Every once in a while, I remember to take photos of a painting in the various stages. This is a little easier than when I had to haul out my camera, set up the tripod and all that. Now, my Precious…um…I mean my smart phone with a damn good camera is usually close at hand. I can not only take a quick photo, make sure what I photographed is usable, but also do minor edits right in my phone.
My current WIP is (yet) another look back in time at the now 6 years departed Mehitabel: cat; goddess; princess; ruler of the kingdom. I was remembering the other day how, when I was out gardening in the far reaches of my vast estate (five wooded acres in the PNW) she would decide she needed my attention and come running down the driveway quacking at me. I miss that.
Anyway…
A friend gave me some watercolor ground to try out and I decided I liked it so I got more. It comes in multiple colors, including white and clear, so I got some of each. The ground allows you to work on surfaces that you normally wouldn’t do watercolors on, but it also allows you to change the quality of the paper, even if you are working on watercolor paper. It doesn’t soak into the ground like it does paper, so if you want to move the paint around, it gives you the chance to do that.
It also takes pencil really well and is a tough surface that allows you to dissolve the pencil with alcohol, or water, if that’s the kind of pencil you’re using.
Because I already had a line drawing on this panel, I used the clear ground right over the drawing, then drew more shading and detail over the ground.
This image shows the next stage, after I used a brush dipped in rubbing alcohol the dissolve the pencil, which made the darks stronger. The image is from a photograph I took after I had set up a still life to paint from, and Mehitabel thought it would look so much better with a cat in it. As usual, she was right.
Next I added some watercolor. This painting is destined to have oil paint as the final layers. Someone asked me why start working in watercolor, if you are going to eventually use oils? In a word, drying time. Okay, that was two words, but you get my drift. Far too many times I’ve done an underpainting in oils only to screw it up when I went back in to work on it before it was dry, and made a muddy mess, that I would have to let dry much longer or wipe the whole thing off and start over.
I decided the background was too light so changed it in this stage, as well as deepening some of the colors.
I went back in and lifted and softened some of the paint. I’m trying not to get too tight in the early stages of a painting, so it’s nice to be able to re-wet and scrub out some of the definition.
I’m now working with oil paint, having put a thin coat of sealer on the watercolor. As I look at these preliminary layers, I can see that I’ve gotten too dark in the oil painting and will need to go in and lighten some areas. I’ll post more next week as I finish this painting.
Meanwhile, here’s a painting I finished last month from the same group of photos I took when Mehitabel showed me the errors of my ways.
This one is called Mehitabel Hidden and can be seen at the Rob Schouten Gallery in Langley, where it is on display right now.
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No doubt in my mind. You know exactly what you are doing. I love your descriptions of bringing Mehitibel to life in
glorious color. Mehitibel in hiding is just wonderful. I can just see that little kitty thinking what is my Mommee doing and is it something to eat? And for me?
Just so glad to see this great post on how you create! What a great thing it is to read about how an artist’s mind works and the discipline it takes. And then you get to play with pandas!🐼❤️
Love the texture you got on the cats fur! Lovely color balance too!! Great description of how you work and why!!! Bravo!!!!