Winter 03: 25/03/2023

This week I completed the second piece in Sellisternian's winter themed trio. You can catch up on last week's work here, the overall idea for Sellisternian here and my practice for this process here.

Now I take the colours and atmosphere laid out in the first winter piece and craft it in to our second. I love this slightly Gothic, spooky feel and dramatic colour palette. So it's the usual start, 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. And I was very thankful for that digital sketch when it came to this ribcage, the stripes were making me a bit dizzy!

The Winter Trio has a 'bare bones' feel so there'll be a lot of background showing through which means a loooooot of pattern to line. I know, I brought this on myself, I expect no sympathy but would appreciate a hand transplant. The way the pattern peeks out through the ribcage and foliage is already so pleasing that I'll leave the whining there. Magenta veining on the leaves spilling out of the ribcage, bit of detail on the face and we're ready for inks.

I started with an easy bit, pyrrole red in the two orbs and the slight space behind the head as I want them to be really bold. I added phthalo blue to the left over red and used the resulting muted blue to shade the hair, centres of the jewellery elements and receding part of the ribcage. The rest of the ink layer was all various dilutions of muted pink, from the background to the face.

So the dominant watercolours are still Sodalite over the background, Amethyst dappled with quin gold and teal for the foliage. The edges of the leaves are ultramarine mixed with a very textured brown. The skin of the arms and face is mostly a heavily diluted wash of yellow ochre mixed with magenta. The red of the orbs is reinforced with pyrrole red and the leftover paint is mixed with quin gold to make the yellow for the gold jewellery elements. The hair is a wash of Sodalite and pyrolle red. So it's a pretty limited palette for such a big painting but the way the mixes interact with the ink layer below offers plenty variety.

I used a scarlet pencil to accentuate the jewellery elements, fingertips and face, as well as for adding some expressive lines among the foliage. White wax pastel adds a frost sheen to the edges of the leaves and white gouache adds highlights throughout the piece. I also added little white stars inside the stones at the centre of the jewellery elements. A splash of gold gouache and finito!

You may have noticed that most of the rib cage is still the white of the paper and I like how this makes it stand out against the moody background and even against the pink and white of the arms. I also really like the halo formed by the jewellery elements and the way the different pieces cut in and out against the background. I'm looking forward to continuing with these visuals next week.

I was really feeling like saturated colour in the Acrylic Landscape sketchbook. OK I know I'm not exactly restrained with colour in general but I was feeling more magenta than usual! I love the wonky trees in the top left of the page with the path, they're saying carrot and that's what I want in a tree.

It's been a rainy week so Doodlebooking was very much a sofa affair. I was watching various awful fashion design competitions as I drew, I wonder if pattern seeped in to my work from there? The shows aren't terrible because of the contestants by the way, just because of the forced time limits and manufactured drama that doesn't let the designers do their best work. Buuuut I watched the whole series so I can't complain too much.

I've been loving this book about the social history behind early Renaissance paintings, the nitty gritty of how the world these artists inhabited shaped their lives, art and industry. This background only enhances my enjoyment of the paintings themselves. This sort of thing is part of why I wanted to try documenting a project like this as I'm equally curious about how modern day material conditions drive our creative practices and directions.

This weekend I got to visit the annual Borders Art Fair over in Kelso. There was lots of great art to see but it was a bit too busy for me, though I'm glad plenty people came to appreciate and browse the displays. I have endless admiration for the artists able to exhibit alongside their work all weekend.

Next week I'll be finishing up the Winter Trio, I'll link it below once that's up. If it's not, thanks for reading this early and have a great week!