Rory's Hands, Oil Painting 8in x 10in.

Well, this week I have learnt a lot about paint, though, mostly how NOT to do things. Which is still learning nonetheless. I have been working on a painting of hands, the attraction being the skin tones, but didn't I only decide to have the hands playing the piano... So the great majority of time was spent on painting the piano keys - WHAT a nightmare. You'd think after all these years that I'd see the nightmare bits coming, but, oh no. I'm just Attracted To Things, and away I go... It didn't take long to dawn on me that the task was rather larger than I'd expected, once I started the white-keys-black-keys. Black paint loves to smudge. You only have to glance at it from across the room, and oops, it smudges itself.
And how to get a straight edge - I mean a REALLY straight edge? I decided to try masking it off. It took all morning to cut the stuff out, and the idea was loosing its appeal, but it worked well-ish, until I started peeling it off, and most of the glue from the tape stayed on my board. Sigh. I 'solved' this by liberally slathering black paint on top, and thought I was a genius. How wrong... The painting was too wet to continue, so I decided to have a tidy up and run the vacuum cleaner round. I know, what was I THINKING? When I went back to the painting next day, sure enough, all the thick black paint had turned into a Fluff Magnet.  For the entire street...

You see my difficulty. Anyway, I got there in the end, and while it may seem good to have a reason not to vacuum, the down side is, it means slow-motion mopping instead. It'll be at least a week till the painting dries. Have you ever seen pictures of Francis Bacon's Studio? Total mess. Now I know why. Try explaining that to your mother.. 

(the colour is far from true in this photo, but I can't move it for better light, see above...)

                                Tip - don't use anything sticky on your painting.

Next Up: Monthly Mondays Drawing and Painting, Killaloe, Co Clare, Ireland
Portrait Drawing, Dublin, Ireland
Water Colour Workshop, Dublin, Ireland.
Two day Oils Workshop, Dublin, Ireland
Email for info. julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

COPYRIGHT - just a refresher for all. The copyright on everything in this blog belongs to me - words and pictures, unless otherwise indicated. This means you may NOT copy it, print it out, or paint from it, or even mimic the layouts, without my permission. It would be theft. Rest assured, I wouldn't dream of stealing anything from you. On the contrary, here I am, sharing!
Copyright is a legal issue, and its Interesting Neighbour, Plagerism, is a very large and emotive subject, and one that causes argument, particularly among students, and one which I won't discuss here.  Except, to remind you that, whether you agree with it or not, Copyright means the Right To Copy has not been granted.
As I said in my last post, half the pleasure is in Seeing the things around you, and Your vision is spectacular. Trust yourself!