Yellow Jumper
9 x 12"-ish, Acrylic on Paper
3 February 2008
I've been sketching variations on this image for a few weeks. It's part of a theme that I am developing, involving frozen or floating or flying or falling or flailing figures.
I started this piece as a way to test out a material that I was unfamiliar with: Golden's Fiber Paste. This is a paste that dries into a fibrous surface, somewhat like handmade paper. You can mix it with acrylic paint, to give a colored paste that dries into a surface, or you can apply the paste, let it dry, and then paint over it.
Here I used the paste mixed with yellow to paint in the figure; the yellow in the title refers to this color. After I painted the background, the figure needed touch-up, and the yellow I was using (Turner's Yellow) wasn't opaque enough to do the job. I decided to paint over the figure with an opaque white. I also wanted a stronger texture on the figure, so I then applied another layer of the paste, this time without the color, as I wanted some parts to be colors other than yellow.
The background has a serious blob of paint left of the figure's top leg, and I will have to take some sandpaper to that to get rid of it. That will mean that the background near there will need repainting, but I'll have to mix the background colors again anyhow, as I'll have retouching to do around the figure once it is painted.
My paintings are always infused with meaning for me, and this one is no different. I tend to not reveal my exact meanings to folks, as it's much more entertaining (and thought-provoking) to let them read what they will into the imagery.
I'm currently thinking about adding a new section to this site, with an artist's statement of some sort, and maybe a suggested guide to thinking about my paintings and my symbolism...this painting would serve as a good example for such a guide. But don't hold your breath waiting for that section. Things have a habit of taking a long time around here.
4 February 2008
I had a bit of time, so I sanded down the blob I didn't like, and put the yellow back on the figure.
I'm thinking that I'm going to paint the figure so that it appears more three-dimensional. I also think I'm going to make the background glossy, to further build contrast between it and the figure.
6 February 2008
I detailed the figure tonight, and repainted the background where needed. While processing this photo of the painting for the web, I sharpened the heck out of the photo to bring up the textures, and tried to make sure the colors were more accurate. I'm not sure if I succeeded on the latter point; I think the magentas are too hot.
I don't particularly like the way the feet/shoes turned out, and I will probably repaint or add detail to them.
8 February 2008
I finished this up tonight. Last night I did a lot of retouching, and to make the figure stand out more, I added a coat of gloss varnish to the background.
I didn't really like the way the brushstrokes showed in the varnish, so this evening I applied another coat, this time thinning it with water so it would smooth out more. It's better, but still not at smooth as I wanted. I decided not to fiddle with it any more, though, because the paper is buckled. Buckling is one of the problems with working on paper, especially cheapo lightweight paper like I used for this. Varnishing, particularly with a thin runny varnish, is difficult on a ground with buckling, as the resulting hills and valleys cause the varnish to pool. Stretched canvases don't have this problem.
I do like the gloss background with the very matte, papery figure, though.
