Very productive day in the studio ‘multi tasking’. I have truly embraced the multi surface working strategy, so much so that I will have to majorly rethink how I am using my studio space so I can keep rotating work. I am still quite actively playing, exploring and making mistakes but I think this is ok for the time being as I try to get my bearings with the new direction of my work. I am deliberately working on quite a large scale so that my testing of some ideas is scale intentional and doesn’t eventually become contrived when I scale it up.

Obliterated much of green with ‘salmon’ but still allowing some under painting to come through. Decided to take the top section back to white so used my powder pigment and linseed to block out a large area. This gives the impression of parts of the figures disappearing/being absorbed.

Tried similar on right hand painting, reducing some of the block background down. Tried dividing front right corner section into more partitions – don’t think this works as painting looks clumsy and overworked in places. I was trying to cover the horrible green but the grey drawing is too harsh.

Oil over unevenly primed background. I like the unevenness of the paint although I think I would need to be more intentional about where I primed to help the composition. Very difficult to work oil into unprimed surface.

Drawing/painting over partially primed canvas. Have deliberately left some areas just as lines to emphasize drawing. Elements of simplified background are working as well as limited background. Not sure how this would translate on a bigger scale.

Painted background to I can experiment with how to incorporate how to use colour throughout piece. I will probably draw into this is the same was I would without under painting to see how the figure fixes in the environment.

‘Salmon’ test over half primed canvas – much duller on unprimed section. Prefer the unprimed canvas coming through to communicate ‘unfinished’ but paint is difficult to apply and colour better on white.

Another practise piece over partially primed loose canvas. Quite like the sense of movement and weighting of figures to right of composition with diagonal bisecting picture plane.

Reflection
It’s great to just make stuff and play with surfaces without worrying about finishing for the time being. In fact, I am embracing the unfinished and betraying levels of surface. However, this is difficult to do intentionally without looking stiff so I need to experiment with how the different levels of surface interact with each other. I am trying to use limited or unusual palette as well and this seems to be working so far as it enables me to draw attention to particular areas of the image. I think I will play with some quicker surfaces next to see how colour blocks and figures can build a composition.