Painting, Molly style.

I often get asked how I "come up with the ideas" for a painting, how I know what will work on a canvas, and generally, just how I work. I really like seeing this on other artists, so I'll show you through a painting. It's oil, so it will take a while, be prepared!

People usually assume that I paint from a photograph, which I do occasionally, but for the most part, I rearrange things I've seen in person, in a magazine or just a random picture, combining a few elements from many different sources. Other times, I just draw and see what happens.

Such was the case today. I wanted to use a canvas measuring 15" x 30", so I drew a few boxes in my sketchbook to get the dimensions going through my head. When I do this type of drawing, I usually just aim for a composition that pleases the eye - it is kind of the secret to ANY decent work. I generally never draw these with the intention of making a tree or a flower or whatever, I kind of let shapes happen, then try to join them. I don't use color here, and I don't use anything erasable. I used a pencil here, but I intentionally didn't even let myself have an eraser. I draw with a Sharpie, intending purely to lay out dark shapes, which will in turn form the light shapes. I check a few basic composition rules in my head, decide if I really want to break any of them, then do another with changes here and there until I'm basically satisfied with the overall layout. By the way, breaking a composition rule is HARD to do. I usually try to do something to fix it so I'm not breaking the rules.

Here's an example of my composition/value sketches:


The top one is the predecessor to the bottom, and the bottom one still needs a little work, but I'll show the final sketch shortly.

Once I decide on the composition, I prepare whatever support - usually canvas or linen. This particular one is cotton canvas, which came pre-stretched into its dimensions. I usually like to stretch my own canvas (it's cheaper and I can control the quality), but this one was on sale a while back at only $7 so I jumped on it. Usually, it goes for about $35, I was rather proud of this deal. I prepared this one by sanding the surface a little, then adding an additional coat of ordinary chalk gesso. I hate that stuff, by the way. It's the only part of my job that I don't like doing.

One of the things that always makes me feel like I suck at it is when I've got this big ole white canvas staring at me, so these days I usually start by putting a solid layer of acrylic paint down, which will usually help to set a mood for the piece. Since I want some bits of red to poke through on this, I picked a red mixed with a bit of Burnt Sienna, which is a darker, warmer brown. With this color below the painting, it'll cast a warmer tone to the entire image - sort of like when you look away from the sun as it's setting and everything is slightly pink...I don't know if this is a sunset type of painting yet, but it'll have a warm tone overall.

So here's my "blank canvas":


At this point, I draw outlines from the sketch with an oil pastel. Some artists do it with a thinned paint, but I like to do it faster and with a bit more control, so I use a tool with which I can draw rather than paint. I purposefully just outline the shapes, and don't fill any of them in.

More tomorrow when I finish this and start working on it.