First of all I did a series of sketches in my sketchbook, this was the most successful and so I wanted a sketch like this but more refined on the painting.
Turns out it is a lot harder to paint this shape onto the painting than I expected!! Problems with the process of this experiment:
– No ruler used to measure proportions or draw straight lines. When the structures I was drawing were very geometric I used a ruler for everything and it guaranteed nice lines.
– I couldn’t think of any material that I could draw the structure with that was easily erasable when I made a mistake. The easiest was just going straight in with white acrylic paint, and wiping it away when I did something wrong. This is a slow process! And without being able to roughly mark the shape before I fill in the details I went very proportionally wrong very easily.
Problems with the finished painting:
– Structure is very curly and wobbly. The reason my geometric structures worked so well in the past was because they were angular and straight and so were a direct contrast to the curvy random blocks of colour.
– The legs are too thick. They draw too much attention. This just requires more patience for drawing very thin precise lines! Using a ruler would help a lot.
This is such an important part of my painting I need to get this process and drawing right!!!
Improvements for the next test:
– I had a grand idea last night: use an overhead projector to project an accurate drawing onto the painting! This should work far better.
– Use a ruler!
– Use one kind of paintbrush throughout so for now the lines are all the same thickness.
Georgina Harris 