Elesym V.

Not a great final picture, sorry! There is a better image in a later blog post.

This piece is very different from the previous painting. I wanted to work in an opposite way, after it was suggested that I try to work freer and oil paint was the best way to do this. I also decided that I would not use a flat colour and chose to blend coloured patches, as I have not quite managed to master that technique with oils. However, yes, I know, practice makes perfect…

The only same part of this painting is that I used the stencil tracing for the skull again. I then worked up layers of washes on it and in doing this, I realised why I used to have a small select colour palette. Too many colours makes it really complicated and you have to think more about which colours you are using for shadows etc. I still kept building them up until I was satisfied with a point to leave it at.

It is a recycled canvas, which I think I have mentioned before, from a friend. You can still see some of the previous painting that they had painted within the white space. After the washes on the skull shape, I thought it would be best to stop. To cover it I would have had to use white acrylic, which would have been better to do before starting the painting and it would have left it a flat colour. I feel this would have looked out of place. With how it is, it possibly looks like a porthole and a foggy landscape outside, then obviously the strange shape floating in the middle.

I think it appears unfinished and I am fine with that. I can still go back to it at a later point if I wish to.