A Peek Behind The Opal Door
I am particular about my process.
I wanted to share a breakdown or a “Behind the Scenes” of how I create my art from start to finish. It’s taken a lot of exploration, trial and error, and advice from mentors and artists who inspire me to cultivate this practice for myself.
Read on for a peek behind the curtain.
The Nature of Things
I love visual stimulation. Not from television or my phone, though. While those things are nice to pass the time every now and again, I gain inspiration by actually seeing real things. This can include going for a walk outside, seeing faces, seeing pets. Even a glass of water or coffee cup, the colour in my paint water and how the light reflects off of it.
I ask myself:
How can I capture this?
How do I depict the same light reflection?
How do I show someone else what I see?
That’s the starting point: visual stimulation. I always take photos because I have a hard time drawing or painting in the moment. I need time to study it and think about what people need to see and take away from the image.
Sometimes I’ll use copyright-free photos that I find online using my various resources. It’s important to me not to infringe on anyone’s rights. Either way, I gather multiple images so that I can create a series.
Capturing the Essence
The next step is editing. I use a photo editor called GIMP. It’s free and an excellent program for graphics, photo manipulation, editing, etc. I have a series of steps that I go through so that I can re-create, visually, what I remember from the moment where I actually experienced what I took a photo of.
That often means fully saturating the colours. I can’t leave the photo grey or pale. I have to fully sharpen the image as well so that there is no graininess. I play with contrast and light so that I can fully see the details of the photo. It’s very hard to see mountain details and can be overwhelming to look at. I’ll play with the hue, and sometimes I try to push things into other hues to get a colour that may be different from what I witnessed, but is more accurate for what I want to create for the viewer.
I take great care to pick the focal point of the photo for my painting. I don’t allow the photo to determine the focal point itself.
I do this for all of the photos at the same time and save them to my desktop.
Customizing Colour
After the photos are edited, I select the colour palette that I will use for the series.
I use the colour selection tool in my software to click on different areas of the photo and see which colours are making up what you will be seeing on the painting. People don’t realize how many different colours can go into the sky. It’s not just blue.
Photos are so flat and I want my paintings to have depth and reach. I want it to look like you can walk into it. To create the 3D corridor, I have to be able to determine which colours go where and how they translate across the image.
I create colour palettes based on how they mix with each other and how that coordinates with the painting I want to do. I have created about 100 different colour charts. Of those charts, I’ve created more specific colour palettes. I will take one shade of blue, red, yellow and mix to get all of the various hues and shades. This helps me know how the paints will interact with each other.
Every now and again, I’ll break the palette charts to customize certain colours or pull in ones that weren’t already in there. Oftentimes, I will mix the paints to create a colour, but in some instances, I may want to pull in a paint that is already that colour. For example, instead of mixing the blue and yellow in a palette to make green, I may want a particular shade of green from another palette. So, I’ll pull that in.
Since I’ve done this so many times, I have a great grasp of what palettes work where, and which ones will enhance the series the most. They have allowed me to save so much money, time and energy.
Around the same time as choosing a colour palette, I pull out my art journal and draw the paintings that I want to create. Sometimes, I do thumbnail sketches on one page to get a rough idea of what I plan to focus on.
The Right Surface
Now, I head to my surface wall to select a canvas. I choose carefully based on which size and shape will go best with the composition. Two different methods may arise from here:
I put a primer on the canvas, draw a horizontal line and start painting.
If I need to be really specific, I will draw on the canvas in graphite and then paint over it with a clear Gesso. This seals the pencil layer and prevents it from smudging while I paint.
When you put Gesso onto the canvas, it becomes a flat surface that really grabs the paint. That’s my favourite way to do it and it’s a step that’s well worth it!
I will do all of the canvases this way before I start actually painting them. I create an assembly line to get everything prepped and it takes 24 hours to set. Usually by the time I’m done prepping the last canvas, the first one is ready for me to start painting.
Time to Paint
When I start a painting, I pour my water bucket and go through my selection of paint brushes to pick what I need for the project. I am very particular in how I store and use them. I wash them very carefully after every use and I store them flat.
One of my favourite artists taught me to lay the brushes flat so that the ferrules don’t rust, the glue doesn’t let go and the bristle’s don’t splay. These are all problems that can happen when brushes are stored standing on their end. I paint the trays that I store my brushes in. I paint and decorate all of the functional things in my studio.
I usually use very affordable brushes. Even though I don’t spend a lot of money on tools if I can help it, I am reliant on them and I take great care to maintain them. If a tool does not work well, it gets given away or I suffer though until it gets broken.
The medium that I’m working with will determine which colours I start painting with. For acrylics, I start with the darkest colours, painting the components of the image that are the furthest away. Then, I work my way forward with lighter colours. For watercolour, ink, charcoal and graphite, it works best for me to start with the lightest colours and get darker.
I use a lot of acrylic medium with acrylic gels and pastes. These are additional things added to paint to create texture. It tends to beef up the painting a bit to add more punch. I love texture and what it adds to the painting. It’s hard not to touch it, though!
The Final Touches
Once all of the paint is onto the canvas, I don’t varnish. The Smithsonian doesn’t recommend varnishing paintings and I trust their advice. The product that they use to take off yellowing varnish will also take off the paint. We don’t want that!
I sign my paintings in the same paint or product I used in its creation. I understand that some artists use a template to ensure their signatures are identical, but I personally don’t subscribe to that practice. My signature is as individual as I am, and however my signature turns out on the canvas is how it was meant to be. I hide symbols and meaning, sometimes I hide signatures!
Once I sign it, I tend to stop and look at it for a day or two in order to make any touch ups. But more often than not, when I’m done, I’m done. I don’t like to mess with the painting too much after it’s signed.
I’m going to be exploring some new methods and techniques soon. I’ll provide an update on my process once I’ve had more time to play.
