I’ve created timelapse videos for the last few paintings I’ve completed, but this was the only one to cover a painting start to finish. It’s fun to see it go all the way to the end. The image is a bit hard to decipher for the first bit seconds, but it picks up from there. I even did you a favor and cut out all the bits that were just me staring at my computer.
This video outlines how I work really nicely, but I can go into more detail. I forget that things like that are interesting to other people. Even no two artists work in the same way.
First, I start with a drawing. I generally have an idea where I’m going, and sometimes use photo references to get there. I draw on brown kraft paper for two reasons: 1. It is cheap. 2. I like the mid-range hue of it.
Once the drawing is refined, I transfer it to a piece of acetate with a fine pen and flesh out the linework. Then I pop it on the overhead projector (my favorite tool! I hate drawing large) and trace it onto its canvas. This is where the video picks up.
I trace it on, flip the projector off, and go back to the wood to, again, flesh out lines. Honestly, I only flesh out the lines on the acetate drawing pre-projection to see how it looks and to give myself a little reward with a nice drawing to scan. The linework on the wood, being larger, takes more time to get right and has higher risk. Wood is pretty unforgiving when you are a minimalist painter.
When it’s traced, I get to going with paint. I’ve never been good at working the whole piece at once as we were taught, but that works pretty well with my painting technique. I’m also horrible at remembering not to start with the foreground. I start at the foreground 90% of the time. Oof.
The rest of painting is lots of paint mixing, medium choosing, and standing back and thinking. And watching Netflix.
