Intro to Painting

When I look at all of my work together, I notice that I went outside of my comfort zone and survived. I never had the chance, the motivation or the basic knowledge to paint with thick paint. With this class, I was able to start from small scale assignments and move on to bigger ones. Thanks to this I don’t yet have a painting that I want to hide under furniture. I am especially happy about learning how to work on canvas.

I had the chance to experiment with a couple of aspects of painting. I always use cool colors, even if it is red. Therefore, the first thing that I tried was using warm colors in the painting with a girl and a desk. In that painting, one of the challenges I had was to mix the colors right, to give a shadow effect. However, the colors looked dull and greyish and looked off when I put them on canvas. This made me keep in mind that I need to try out colors on another page before. Painting them side by side helps me stay on track with the color warmth or coolness. It serves as a visual assistant.

The second thing that I notice is that I worked within different domains. The first painting is abstract, with a lot of gestural brush strokes. The second painting has a lot of flat areas where I had to mix colors for each small area, but eventually, I painted without thinking about these clean lines. I didn’t focus on the girl as the center of the position but for the first time, I put a table and plants, to expand the subject.

The third painting is special to me, as it is the first-ever canvas that I put together and to honor that I just went with my gut feeling. I mixed a color that I love, baby blue, and did random brush strokes, saw some meaning in them and built on it. The last one, which is a painting that is not done and won’t be done for some time, unlike the other ones. This is because I want to feel that I have accomplished an important goal with that painting, which is a glimpse of reality. It can be around the eye area or the skin, but I would like one item to just ‘pop’ and amaze the viewer/me.

Working with acrylic is full of surprises to me. The fact that it is fast drying is an advantage in terms of carrying the setup around. Whereas with an oil painting, it would be very easy to ruin it while carrying it between school and home. One disadvantage of acrylic paint is that if I ever have a paint buildup, for example when painting the face, I tend to overlook that spot. After a while, I realize that removing it or keeping it there is against my wishes. Either case it looks off. I find acrylic forgiving, as it is easy to wipe the layers and paint on top. I can’t wipe the remainings of paint between the canvas texture but that is still better than ruining a watercolor paper. I am trying to overcome this paint buildup challenge by being more mindful of the moment that I am spending working on the canvas. I tend to rush when painting, so now I try to be gentle while being efficient with time.

I learned from my friends that I tend to draw fantastical subjects, fairytales, and overall a story-telling image. This is difficult to do on canvas because I have the urge to add small details with a Micron pen. However, the paint eventually ruins the pen. I learned that I don’t necessarily need a pen to shape the story. I can also communicate it by directly putting paint on canvas. I had tons of questions in my mind before I painted the girl and her plants. I would like to try one day the extremely clean lines that Mondrian painted, now that I saw that it is possible.

I would like to paint more with vivid colors and impasto. Seeing Van Gogh’s acid green paintings in the Met Museum, as well as a book with protruding pages from the canvas, had a great impact on me. I think his style looks very spontaneous, and I believe he is still being spontaneous while having his technique perfected to the point that it is very instinctual for him.

Another challenge that I have is creating a composition that fills the whole canvas with color. I noticed that artists tend to paint the base a color that later on gives the whole painting a hue. This is useful in having harmony in the painting. This can look monotonous and bland as well, so I realized that balance in everything is key to creating something that feels right and finished. Putting the figures and objects in a balanced composition is another challenge but taking a photograph of the painting enhances the way I see in 2D, whereas my eyes don’t perceive the imbalance in anatomy or composition.

I want to paint things that are inspired by paintings that I admire as a whole so that I can take things that I love and interpret them in my way. As I do with watercolor, this will hopefully give me the freedom and skills to create something original without going through the problem-solving stages while painting ideas that I am emotionally invested in.

Overall I wanted to put together a portfolio that shows diversity in technique and subject.