Gehenna development

 This term, I wanted to make sure I was utilising short windows of time between other arrangements to get art work done, I find that working this way has an accumulative effect and enables you to progress with your work at a much faster rate than if you simply waited for free whole days to do your painting in. In light of this, I have been painting in free hours or half hours here and there to ensure I'm working at a pace that aids the success of the piece and my meeting of the deadlines.

When I paint in these small windows of time, I make sure I tackle the basics of the image, for example, I painted the demon figure all black as an underpainting for the more detailed features I'll be adding in the future, I also did this with the plant, the window frame, the chest of drawers and the wine glasses/ bottles in the foreground. I find working in this way to be very liberating as you're giving yourself permission to simply paint the basics, it takes the pressure off of having to do something amazing or impressive in that creative session. I've really enjoyed working in this way and I find it to be a much more relaxing experience. 

As I add these basic aspects of the piece in these short windows of time, I can start to see the image taking shape and forming into something that replicates the original thumbnail, which is really exciting. Once I have an entire underpainting painted on the surface, I can then begin to add more detail and hone in on emphasising the shadows and highlights to really allow the piece to 'pop'. Next, I will focus on adding a background underpainting (simple block colours) and developing the red figure in the centre of the image, as I'm not happy with it just yet. 

In regards medium experimentation, I want to incorporate spray paint and oil paints into this piece to assist me in rendering some of the hazy light effects present in the thumbnail/ reference. I've not worked with these before so the prospect of working with an unfamiliar medium is really exciting. I will carry out a series of experiments with these mediums before committing to using them on 'Gehenna', to rule out any trial and error mistakes.

Gehenna development

I decided to start the piece by painting the red figure in the centre of the thumbnail first. I'm most comfortable starting with this aspect of the image first as I have painted several large scale figurative pieces before, so this is something of a comfort zone for me. 

Seeing as I had the large print out of the reference image on hand, it wasn't too difficult to get the main tonal contrasts down in a short space of time. Once I had done this, I began to mix various different mid tones, adding them where appropriate, to form the entire shape and structure of the figure. 

As this is a work in progress, the images below aren't going to be the same as the final result. But so far, I would say I'm happy with how I've captured the essence of the reference image in the painting, however I'd like to correct a few areas on the body that appear slightly patchy or have been painted at the wrong angle etc. As I'm working with acrylic paint for this section of the piece, it means drying time is relatively fast, meaning I don't have long to blend the paints to form the contours of the body, to combat this issue, I've been working with slow drying medium to encourage the acrylic to behave more like oil. When I next add pigment to the figure, I'll make sure I work consistently within a time window that doesn't allow the pigment to dry too quickly before I have a chance to blend the colours together. I will also make sure I measure the contours of the figure/ face more accurately to ensure I don't paint the features incorrectly and at the wrong angle. This is because I want to achieve a certain level of photo realism within a surrealist scene.