)
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