This painting was inspired by various art styles, such as surrealist, impressionist and stained glass. Although I never intended to incorporate these styles on this painting, I’m very happy with the results. For this painting I brought back an object I’ve been drawing for many years, “fisheye”. Here it appears flying, where it is usually drawn underwater.
All of my paintings begin with a very rough sketch. I sometimes write down the colors I intend to use, but I don’t always follow these notes.
I began by marking down the layout. For every painting I do, layout is very important. It is sometimes obvious the way I layout elements on a canvas, but more often it is very subtle. Here is a good example of a painting where the primary focus was the layout and composition.
I began painting the first layer. At this point I don’t know what the final painting would look like, I just know the colors I want to use. You can see where I corrected some lines.
Here I complete the first layer. I added clouds to make clear the blue portion is the sky.
Since every first layer is never opaque enough it is almost mandatory to add a second layer of paint. This usually involves adding gradients and different shades.
After completing the second layer of paint I added the “fisheye” characters. I just positioned them and later I would figure out what colors to use.
I painted all of the elements white. This would serve as a primer base for any colors I add on top.
At this point I stopped taking pictures because the painting went through many revisions and layers. I tried adding shadows to the objects, I tried adding borders to each block, I tried adding touches of colors around the painting, and I tried other variations but the painting never looked right. It always looked unfinished or sloppy. At one point I thought about putting it away and coming back to it in a few months. Finally I decided to just go very bold and try a different approach.
I tried a thicker brush and lots of combinations of colors. I kept the layout and design the same, but exaggerated every element.
Here is the close up a “fisheye”. In this close up you can see colors all over the place. I used white and black paint to create the needed contrast.
A touch of green to separate the plant-like elements from the rest of the painting.
And here is the final painting. This style of painting is similar to impressionist, but the theme and colors are more a surreal style. Also, the composition is broken up by blocks which make the painting look like stained glass. This canvas is 24″ x 18″. It should not be difficult finding a nice frame for it. I hope you liked the final results and the process of painting it. ‘Till next time.