David

After putting down some pencil outlines, I used the Artgraf blocks to add colour to the figure.  I started with browns in the darkest areas, then added some primaries, with cool colours generally on the left and warms on the right.  I was using the edges and corners of the blocks but may have been using the corners too much and the edges not enough: too much colouring in and not enough gesture.

Once I thought I’d put down enough colour, I added the water.  Just as with the inktense pencils, this is where the surprises come.  And, just as in my previous Artgraf painting I found I’d probably added too much colour.  After screwing up twice like this, the lesson has finally been learned.  I don’t need the pre-wetting colours to look anywhere near as dark with the Artgrafs as I do with the Inktense pencils.  The paper need to look as if the paint blocks have barely touched it.

There’s a second lesson there too, and it concerns the water on the brush.  Using the brush to put on lots of sweeping strikes sculpting the body doesn’t work as well here as it does with the Inktense pencils.  There’s so much pigment there that a big stroke just takes the pigment at the start of the stroke and paints it everywhere.  So if I do one big strike from a yellow area into a red area into a blue area into a brown area, I don’t end up with every colour in the spectrum: I end up with one big yellow stroke.  Instead I need to dab little bits of water into lots of places, rinsing the brush out after each dab.  And maybe coax some of the dabs to mix if I can do this without just painting another colour over the top.  Even then, I end up with the odd white spot in places where the dabs haven’t registered.  It’s a challenging medium, this one.

After the body was finished, I added some background, continuing to experiment.  I lightly shaded some warm colours on the left and cool on the right to contrast against at the body.  And, rather than using a brush to wet the marks, I dabbed against them with a wet square of kitchen paper.  When the paper was dirty with warm colours, I dabbed a bit of these onto the cool side and vice versa.  It’s a bit different I guess.  It might be interesting for landscapes, especially if I can use a kitchen towel dirty with brown paint to dab on water over yellow marks – it might look like sunlight through leaves.

Anyway, David’s not going up for sale.  Working out how to use Artgraf blocks is like being a beginner all over again, churning out subprime junk works.