This painting came about for two reasons – well three really if you
count the person who it is intended for. Ivan, my grandson asked for a
painting for his upcoming birthday in August. I will not be home at
that time so I had to do something before I left for my vacation.
But what would please an eleven year old boy? He’s no longer a little
child so nursery rhyme characters no longer cut it. Still he is a boy
so the subject of the painting couldn’t be something that would please
an adult. My son’s girlfriend suggested a fantasy landscape since that
is the kind of book Ivan is always reading… you know, things like Lord
of the Rings and the Narnia Chronicles. Then Dave , a member of Let's Make Art posted a
fantastic one minute video clip of a spray space landscape and the penny dropped. Of course
those spray artists do their job in seconds because their medium
permits it, but I reckoned something like that could be done with
acrylics and brushes… so off I went.
I started with a blank 16x16 (41x41 cm) canvas which I gessoed and
sanded twice even though it was already primed. And then using a pastel
pencil I laid down a very basic sketch just to see how the composition
would work.
The next step was colouring in some of the major elements – first to
start figuring out what colours would work and also in the hope that
once I started with the initial washes the major features might still
be a little visible – they were when backlit. This step however was
more useful in deciding that some features needed to be moved slightly
or eliminated completely.
Then I started working on the sky. I chose payne’s grey – straight from
the tube. A useful colour that is very close to black, so great for a
night sky, but also has that tinge of blue which was what I was looking
for. And then, using a tooth brush and thinned out paint I added
streaks of stars and nebulae. I used a flow medium to thin out the
paint rather than water since unlike water it does not thin out the
pigment. And I placed the streaks in such a way as to lead the eye to
my object of interest – the big planet placed in the upper right
intersection of the imaginary thirds.
Next came the planets. I used quite a bit of knife work on these –
actually I used a lot of knife work all over the painting though this
was a sort of learning curve. I chose blue for the smaller planet,
hoping to create in impression of distance and decided that my
imaginary light source was coming diagonally from the top right hand
corner.
Now it was time to tackle my object of interest so this had to be done
well. I experimented with a bit of texturing. Using a sort of curved
spatula that I have (which looks like a small metal shoe horn) I
applied the rim of the volcano – still working in the basic red colour
at this point. Then more texture using the knife. Once that was dry I
started adding more colours, shades and highlights. Still using the
knife I discovered that if I laid in the darker shades moving the knife
from the bottom towards the light source and then adding the highlights
moving the knife from the top down I obtained just the sort of effect I
needed.
Once the planets were painted in, I laid my templates again over the
larger ones (a medicine bottle cap and a roll of masking tape in my
case :D ) and once again spattered more stardust in white to make the
planets more pronounced.
At this point I wished this was the completed painting! The next steps I had not yet completely visualized in my mind’s eye.
But I was hardly a third into the painting yet so the strange spiked
mountains came next. These I blocked in with a mixture of dioxazine
purple with a touch of white. I
had intended to overlap the peaks of some of the mountains on the
planets in the interest of composition. I did it with the middle planet
but I couldn’t get myself to the same with the largest of them. Maybe
this was the correct decision, since had I interfered with it it might
have lost it’s strength as the center of interest.
With the mountains massed in – I added some darks although at this
point the light source became a little problematic. Granted, the major
light source was still from the top right but now there were also the
star streaks and nebulae to reckon with…. So from now on I decided to
just follow my instinct and go by what looked right.
So more knife work, more shades and highlights and the mountains
started to take shape. At this stage my major concern became depth...
so I added a mixture of grey to the purple of the further mountains to
try to deaden them a little so as to make them recede.
After this came a sleepless night!
How do I proceed? How do I transition from the eerie, cold background
to the more liquid and warm foreground. I thought and thought… and once
again decided to go by instinct. When the inspiration came it was a mad
final rush.
I wanted a warm foreground to make it come forward and also to
replicate the colours of the main planet. But what I came up with was a
little too glaring – so I added a very thin glaze of burnt sienna.
At this point I thought the painting was complete.
Still there was still something that was nagging me… something I could not really place my finger on.
Enter my very own personal critic – my dearest friend Deborah! That orange in the middle
was not working… and the banks in the foreground were still too garish.
Hmmmm… what to do? Simple really – another very thin glaze of
ultramarine blue to cool everything down a little but still retain some
warmth since ultramarine is not a very cool blue.
Now that looked better. And I could sign it!
This was a great challenge for me... it is the first painting I have
ever done totally from the imagination and without a reference.
Thankfully I was able to put all that I learned and experimented with
over the past year to some use. And it really was a wonderfully
liberating experience - the fun of painting without the slavery to a
reference.
Now just one question is left unanswered for the time being – will Ivan like it?
PS: I initially wrote this blog as a WIP for Let's Make Art. So, if you would like to see images of all the stages of the painting as it progressed you may do so following this link - unfortunately Zhibit only allows one image per blog post.
