Initial considerations
When starting a painting I try to consider my subject, form and content. The what, the how and the why.
- Subject - the what
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First the what not. I'm not good at painting complex textures (yet) so I find landscapes full of foliage difficult. My architectural landscapes are better but I sometimes feel the art belongs to the architect and I'd be cribbing from them. Still lifes can be fun but unless they tell a good story they can feel a bit contrived and a bit… static.
I like painting portraits of both people and animals. I particularly like spending my time looking at pretty girls so I think we have a winner.
- Form - the how
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I like both acrylics and oil paints. Once they're varnished they're pretty much indistinguishable. The drying time is the deciding factor. . Acrylics dry fast you don't have so much time to work with them. Being rushed is unpleasant. Oils dry slowly and you may have to wait a good while between layers. So a first layer of acrylics followed by over layers of oils hits the sweet spot.
I've been admonished for painting on small canvas boards so I'm also scaling up somewhat to a large stretched canvas.
- Content - the why
- This painting won't have a message as such - I don't need any pretext to paint a pretty girl. The lighting drives the character of a painting, I'd like to go for dramatic chiaroscuro. I may throw a few momento-mori items too.
I'm lucky enough to know some beautiful models through going to life drawing sessions. I invited @FrancqisFlow to my home for a photo shoot and got some great images. She was a delight to work with.
Editing the subject image
I think this similar photo from the same session is a little better. It features a lovely piece of satin covering the chair which will be fun to paint, her legs are crossed in an elegant but slightly provocative way and her face is turned towards the viewer.
Although the background is very dark it's still possible to discern the cloth backdrop. There's also some wall and furniture visible on the right hand side. The first edit will be to remove these distractions, I'll just paint over them with black.
The white patches on the hide rug are a little too prominent and draw the eye so these will have to go too. I'll use the clone stamp tool to copy sections of the darker parts of the hide over the top.
I use GIMP - the Gnu Image Manipulation Program. As good as Photoshop but free.
Better. The table with the candle and singing bowl (and her iPhone 😖) doesn't add much will have to go too.
Now that the white spots on the rug are gone I think it can be brightened and warmed. I'll copy the layer and add a mask to hide everything but the rug, then use the curves tool to add a little to the value and red channels.
The bits and pieces on the floor to the left look interesting so they can be brightened too. Chances are that I'll change them to some more classic momento mori paraphernalia later.
Next I'm going to warm her skin tones a little. Another layer, another mask, another curves tool tweek.
Nice.
Next I'm going to brighten the satin a bit.
Another layer, another mask. This is with the value curve changed. Too much. I can use the RGB channel curves to change the colour of the satin.
Red is nice. Let's try blue...
Good. Green next...
Cool.
If I've got red, green and blue versions of the satin I can use the opacity controls to mix them together.
Red and blue for purple.
Mucking about with the curves can give the look of black plastic. Interesting but no.
Mucking abut with them even more can generate the look of an iridescent material.
I rather like this dark bronze look.
Perhaps with just a smidge of the iridescent layer to give some colour interest. It looks like oiled metal.
the same trick can add a little colour interest to her skin, her clothes and the fur.
Finally I've added a background. This is the woodwork over the portal of the Ã…l Stave church, Hallingdal, 1100, from the Kulturhistorisk museum (Oslo, Norway).
I got the photo from here so it might have been taken by The Viking Queen. I'll have to ask her permission to use it. She seems nice though, so prolly won't be a problem.
