Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Dip


After the sketch, the picture has to get onto canvas. I used to do a lot of drawing with colored pencils, so I can copy what I see quite precisely. There's nothing tricky about it. I have some favorite pencils that I use that I'm running out of. For some reason, I really like the feel of some pencils that the Westin Hotel chain used to have and that I've been unable to purchase ANYWHERE. I was once at an event at one and went around taking all the ones I could find and ended up with about 75 of them. They are slowly all getting small though and I'm sad panicky about that.
Paint doesn't stick to pencil, so after drawing on the canvas, I have to prime it. I use a more or less equal mixture of gesso, matte medium and water, and long ago started referring to this mixture as "dip." Don't ask me why I named it after the murderous goo in a certain animated film, but I did.
The canvas is then mounted onto a temporary frame that is several inches larger than the final painting will be. The outer edges at the end will be folded around the outer edges of the final painting to give it a more finished look that i really like.
So this is where the painting is now. I have played with the contrast in the photo so that you can see the under-drawing better. In real-life it is actually quite faint. You can click on the picture to see a lot more detail.

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