Wirral Metropolitan College

I started this painting on 20^th October, 2010, for the fractured Vision show in Birkenhead Pavilion. It is taken from a royalty free image of a mask submerging into the water.

I liked the image as it to me described how a person could feel that they are drowning in what they have made of themselves, that what they have become is not there true self, and that they are living under false appearances, hence the title Dissimulate, the mask idea, is again about hidden identity.

3^rd November, 2010.

Well I have painted the top half of my painting; I did that in an afternoon. The tricky bit now is the water and getting the reflections right from the mask. I am using a different brush stroke in the bottom half of the painting, compared to the top.

Not quite right!

I need to make short little horizontal brush strokes and reflect the mask above into the water.

Lessons learnt from this painting, well, I need to work on my brush work more. I am developing a distinct style in the way I work, but I need to be aware of how my brush can work for me. I think I may do some little exercises in painting techniques in my own time, I will do some simple still life images, it may help as I have never really done anything like that before, it will give me a basic training in which I can develop my style.

11^th November 2010

The painting I have entitled Hmmm! is progressing nicely. I have a nice little routine going, one day I work on this picture, the next the carnival clowns, and the next I work on the painting for Fractured Vision.

The painting Hmmm! I have given it more structure; you can see definite shapes of things now.

I am experimenting with colour, and using vibrant colours together to see how they bounce off each other, so far I like the effect. I am using pinks, purples, and crimson with oranges, yellows and blues. I am also trying hard not to do the same thing with a paint brush, I am also using a palette knife and using big and small brush sizes, and I am now trying to vary my brush marks, so they don’t all look the same. I have tried to make the head and opposite mask stand out of the painting more, originally it looked flat, but I have used a different brush marking method on the mask and head. I like this painting a lot, I have learned a lot from the carnival clowns which took a lot longer to paint than this painting.

8^th November, 2010. Carnival Clown progress

It has been a while since my last journal entry, but I have been working and reworking on the carnival clowns. I have painted out the hand that comes across the red cone hat, the red ruffle has more shadows and tones, and the actual cone hats are straighter.

I have also worked more into the dark clown. What’s left, well it’s the two white masks, and I am going to add a little colour to them, here’s hoping I don’t mess it up again!

Well I managed to finish the picture, i am pleased with the way the two masks turned out. I had real difficulty with those.

It has taken me 4 onths to complete the carnival clowns, and if I look at it, I will probabley find something else to do on it!

13^th October, 2010.

Well I have given the Carnival clown a week or so to ponder over! And no I didn’t put scissors through it! I decided to paint the two masks back white, with subtle shading which I like immensely. It just lifts out the colour that surrounds the masks. I have also been putting in shades and tones in the ruffles of the clown, still working on the red one. The yellow and red clown hats I have straightened and I think I may have to put a sander on the red clown hat to get rid of the textured paint of the mask and hand that was there which is now gone. I want the clown hats to be straight and smooth which mirrors the ruffles. I have also changed the top left hand corner, making the ruffles appear more like a sunburst and using a palette knife on this area to change the texture slightly. What’s left to do, well now the other two clowns have had there make overs, I will work on the blue and black one. Was thinking of making him darker with the odd highlighted area, and accentuate the mask more like the white ones but dark. What do you think?

Here is a picture of my progress so far.

4^th October, 2010

This painting is really making me feel frustrated! There is something about it that is driving me nuts! I am having problems with the two masks on left and the middle. I love the effect I got with the mask on the right, and can’t seem to reproduce something similar! So far, I have worked on the left hand clown, turned him yellow, and tried putting some tonal shades in. I have left this painting for a few days to let me think about it, otherwise I might take a pair of scissors to it!!