Paint with me!

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance." -Aristotle

I did not become a professional painter to ever feel like my job was a drag. If you're not careful, commissions can become a chore. In order to keep my soul in every piece, I never hesitate to experiment anymore. One might think commissions and live paintings should be a place to play it safe and give them what they expect. I've found this to be a discredit to clients. The right client will receive your most authentic work with the same exuberance you felt when you made the piece. 

For this particular piece, I wanted to experiment with acrylic paint pens. This is something I've been toying with in my mind for a while. Is it still traditional painting if you use paint in the form of. a pen? This is a question that can be debated all day, but to me a painting ultimately reflects the skill and experience of the artist, not the medium she uses. In this piece I just used the paint pens for the skin tones, hair and facial features (I only had a pack with a neutral palette...later I'll buy more to expand my palette). I was so pleased with how well it worked! At this point, I'm not sure that it's a time saver. Getting used to the flow and consistency of the pens, as well as the way they layer and blend took me about the same amount of time or longer compared to painting with a brush. We shall see how this changes as I practice. In the meantime, I love how these two came out!

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My next experiment was in the underpainting on the subjects' clothing. I had it in my mind that aiming to use almost the exact same palette for each person would magically unify them. I knew I'd be covering them both with different top layer colors, but I wanted to them to look like they went together. The local color of the bride's dress is of course, white, but every artist knows we can't just use white or it will look flat and cartoonish. White and grays can be so dull and detach it from the rest of the painting. Today I tried connecting them with a layer of denim blue before adding any highlights or shadows. In the end, this really seemed to work as planned! I plan to use a similar method going forward with other paintings.

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In the final step, I believed I was finished when the sky looked smooth as seen in the photo on the left. The sky matched the clear sky in the photo. However, after taking some time to consider this further, I really felt the sky needed something else. I wasn't sure how he client would feel about swirly expressive "unrealistic" brushstrokes in the background, but I went for it. I knew it would complement the lines in the bride's veil and balance the texture in the grassy foreground. I was so nervous about how it would be received, but the client loved it! This whole painting was a great reminder to be true to yourself as an artist, even if it it's a commission.