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.