Autumn 02: 18/02/2023

This week was I completed the first piece of the Autumn Trio for Sellisternian. You can catch up on last week's work here, the overall idea for Sellisternian here and my practice for this process here.

I was very keen to get started on these autumn painting. It wasn't that long ago that I was doing my final Inhabitants pieces while enjoying the falling leaves outside so the colours and textures I want are still fresh in my mind. Last week's ink sketches gave me plenty time to mull over the finals and I can't wait to see them all complete.

I'm sure you can guess how I got started by now! Imperial sheet of Fabriano Artistico 300gsm, hot pressed watercolour paper, taped to an A1 canvas board. A graphite transfer of my digital sketch and details added in black Polychromos. Very few extra details this time, as there'll be a lot of background pattern added in fine liner and all the detail on the mushrooms will be inked.

Out came the multicoloured fine liner pens! Apparently a week was long enough for me to forget the psychic damage inflicted by summer's honeycomb pattern because I started off with a patterned stencil for the entire background. It's made up of wheel shapes that reminded me of cut fruit, the underside of mushrooms and the iris of a human eye. These round shapes will dominate the trio and I wanted a pattern that would harmonise with them. I added veins to the leaves in multiple colours and shapes, much as I did for the summer leaves.

The acrylic ink layer was the best of times and the worst of times! I really had to loud-metal-music-chain-drinking-coffees-cursing-my-hubris the patterned background but was delighted with the result. I used a reddish muted violet in three sections from darker at the base to lighter at the top. I want to give an idea of moving from dark earth down at the mushrooms to a cold misty sky amid the leaves further up in the composition.

The ruffles on the underside of the mushrooms (I'm sure there's a proper name for them but I am not going to learn it, get used to ruffles) are dioxazine violet applied with a ¾'' angled flat brush and were wonderful to paint. After filling in that bloody pattern it was so nice to freehand these lines and enjoy the variety offered by the brush. I diluted the left over acrylic ink for some simple shading on the portrait elements and then was ready for watercolour.

I applied the same paint all over the background and love how it looks against the gradient of the pattern. It's phthalo blue (a cool, transparent, smooth blue) mixed with a particularly heavy, granulating PBr11 brown. It looks green when wet but as it dries the brown separates out and leaves a lovely blue wash with strong earthy textures. Watercolour is so fun!

The mushrooms were washed with a mix not far from my skin tone mix, just more blue and then heavily watered down. Mushrooms come in all kinds of colours but in this trio they'll be very ghostly and hopefully popping against moody backgrounds.

In contrast the leaves were a real range of reds, yellows and browns edged with quinacridone gold, teal or bright orange. I didn't limit myself for these and just pulled whatever I fancied from my big palette, aiming for them to really contrast with the background. I also made sure that each combo was repeated at least once so that no branch would stand out too much over the others. The leaves are varied but united by their white stems.

The finishing layer was focused on the eyes and the mushrooms. Look closely at the ruffles and you'll find purple dots and yellow highlights and the stems got a textured scrape of dark brown wax pastel. I wanted them to look unearthly but not impossible. I thought about going for much darker stems but this combination makes the most sense when their place across all three autumn pieces is considered.

The irises of the eyes were detailed to resemble the undersides of the mushrooms, just as in the Summer Trio they were sunny orbs. I then added shading, warmth and freckles with coloured pencil. The eyelashes are jagged purple fine liner and in general these eyes are not as soft as I usually paint them. I'm not the biggest enjoyer of eye contact, even working on these eyes felt a little uncomfortable, and as this is self portrait I find myself reflecting this in the execution. The lashes are sharp and the redness around the eyes is exaggerated, especially contrasting with the cool blue of the background.

Then all it needed was that final splash of gold!

I think that this is a great start to the Autumn Trio. The size of the paper really let me bring out the atmosphere of cooling earth and air with the portrait elements materialising among the brunches. The size of the mushrooms makes them look extra strange too, those stems are like pale fingers crawling up the painting.

As with the summer pieces, this first one lays out the fabric which the next two will be built from. I move on to them feeling confident in my colour choices and overall idea.

In this week's landscape adventures I focused on making fun marks. I added a big, scrappy brush that had mostly been used with gesso to my repertoire and loved mashing paint with it. I also used the very tip of my ink brush to add more flicky, grassy marks in the final layer. I love starting my painting sessions in this sketchbook to warm up, it's definitely worth the time investment.

I started this week's Doodlebooking with some decorative florals but got the chance to sketch in nature again. Spring is slowly springing! Venturing in to landscape painting has definitely changed how I look at my environment and I'm fascinated by the lumpy shapes of real trees. Like the acorns in last week's Doodlebooking, I'm reminded of how varied and messy natural shapes really are.

We had a treat at Studio Club this week! Textile artist Alison Johnston visited to give a talk on her career and work so far. It was especially interesting to see the different stages of her tapestries as they're created. The tapestries are large, detailed and very textured so it was great to be able to see some in person as she brought along sample.

I dipped in to another of the mini V&A pattern books this week and this one is dedicated to kimono fabrics. These patterns use the most beautiful colour palettes, a lot of subdued but bold hues and deep indigo. You can probably see how influenced I am by the use of florals/foliage over patterned backgrounds!

Next week will be dedicated to the second piece in the Autumn Trio. If that update is already up then I'll link it below, otherwise thanks for reading this early and have a great week!