Pointillism pt II
Now that the big ol’ C-mas is over, I can post some pictures I took of myDecember paintings without ruining anyone’s surprise. I’m going to start with the biggest piece I worked on, a pointillism piece. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, pointillism is done using dots of paint instead of brush strokes. What you get is a completely different type of colour and texture to your painting. Ideally it’s done using a finite number of basic colours and those colours combine in the brain to create more complex colours but I decided to start slow and use a wide palette of paints. If you really want to learn more about pointillism I’d suggest research Seurat, the more or less father of the technique.
In the next couple of pictures you’ll see a timeline of different layers over the same spot in the picture (on the full canvas its about half-way up and too the right).
- The first layer of dots. Here you can see the dark background bushes (the dark green), the grass below (the lime green), and where the tree will be (the empty space). The red blotches are gaps where the light from the trees behind break through.
- The second layer of dots. All that’s really changed here is I’ve filled in the hunter green for the tree. Each dot is about the size of an eraser on the average pencil, just to give you some perspective.
- The third layer of dots. Here I’ve added orange, maroon and peach to the trees in behind, and yellow to the grass below and in some bright spots in the tree.
- The fourth layer of dots. Things are starting to take shape now. I just did a layer of a medium green to add some light to the dark bushes. All that’s left is a black-green mix to fill in the bush and a light green in the grass below. Unfortunately I forgot to take a final picture before I gave this painting away but I promise I’ll get a picture of it soon.
That should give you some idea of how the painting process goes for pointillism. I always work in layers A) because I used oil paint and it takes a while to dry and B) it keeps the brush cleaner so your dots stay truer to the intended colour without mixing with other colours when you switches between paints.
- A full shot before I started the next section of trees.
- A full shot after I started the next section of trees.
Expect the final post about this painting within a week’s time. There you’ll be able to see the final painting in full and with some close up shots. Hope your holidays have been enjoyable!
-Travis Conrad