The Triples.

I carried on with my large paintings on paper, 5 at the same time. I worked on top of the pink foreground I’d blocked out with a Dioxazine Purple wash, sketching in faces and bodies of women and girls, in threes, triples. It’s a very basic starting point. I’m working entirely from my imagination, no reference to real life at all.

I’m using Somerset paper (300 gsm, 56 x 76 cms) prepared with a coat of acrylic gesso. The paint is Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic and the brushes are Daler Rowney Gold Taklon.

Hairy Man.

I saw him at the Mondo Generator gig the other night. I was drawing legs, as I’ve been doing lately at metal gigs, but I thought his hair and beard were interesting enough to look up.

More Metal Legs.

Big shorts. Big feet.

Husb and I went to a heavy metal gig on Tuesday – yes it was a school night but it finished at 11pm so not too late. Mondo Generator played at The Bunkhouse, a tiny rock venue in Swansea. I couldn’t pass up the chance to see and hear the legendary Nick Oliveri play and sing. Of course I had to have a scribble. I’m getting into looking down at gigs now, and drawing people’s legs, I like the foreshortening, it’s a challenge. Still surpised at how enormous men’s feet seem to be.

Barbie Pink!

I carried on with the paintings I started the other day. I’m working on 5 at the same time. After blocking in a blue background onto prepared paper, I painted foregrounds in pink – I went to see the Barbie film at the weekend – maybe it influenced me 😀

I’m using Somerset paper (300 gsm, 56 x 76 cms) prepared with a coat of acrylic gesso. The paint is Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic and the brushes are Daler Rowney Gold Taklon.

Paintings And Rug.

The tops of three pieces of paper with bright blue paint on them are shown resting on a hand-made exotic rug made up of lots of spirals of coloured wool strips, like slices of a multi-coloured swiss roll.

I started painting onto some Somerset paper (300 gsm) with Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic. I’m not using any preliminary drawings, I have a vague idea of what I want and I’m going to see what the paint and the brush do. This lovely blue is the first stage. I left the large sheets to dry on my rug, which is pretty spectacular and I really should use it in an artwork sometime.

Ready To Slap It On!

I like my manky palette.

What am I up to? I’m pushing right out of my comfort zone, that’s what! This is the beginning of something very new. I hope it works. I’ve mixed up some Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paint – Titanium White with 2 Pthalo Blues – red hue and green hue. And I’m going to slap it onto some large pieces of gesso-ed Somerset paper (300 gsm).

Heavy Blue.

Dribbling Bideford Black.

Thinned-out Bideford Black over walnut husk ink over gesso.

I had a little bit left of the Bideford Black paint I made recently. It wasn’t a lot so I tried thinning it down with water and took a fairly wide, flat brush to make stripes across one of the sheets of paper I’d prepared with gesso and walnut ink. The Bideford Black wash broke up on the surface of the paper in a very pleasing way. I tipped the paper to get the dribbles running across it.

Surrealist Swirls.

Bideford Black and Walnut Ink.

I used the Bideford Black paint I made yesterday. I didn’t have any idea what to do. I’m trying to get away from always working representationally and letting my imagination take over. It’s way out of my comfort zone! I took a fairly wide, flat brush and made swirls over one of the sheets of paper I’d prepared with gesso and walnut ink. It’s a surrealist way of working and I don’t know where it’s going to take me, but I’m not going to worry about it.

The thick Bideford Black paint holds the marks of the brush.

Bashing Bideford Black.

1. Crushing the mineral. 2. Adding Nori paste and vodka. 3. Mixing to a thin paste.

After coating some sheets of paper with my home-made walnut ink yesterday, I decided to stay with natural pigments and make paint with some lumps of Bideford Black I’ve had lurking in a box for years. I’d made paint with it before, using water (here). This time I mixed it with Nori paste and vodka. It was much thicker than the previous water-based one. I’m going to use it on top of the walnut ink paper.

Prepping Paper.

Somerset paper, walnut ink.

I prepped some paper yesterday with gesso and my home-made walnut ink. I have to be careful with the ink as I am allergic to walnuts, proper anaphylactic stuff, so plastic gloves, mask and lots of ventilation are needed when I’m spreading it onto the paper. It seems ok to work with when it’s dry though. It’s quite smelly because it contains 20% surgical spirits (rubbing alcohol) to preserve it as it’s organic and grows mould without the alcohol.

Painting the ink over a coat of dry acrylic gesso.

The ink is made from the husks, the fruit around the actual walnut and gives a beautiful, colour-fast sepia ink. You can read how to make walnut husk ink here in one of my previous blog posts.