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August 15, 2004
the fear
The fear of the big blank panel. Staring out clean and empty it dares you to make a mark. TOUCH ME IF YOU DARE! But it’s not too difficult to sneak up on the big blank panel, to splatter it, or outline a figure on it, without too much commitment at this stage.
Then the fear of the first marks. Okay, bypass this one, without even thinking: block out the highlights and shadows, get some paint on, make the first marks a process and the fear goes.
Only to return double! The figure is blocked in and looks – well, okay. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO ANY WORK ON IT – I WILL DEFINITELY WRECK IT. So I fling paint about in the background and work up some contrast around the figure, dark ground then light over it to help the edges of the figure fight for existence on an increasingly chaotic panel.
At some point* in the above session my brush hits the Naples Yellow and drags a bit down into the white and whips it up onto the top of the shoulder, then before you know it I’m into the neck and highlights on the breasts and the belly and then another brush hits the Indian Yellow and veers off towards the Ivory Black, and for a brief exciting moment, with all care thrown to the four winds, I paint fearlessly.
*more often than not in the fifteen minutes before I’ve got to be somewhere else.
Posted by john at August 15, 2004 04:49 PM
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