Shell Games Boxed In – Technical Details

I have been told by my children who are omniscient that a blog must have blow-by-blow detail oriented descriptions of works in progress. As I said earlier, as I have invented this blog, I get to make the rules. I do, however, have some technical details that may be of interest to people who also paint.

Drawing the Image

Since starting my sea shell series I have been working from life. No digital cameras, laptops or projection devices. Working from life is sometimes a problem on a cloudy day, or when the angle of the sun changes, but it was a goal of mine when I started and I think that it works well for this type of subject matter.

I usually draw an image on canvas directly with turpenoid thinned paint in monochrome, typically burnt umber or occasionally cobalt blue. The burnt umber seems to be a unifying element for me, creating some level of cohesion within the picture. I always start with a white canvas; underpainting tends to throw me off a little when it comes to color choices and seems to “deaden” the colors. I prefer the bright white of the canvas, especially with aquatic subjects which need some brightness to them anyway.

In this case I deviated from my usual methods. Given the complexity of the image, I knew it could take several sessions to draw and that I wanted to use a medium I could make corrections to days later. An oil sketch wasn’t going to allow that easily. So I drew the image using a graphite pencil. I also gridded off the subject into four pie shaped quadrants using toothpicks and string wedged into the edges of the box so that I would have some reference points when drawing and wouldn’t get too far off base. Remember, I’m not using a projector, but in retrospect it may have been a wise and labor saving choice to use one. But, too late now! Something to think about next time I do a subject like this.

As soon as I started to paint with oils I noticed that the pencil dissolved, muddying the paint layers. I was perplexed at first as to how to avoid this, but took a can of charcoal/mixed media fixative and sprayed down the entire painting. It worked wonderfully and no more bleeding of the graphite. I was a little worried about permanence, but I had read elsewhere that this was an acceptable method and it does work well. However, I think that in the future, I will stick to drawing with paint. I really didn’t like working with the pencil on the bumpy canvas surface anyway.

Sunshine and Shadow

Some of the shadows have layers of glaze on them that gives additional depth and resonance to those areas that recede. Sometimes I use a homemade formula, other times I use Liquin. I love the slippery flow of Liquin and its smell. It is delicious. However, it does dry relatively fast, so it is not workable forever.

For highlights I used some Titanium white mixed with a tiny bit of pigment on areas where there were little glimmers of light. I ended up adding, deleting and softening several times before I came up with something that looked just right, adding a little pop of realism without taking over.