Painting Process

I began all of my paintings by sketching out the rough proportions on my canvas, taking steps back to make sure everything was the right size. I needed to do this so I had some sort of guide to follow when I began painting.

I began by mixing up lots of skin tones. I really enjoy painting flesh as there are so many different tones, in these pieces I used lots of pinks, yellows and even purples on the canvas, giving depth and tone to the paintings. I was very loose and expressive to begin with, just trying to get a feel for the shape and shadows of the figures, and just kept layering more paint on.

Once I had the basic shape of the skin areas, I began to add colour shapes for the rough outlines of the clothing and where it would be. I was using palette knives the whole time, as it is I find them a very versatile way of painting as they can be used equally for free big movements, and also, if you're working large scale, they can be used for more detailed elements as well.

It was important to me to get across the depth of the subjects, and not to make them just feel flat and lifeless. I wanted them to have character. To achieve this, I just kept on layering and layering up the paint so that it brought out more textures and complexities within the paintings.

I knew I was going to need a background of some kind, and I found that a dark grey stood out the best. Black I felt would be too flat, and there wouldn't be any opportunity to add tone to anything. I made conscious choices for both the primer and the background that it wouldn't meet the edges of the paintings, to add to the overall unfinished feeling of the paintings.

I began to add black paint to areas of depth, to bring out the raised areas and give more dimension to the piece. I knew also, that the eyes would be important parts and so spent a lot of time trying to get them right, and get across the emotion I was trying to give out with each piece; pride, superiority and playfulness.