Art What is your favorite drawing?

[DaveC426913]

Not bad for first foray. I particularly like the spectacles. Questions: Is your platform paper, canvas or panel? Did you prepare the surface with acrylic gesso? Thanks.

As you mention water color, I guess thick paper?

It's on pre-stretched canvas.

It didn't even occur to me to use gesso.
That might be a fourth option for experimentation.
Transparent Watercolour
Opaque
Gesso
Pen and ink

 

[Klystron]

It's on pre-stretched canvas.

It didn't even occur to me to use gesso.
That might be a fourth option for experimentation.
Transparent Watercolour
Opaque
Gesso
Pen and ink

When you mentioned color mixing on canvas, I immediately thought of acrylic gesso. Artist quality gesso comes as clear, white and tinted. Since acrylics are water based, you can thin it or add other acrylic products that prolong drying time to allow some spectacular on canvas effects. I tend to be old fashioned but metallic and other acrylic additives look intriguing.

I worked mainly in acrylics on stretched canvas and medium density fiberboard (MDF), sometimes on paper. I always gesso canvas and MDF, often sanding with fine blocks the next day, applying another thin coat or coats (MDF can be uneven) then finishing with ultra-fine sandpaper. Takes overnight to dry here in the desert between coats but the surface and depth is worth the effort. Water based paints slide as if on oil.

I got as much enjoyment preparing surfaces as from actual painting. You can tint the final gesso coat, say with Prussian or other blue for 'sky', or underpaint with pigment and seal with clear acylic gesso. So many possibilities.

 

[DaveC426913]

When you mentioned color mixing on canvas, I immediately thought of acrylic gesso. Artist quality gesso comes as clear, white and tinted. Since acrylics are water based, you can thin it or add other acrylic products that prolong drying time to allow some spectacular on canvas effects.

Hey yeah! That's exactly what I'm looking for. I was lamenting that the first layers were dry when I wanted to modify them.

That's what happened to the crown of my head in the upper right. I had painted the entire face and head in the flesh tone, but - stepping back - I realized the right side of my crown was in the same hot colours as the face, so it was pushing forward. It looked like I had this giant egg head. I needed the whole right side to be in cool tones so it would recede.

But since it was dry, I had no options - I went over it with a wash.

As you can see, it did not work. It's muddy. It's the one area of the picture I regret.

I'm not sure if redoing the whole upper right forehead would have been an option. I'm not sure I could match the skin tones close enough. I decided the best thing to do was finish it, leave it be, and start a new one with what I've learned.