“Fra-GEE-lay”

"Fra-GEE-lay" 14 x 10

I’ve spent the better part of last week weeding, mulching and sweating, not getting a whole lot of painting time in.  However, on Friday the mulch pile finally disappeared and I was free to return to more fun things  – painting!    Jack is now complete!  I  titled it “Fra-GEE-lay”, if you look closely there are references to  “A Christmas Story” in the newsprint.  The inspiration for the title came from my daughter.  I was going to call it “Fragile”, she being a fan of “A Christmas Story” immediately said “fra-GEE-lay”!  That took me in a whole new direction with the newsprint and made it much more fun.  Thank you Tara 🙂
To finish the painting I continued glazing with the same colors listed in my previous posts.  Creating layers of value and interest.  The secret to fluid acrylics is to lay in your details in the early stages,  as you add multiple glazes on top to build depth and value, the details remain, moving into the background.  The transparent nature of fluid acrylics allows those background details to add more depth to what might otherwise be a blank negative space.   The final details added were the white whiskers and the highlights of his eyes.  Whites always come last.
I’m finishing up a portrait of a friend’s chocolate lab named Hershey, very appropriately named.  Will post when completed.  After that I’m thinking of veggies at a farm stand for my next full sheet painting.  Something different with lots of color …. I do like my color!
This was a fun painting to do, the newsprint wasn’t as daunting as I thought it would be.  Hope you enjoy it.

1 Comments and 1 Replies

  1. 1
    Susan Auchincloss says:

    White whiskers and highlights; do you not use masking fluid up front? I ask because I’m a novice at this and am most interested in technique.

    Bravo! I look forward to viewing more of your work.

  2. 2
    bitsy says:

    Hey Susan, If the painting had be larger I may have left some white paper for the eye highlights but because it was on the small side, using white acrylic made more sense. Whiskers should be more fluid, captured better with a liner brush. Masking leaves hard edges and looks stiff. You can also use a knife to cut the whiskers out leaving the white paper. I prefer to use white paint.