BACK TO PAINTING!

I was working on two new pieces for the Movers and Shakers show this Sat.
The larger painting that I started on a few weeks ago is still coming together, but this show was coming up fast so here we go.

Masonite is my material of choice to paint on. I like the surface, it’s cheap and easy to cut into any shape. This piece will feature the Angry Clobber Monkey.



I start every new painting with some kind of color underpainting. This is a green brown. The majority of the color will be yellows and warm reds and tans. The under-paint will give the background some texture, it won’t be painted over completely.

There is a new Flip cam in my life so I’m adding videos to the blog now. Most in fast motion because I’m easily amused, and not to be terribly boring. After a basic coat of yellow mixed with gesso it ready for a little blending.



I painted a loose brown outline of where the robot will be, then blended between a light yellow mixed with gesso, and a darker more orange yellow. There’s a little Tupperware container filled with retarding medium mixed with some water. I start blending light to dark keep the paint wet and filled with the retarding medium. Then just blend it back and forth trying not to lift undried paint.




After the yellow coat has throughly dried, I’m going to lay up some masking tape to create the orange red rays. After cutting the strips I stick them to my shirt just once to deaden the tack a little.



Now the tape is on. There is always that problem of having paint seep under the tape and ruin the sharp mask line. My good friend Anthony Ausgang taught me a great technique. Mix up a thin soup of acrylic base, and acrylic gloss coat. As you can see I always reuse my Starbucks Cups.



With a fine brush paint a thin layer of the mixture over the tape edges. Hit it with a blow dryer. This seals up the tape edges and greatly reduces bleed through.





Yay another movie! Same technique as before for blending the orange red rays.
Hit this with a blow dryer too. Usually I try to remove the tape while paint is dry, but still a little fresh. Peel carefully and slowly! If there are some bleed through spots the paint is still green enough to remove with a moist brush or dab it with wet paper towel.





There, now we have rays.

What about the robot? That’s next.