(Day 4) Wednesday Painting : Selfie and the Zorn Palette

Thank God for Wednesday - the day I paint in Kerrie's studio. On this particular day, I decide to break the six week painting drought, that well known 'artist block' sitting on my back since my group show in September.

When you have absolutely no idea what to paint, a self portrait excercise is always useful and the modeling cost is right!

Starting first with a pencil sketch on paper to get the ol' skills warmed up... deciding on where the light and shadow meet, constantly measuring and comparing distances, getting back the feel of pressure and texture. Drawing a face is a bit like being a surveyor and mapping the lay of the land.

Once a bit more familiar with those contours, its time to sketch a few guide lines on canvas. Again with the measuring and comparing of distances. A few lines showing where the planes change. It always helps to forget that one is drawing a face... but rather a simple shape next to another shape, the relationship of that shape to its neighbour and to the whole. You are making a construction really, and using mostly straight lines is a good tool, as it tends to gives your drawing a kind of solidity and a hopefully a good foundation.

Using a charcoal stick is a good idea - more forgiving

Squeeze out that limited palette of yellow, red and black and white

'Black ain't always black'. I've squeezed out 3 blacks to test out - Williamsburg cool black and two other brands of Ivory black. Its interesting to see the difference when white is added.

Then straight into it, doing the shadow areas first. The great thing with such a limited palette is that you tend to paint rich pigmented shadow areas. Again, trying to concentrate on the combinations of simple shapes and their tonal values rather than trying to accurately represent what you think should be a face, is a useful exercise. It makes you more adventurous, relaxed, less judgmental and its a lot more fun.

  How many times have you heard an artist say 'I should have stopped earlier'. This is the stage that I should have stopped. I like the spontaneous brushstrokes and more dramatic use of tonal values...

... but one always wants go on adjusting, fiddling, fixing... that's the nature of making a painting I guess. However, I'm pleased with what can be achieved with that limited palette. The next time, I might try doing more careful planning with the colour mixing.

Ah well, all in a day's work! The painting was on a 12 x 16in linen stretched canvas.