STEP ONE
Before the painting can be started I feel that you must do research on the animal and how it moves. I feel the best way to do this is to see them in the wild or in an aquarium setting where you can watch them and take your own photographs. This piece is done on 30”x 40″ gallery wrapped canvas so I can paint the sides and you don’t need a frame. I think it’s more interesting to walk up to a painting with painted sides of the canvas than putting a frame on it.
I use heavy base acrylic paint as well as liquid acrylic. Only the main subject of the painting is sketched before I begin the work. The rest of it is up to my imagination. I used an archival pen that can be seen through the undercoat. I do leave some of the sketch exposed in the final painting. (Undercoat is Step 2.)
STEP TWO
This stage is one of the hardest stages for me. In this painting it is what gives the depth and motion to the turtle in the water. The ugly paint I call it or you might call it the underpainting. Even though it doesn’t look like a thoughtout process it is a very important step that will give depth and motion to my painting. It increases my ability to pull beautiful colours out of it.
STEP THREE
In this step I finished my background by getting it to the colour I wanted by letting some of the background (ugly paint) show through. Then I put a layer to show the motion of the fins pushing through the waters. While this layer of paint is still wet I use a dry 2” flat brush to soften the strokes that I used for movement. Let it dry between layers. It may take a number of layers.
I select my colours by the mood of what the animal has shown me in my photos. This part is very personal. My thought process for this particular painting is to have the person viewing the painting understand how gently and yet powerfully the turtle moves through the water. After I choose the colours, it is a planned process of painting the darks on the turtle that I will let show through to the top layer. It is a lot more fun when you actually get to painting the animal.
FINAL STEP
This is most fun of all. You get to make the animal come to life. (I always do the eye last because I feel that if you capture the animal’s eye then you give it life.) This last stage is not done in one sitting, First I darken some of my darks. On this painting I put darks in the turtle’s face and his left flipper as well as under his shell. Then I let it dry. I went back over the darks and did highlights and let it dry.
I went back with liquid acrylics and did a pouring to emphasise the water from the front fins to over the shell to emphasise movement. Tilt the canvas to alter the flow of the liquid acrylic. Don’t be afraid of colour and happy accidents. After that I applied the layers to bring out the shape of the muscles and make the animal more 3D. I did a small splatter of paint to indicate the bubbles around the turtle.
Now on to the final stage (I call this the “tightening up stage”) I go back over the entire painting by working with a rigger brush and do fine drawing detail on the animal. I find that adding a small touch of highlight or a bubble or stream of water can make the biggest difference in finishing your painting.
Before a painting is complete, I find it helpful to photograph the painting and look at it on the computer. I even reverse the painting to see it backwards. Hopefully, you look at it and it makes you happy. But it all takes lots of practice. It is very important before you are done to make sure that it is actually the best that it can be.
ARTIST’S HINTS AND TIPS
• Use large water containers – at least as big as a coffee can or a kid’s sand bucket – the cleaner the water you use the cleaner the colour you will have (I always have three or four buckets before I start to paint).
• Pre-plan you colour combination before you work on your final painting — test drive your colours.
• Try to combine no more than three colours at a time and this will prevent the dreaded MUD colour – I usually only combine two colours of heavy base acrylic at a time. . Most important: DON’T be afraid of COLOUR!!
