The Making of a Painting: Part 1

Well, I haven't written anything here in a while. So here's to new beginnings!

PHASE 1: Organize your materials

After cleaning my brushes, I decide to give the ol' work table a good sponging. The assembled crew of ins-and-outs consists of: clay area to the left; an array of containers of various materials in states ranging from liquid to solid; 2 jars of 'sludge', which is basically a crude mixture of the residual acrylix accumulated between batches of making colours at the paint factory; the pallet and tubes on the right side of the table; a wooden board with spray colours; and the magical milk crate filled with all the metallic goodies I could scrounge, including, much to my amusement, a bag of broken guitar strings.

PHASE 2: The Sludge

The first step forward is covering up the first layer with something called 'sludge'. It's basically the run off end bits of the acrylic plastic they used as a matrix for artificial colours. So basically it's the Tim bits of the paint world. It's those coloured bits all thrown into a jar together, and sold as a sculptural medium.  It's thick, but not very cohesive—something like a foamy, butter-like texture.

I tend to work intuitively in general, but working in layers requires planning. It's like balancing between extroversion and introversion, not at all like interrupting someone at a party by saying: "Mark! Your crotch is on fire!" Nothing like that at all.

Yes, that is me throwing up the ol' devil's horns, moonlighting as the Shadow King. And yes, that is the puppy, Mala pouncing on something. She's a terror.

PHASE 3: Staining

Over the next few days, I will be staining the sludge in the primary colours. Hopefully the end result will be a much darker underpainting. I want there to be a lot of texture to support the sheets of metal I will be working with.

Check out the awesomeness above!