I often paint canvases two at a time. This gives me more scope to roam, contemplate and assuage the temptation to rush. When frustrated, I swap to looking at the other image which is typically at a different stage. Surrounding all of this is the idea that, and as Bob Ross would say “Everyone should have a friend”. Although I don’t typically paint pairs as diptychs per se, I do think about how they might look when hung together.
I recently felt like painting two individual sitting figures, hanging in space. Unlike my more usual process where I typically work background and foreground together, my idea was that if I could paint the figure without resorting to external correction, the figures would float. The problem was in keeping the figures gestural, without getting marks outside the planned envelope for the figure itself: Quite unlike my normal approach where I get paint in all the “wrong” places at the start and move things around as I go.
I became interested in both poses through a couple of life drawing sessions. I often nest quick poses together, superimposing somewhat longer ones towards the end. In these Covid times, the sessions were virtual live-model sessions from a life modeling website. I was drawn to two poses: marginally unusual, perhaps introverted (the female one anyway) and certainly reflecting the quietness I tend to have a feeling for.
I worked up a couple of drawings to develop the poses. This can be a complicated process as I fill out details from a range of references. I could hire models (in normal times anyway) and that might make things easier, however I never exactly copy poses anyway, preferring to interpret them so that the result is plausible, however subtly unlikely, somewhat exaggerated, and maybe even impossible.
I tackled the background in acrylic. I’ve recently been layering translucent glazes to get a subtle changing effect. Dark but not black. Not uniform but not explicitly formed either. In each glaze I get a rhythm of brushstrokes going and let my eye decide when to stop – when nothing stands out from the canvas.
Each figure was transferred from my drawing in chalk – which just disappears when painted. As is usual for me, neither figure looked right following transfer so I made changes on the full size canvas. You can never truly see the effect until it’s there, full size, on a real canvas. I then got out my oils and with one brush loaded with half mixed mid-tone, I began: testing at first, placing more than brushing, then a second similar brush joined in for darks, a third for lights. By the time I finish, I may have 10 brushes out and scraped down some passages with a palette knife.
Now….where to hang them?!
Break-a-Brush!
David