Reality to Fantasy and scattered thoughts

Lately I’ve been working on some paintings that bridge reality and fantasy. Thought I would share some of the process that gets me from point A to point B.

It begins with photos I’ve taken of one person in various, but similar poses. Something about them has to have a definitive mood.

Keying in on the mood. . . the theme. . . the brain storming (or scattered thoughts) begin. These are a sampling of the 10-15 images I looked through, what I saw was ;

• High Fashion
• Photography
• Tall
• Black, Grey, Pink, Flesh tones,
• Strutting
• High cheek bones
• Dramatic lighting

Going back to the above images I pull out three that display the above ideas the strongest. In Adobe Photoshop Elements using the eraser tool, the backgrounds are eliminated so that only the figures remain.

The next step is creating a new blank page the size of the finished painting where I freely move the figures around until I see a rhythm emerging between them.

I throw shapes and blocks of my colors, listed above, black, grey, pink and flesh tones behind them with the goal of connecting the figures with the flow I want the painting to have.

Going back to my list, what elements can I use to strengthen my story? I have a black and white image of a photo edge to incorporate, check the finished painting to see how I used it for inspiration.

Ready to start the painting, the above information is my foundation, my jumping off point, the place where I go when I feel I’ve lost my way in the painting, which can happen with a subject like this, why?

The background will be painted and allowed to dry before I move on to the figures. This can take a week or more. With other paintings happening in between, the original concept can get foggy.

In the beginning stages above you can see I had a totally different idea of what the face on the right should be. It is a very fluid process, I have to be willing at all stages to take some things out and add things, the big question…what does the painting need?

The finished painting “Strut Your Stuff”