Pages

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Wet, Messy, Carcinogenic, Fun!

Ah... Painting. I think I've finally figured out why it's been so hard to get myself into the studio.  I've written about this before. It's just no fun painting when you know exactly what it's going to look like.  Given enough time and expended energy I can make anything look however I want.  It ceases to be exciting! I can't toil away making paintings. Toiling is no fun. Toil.
But I feel I have found a solution! I know I can rework any parts of a painting I don't like. So why not just do it all faster? If it doesn't work out on the first layer I mix another and I won't have wasted time on unnecessary precision.  It's exciting and I don't always know if I'm going to do it right so it's challenging.  Plus it gets me great textures and that satisfying wet into wet look.
Honestly I had already found that this worked on smaller paintings.  I could do them quickly on not worry about it.  Taking it to a larger scale was intimidating. But I've found that part of the reason it was intimidating was because it just didn't seem to work.  There just wasn't enough paint to be spread that quickly over a large surface and I couldn't force myself to just start globbing half tubes of paint onto the canvas. The first two hours I painted today went by slowly and carefully. I had to stop after two hours. I was getting tired. I forced myself to at least paint a little bit more before wrapping up. Not long after I started again I realized I didn't need a lot of paint to paint quickly (and opaquely).  I mixed 1 part linseed oil with 3 parts mineral spirits and the colors glided on. The next two hours went by quickly and I only stopped so I wouldn't be stuck hungry in the studio too late and have to travel back home with it being colder outside than it already was.
...So anyway I think I can look forward to painting again.
Current Incarnation

One of the more useful fruits of procrastination I  finally have a convenient way to hold my brushes without becoming Wolverine. Made from a shallow card board box, the edge was caught on the door of the cabinet.  The brushes were then stabbed into it until snug.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Speed painting!
Your makeshift brush holder is also really cool.

RavenQ42 said...

I'm digging the current form of that painting- interesting to compare it to the layers that came before it :)

Speed Painting sounds cool! :) I'd like to see it in action sometime when I come home! (Counting down the exams :D) I'm glad you're re-inspired and I'm excited to see what comes of it :3
Oh and just don't let Dan know your Speed Painting is "tool assisted" xD (see what I did there?...cause you use paintbrushes...which are tools and...and...they assist you...)

So anyway- "Stabbed until snug"...
Is that kinda like the "Salt to Taste" for those homicidal types?....xD

Also, Toil...it is a funny word when you repeat it enough, isn't it? Toil.

Steven said...

It's not speed painting. It's just faster than I typically paint (Which can be really slowly). Working faster just gives me the freedom to slow down for the more interesting parts.

...

The puns have to stop. Please.