During my last crit at varsity Ian pointed out an area in my painting (Fig 1) he liked the best... the area I'd done least on! It was very brush stroke-y, semi glaze semi scumble with the colour underneath showing through.
For a moment I felt very deflated (understatement) but then picked their brains on how to move forward. I had to agree with them that I was focusing too much on colour and not enough on tone so I spent the next few weeks learning as much as I could about tonal painting, techniques of the old masters, grisaille etc. I chose to work on the fig again in order to be able to compare it with the first fig painting at the end and then with great trepidation took it to varsity for another crit.
Oh joy! How wonderful it is to be told you've made big strides in the right direction. I wasn't 100% pleased with it. Not enough brush stroke marks, not enough of the background colours showing through the tonal painting and I overdid the glazes and highlights but still, I understand the principles and feel confident moving forward.
So I'd started by wiping excess paint from my brushes onto the canvas, layering the colours and along turps to drip creating gorgeous colour combinations and textures
Sad to start losing some of these colours and textures when beginning to paint the fig in zinc white and Vandyke brown. Not really happy with how it's looking.
Bringing some more colour into the painting. Again not happy but some interesting things happening in areas where the background colours show through.
Cover the whole thing with a burnt sienna glaze. Aah feeling better. The colours all blend together better, feeling more harmonious.
Start with the zinc white and Vandyke brown combination again for the tonal (grisaille) painting. Again some interesting areas but not happy. The zinc white isn't working here.
Close up
Even worse when I put a glaze on top. Take it all off!
But some interesting marks. Remember this for another time.
Sad to be losing this. Love some of what is happening here under the grisaille.
Back to titanium white for the grisaille tonal painting. Here are the shades I used. Actually I had 9 shades by the time I started.
Yes looking a lot better and I love the colour underneath showing through.
A bit further along
Not sure about starting to paint the background here as I love that rich background colours but as this is an exercise I carry on. I could leave this another time.
Almost finished with the tonal grisaille painting apart from some more in the background.
After adding a pinkish glaze using transparent alizarin crimson, pthalo blue and indian yellow. I actually don't like it as much as before the glaze but again as it is an exercise I continue.
A close up of the fig trunk. Funny how at different times of the day the fig changes from having an overall pinkish tinge to a greenish tinge...
Close ups before the first glaze. I'm really liking the brush stroke marks and under painting showing through. With the glazes I lost some of this detail so could have exaggerated the tones and brushstroke marks some more perhaps. I could also have left the glazing away from the darkest darks and lightest lights.
After the second greenish glaze
For the highlights I tried this colour first. On the painting it looked far too light
so I went darker
and darker.. Still too light
and darker. I'm very surprised I have to go this dark for the final highlights to get
this...
There are areas I am pleased with and areas I am not so pleased with but what a journey and so much learned...
