Study: Making the Painting ‘The Call’
I thought it would be interesting to follow a painting from start to finish. The subject is a woman making a call on her cell phone, hence the title–The Call.
1. Mechanics
The 36″ x 48″ painting is on cotton canvas. I primed it (I nearly always prime my own canvases) with three layers of acrylic gesso, and one (the final layer) of an oil-based primer. Each layer was sanded to a smooth finish.
2. The Drawing
The drawing was done with a 2H pencil then gone over with India ink. Drawings for paintings are unusual–more like maps than finished drawings. Some borders/areas are delineated as a guide for painting rather than for finishing the drawing–around the knees, for example, and the shadows on the pediment behind the subject’s right arm.
The Call Drawing Finished
I don’t treat the underlying drawing like a finished artwork in itself, but some artists do. For me, this type of drawing is about decision making. I try to ‘see’ the form, to understand the shapes and their relationships to one another. I make some relationships unambiguous; I let some remain ambiguous; some I deliberately make so. Where one shape ends and another begins is largely judgement. The more decisions made during design, the more time I can concentrate on pure painting later.
3. Ground
The rag-applied ground of neutral gray (black, white, and raw umber), was thinned with a mixture of copal varnish, drying linseed oil, a siccitive, and paint thinner. The ground was applied thinly so the underlying drawing would remain visible, as can be seen in this photograph. The ground obliterates the pencil drawing, which is why I go over the drawing with ink beforehand.
Closeup, drawing visible through of the ground
While the ground covers the entire surface, I don’t apply it too evenly. Irregularities can be interesting. The ground’s purpose is to speed the painting process by providing a neutral tone to work against. It can be left visible in places to enhance overall harmony. In the past I used a warmer ground tending to brown or orange (burnt sienna).
I will let the ground dry for a week or so before starting the actual painting.
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