Painting experiments with texture

After the introduction to colour theory, (see previous post), we do some exploration in terms of

Texture.  So we get to play with paint! Yeaaaah!

Terms such as Impasto and Scraffitto are mentioned (laying the paint on thickly and scratching into the surface layer to reveal colour below)....Its important to forget about realism, and just experiment!

That said, Impasto can be very useful in doing eyebrows or noses for example, as it brings them forwards.  

Here are a couple of demos Ciara, our teacher did:

She used the palette knife, fairly obviously, especially to the background.  Note the hatching marks

on the forehead.  We experimented using edges of cardboard, Sticks and scrunched up tissue. 

Sometimes colour is mixed on the portrait, sometimes not.  I love the colours on this portrait.

C painted directly on to an image which was done using the Gum Arabic technique.  Look at that turquoise background! revealing a yellow layer beneath.

Fab.

See handout on Simulcra.

We also watched a video link about an artist, Gerhard Richter, who works on an enormous scale, using giant squeegees, sliding across his canvas.  Unpredictable results.  Thats good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF6EluMNR14

apply the paint as blobs, then slide the squeegee across!

Another aspect of our paint texture experiments was creating an A1 sheet, subdivided into about 16 or so smaller squares, on which we did our tests.  So, wet on wet, wet on dry, pva glue applied on to a wet/dry underlayer, scraffitto, etc etc.

Here is my progression through this task:

All of this is incredibly helpful in building up a sort of repertoire of possible effects 

that can be created, which may be useful when painting hair, or the sea....

Moving on, here are some of my first self portraits, working directly on prints.

Remember, realism was not the objective, rather, working from darks initially, then through the midtones and ending with the lights.  Once more, a limited palette of just 2 darks and 2 lights.  These varied though, so that in some of the paintings I used Ultramarine Blue, and on others I used Prussian Blue.  Likewise, I sometimes used Lemon Yellow, and at others, Cadmium Yellow.  Also the background colour varied from Ochre to Red.

Red Background, Cadmium Yellow and Prussian blue; some umber

Here I used Ultramarine, Lemon Yellow and Raw Umber.                    Some white too.  I like this one.

 I THINK Cadmium Yellow with white, also Prussian Blue.  Ochre background. Some brushwork, some stippling, some combing.

Here I used mainly tissue work, some brush strokes.  Not sure what the palette was.  Perhaps Prussian Blue and Lemon Yellow.  White. 

This series of portraits I found really useful to look back on when starting the next BIG one!