HOME | DD

Description

Hi all,
this is part of the process to develop my "original" in acrylics for the 'Master Study to Original - November Challenge' of MasterStudiesAndMore , co-hosted by Inspiring-Creation and ThatArtGrind , following my Master Study Manuel Eraso .

The top image is the WIP and below there are two color/value studies I did to help me decide on how dark / light the figures and the background should be... I ended-up going for a mix, because I liked parts of both versions.

As to the process...

First I realized I am not ready to do an original nude : ) and thought dance was the next best thing to keep me within the Anathomy theme. I looked at quite a few photos of Tango dancers to help me with the proportions and composition. While I was still in the drawing phase I realized that the figure's heads were a bit big in relation to the rest of the bodies but I thought that exagerating them might be a good way to help attract attention to the faces and so decided to leave it like that.

In the canvas (about Letter ~ A4 size), I first applied a layer of gesso mixed with paint. Then transfered the drawing in graphite pencil. Then sprayed with Hair Sprair to avoid contaminating the paint with the graphite dust - that worked really well, there was not contamination (e.g. female dancer's face). There were undesired side effects though (I think due to the hair spray ):
1) wet on wet washes do not work well (e.g.: background, although I like the uneven effect that it left) 2) the layers of paint are not adhering to the media properly - they get easily damaged when applying a new layer on top, even with a soft brush.
So I'll have to consider carefully before using the hair spray with this media in future paintings.

I was trying to finalize the WIP because I want to move to a "Xmas gift project" ; ) but I was not able to, there is still much I want to do particularly on the skin, hands and man's head. I will probably only work on this painting again after Xmas but should still be in time to met the deadline. Otherwise I might finalize only after doing a few color studies, to better understand how to make the figures pop.

Description

Hi all,
this is part of the process to develop my "original" in acrylics for the 'Master Study to Original - November Challenge' of MasterStudiesAndMore , co-hosted by Inspiring-Creation and ThatArtGrind , following my Master Study Manuel Eraso .

The top image is the WIP and below there are two color/value studies I did to help me decide on how dark / light the figures and the background should be... I ended-up going for a mix, because I liked parts of both versions.

As to the process...

First I realized I am not ready to do an original nude : ) and thought dance was the next best thing to keep me within the Anathomy theme. I looked at quite a few photos of Tango dancers to help me with the proportions and composition. While I was still in the drawing phase I realized that the figure's heads were a bit big in relation to the rest of the bodies but I thought that exagerating them might be a good way to help attract attention to the faces and so decided to leave it like that.

In the canvas (about Letter ~ A4 size), I first applied a layer of gesso mixed with paint. Then transfered the drawing in graphite pencil. Then sprayed with Hair Sprair to avoid contaminating the paint with the graphite dust - that worked really well, there was not contamination (e.g. female dancer's face). There were undesired side effects though (I think due to the hair spray ):
1) wet on wet washes do not work well (e.g.: background, although I like the uneven effect that it left) 2) the layers of paint are not adhering to the media properly - they get easily damaged when applying a new layer on top, even with a soft brush.
So I'll have to consider carefully before using the hair spray with this media in future paintings.

I was trying to finalize the WIP because I want to move to a "Xmas gift project" ; ) but I was not able to, there is still much I want to do particularly on the skin, hands and man's head. I will probably only work on this painting again after Xmas but should still be in time to met the deadline. Otherwise I might finalize only after doing a few color studies, to better understand how to make the figures pop.