Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Painting in Progress



Here is a series of photographs that show the step-by-step process of my last painting. I started this quite by accident. I had applied red paint to a book I was altering but the paint was too watery so I took a canvas and wipe the paint on it. Then I filled in places with heavy gesso to add texture in the final painting. The red splotchy paint suggested a red horse which is something I've been wanting to paint so I blocked in a rough sketch of a horse and filled in the background with blue and a yellowish white. Once the horse was blocked in I began cleaning the lines and adding shading in a reddish brown all the while continually working the background. Finally, I added the details like the eyes, reinforced the shading and finished the background with the edge detailing. That's it!

I'm trying to document more of my process because I plan to apply to do different shows and often times you need works in progress photos. I plan to get better with the photos as you can see several of these are too dark...but there's always something to be learned.

3 comments:

Emily said...

That's really cool- I love seeing the process and reading about the why/the how/the what. I also really like the "Blanc Noir" painting:)

vectorstyle said...

i like your painting, is that canvas media?

Hilary Blackwood said...

Yes, this painting was done on stretched canvas. Thanks for looking!