a
rough summary on how I go about painting.....
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Begin
with a really rough drawing, basically getting
the idea together but drawn so badly that you require
notations to remind yourself what it is you have
drawn(!). |
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Next
you work out your canvas size & buy the correct
sized stretcher & stretch the canvas over it.
Since real canvas isn't made any more, I buy 12 ounce
cotton duc. (note: real canvas is "cannabis",
mispronounced as canvas, which today is referred
to as hemp...!) I then apply 5 to 7 coats of gesso
onto the canvas. Then I go about drawing onto the
canvas. Because the texture is so coarse I use a
hard pencil usually H6 graphite. Then, when I finish
drawing, I wash off the pencil "dust" & whilst
still wet I paint another thin layer of gesso over
it sealing the pencil, which I "pad down" with
a cloth so that I can see the pencil lines. |
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I
then begin painting. With this one I began
on the "rib-like" aspects on the
top & then bottom; then I commenced on
the"breast-plate(!)"; then the machinery...
commencing from the top right & working
around. I am left handed. If I was right handed
I would begin from the top left.
One
important note: paint brushes. I use watercolour
brushes for my oil-painting. Indeed, they are
the key to smoothing & merging my tones.
Of particular importance is the broad flat
brush that I use for merging. These water-colour
brushes I use are imitation sable. Despite
what they tell you, they are not all the same.
Imitation sable is made of nylon. But a difference
in the micron thickness of the bristle, its
length, etc., dictate how much "spring" the
brush has & how coarse it may be.
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necrophagous.
oil on canvas. 1999
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© demetrios vakras
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