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.
