I knew I had to give in and work with my brushes and acrylics for the class, so I dove in and started with a suggestion the teacher gave us… use washes. Frankly, I believe I only have half an understanding of this technique and my level of patience in working the slow build-up of tones isn’t always the greatest. However, I started with some very diluted and muted colours, as you see them here. I wasn’t sure what to add on next, so I decided to walk aways for a few minutes and come back to it. That walk away turned into a full twenty-four hours and when I came back to it, I wasn’t any closer to knowing what to add next. So, I decided to unpack what I liked and didn’t like about it.
My conclusion was that seen as a rough sketch, I caught the essence of my self when I posed. I both liked and didn’t like it. I liked that it felt like me. I didn’t feel it was yet complete as I wanted it to be, but brush-work wasn’t going to get me farther towards my uncertain vision; I wanted to use a pallet knife. I knew it wouldn’t work as well on this paper, so I chose to leave this one as a rough sketch and start a new painting on a larger, more solid surface and using a pallet knife.
A big learning moment for me here was that I have a real affinity for Fauvism and the loose movements of Expressionism. It works so well for portraits. It allows me to capture the emotional-energy moment of the subject.
Dimension: 17” (43.2cm) x 14” (35.6cm)
Materials: Acrylic Paint on Watercolour Paper
Prints & more available at Arts MPerron @ https://1-mario-perron.pixels.com
The New Renaissance Mindset 