To make myself dig deeper into the "feel" of the person, place, and event I work hard to find or re-create (sometimes simply by copying on my printer) a sepia or black and white photo for reference so I will not be tempted to paint the colors that I see.
I mean, this picture of Elvis that I used as my reference just screams excitement. The black and white makes me use my imagination for the colors. The awkward pose stresses the "movement" of the moment more than just the posed figure. Now, I not only have a subject but I have ideas popping in my head for color and lively-ness (is that a word?). But how did I get from black and white to the colors of the completed painting? Here's my step by step Jane's Perspective "secrets".
First of all, it takes nothing fancy in the way of supplies. This painting was done in acrylics but I could just have easily done the picture in oils. Oils might have taken more time since I might have to wait before I applied each layer of color to prevent excessive blending, and I really wanted to get to the finished product sooner. The brushes, as you can see, are just some old scruffy ones like I use in all my work. OK, sometimes I buy new brushes, but these old ones just work so well, I hardly ever discard them. Notice two things. First of all, none of the brushes are smalled than a #8 flat and secondly, notice the condition of the second brush from the top in this photo. That's not a special brush that you can just go out and buy. It's a square brush that has been literally "sanded" off on the edges as I paint on some of my rough surfaces. For a painting with as much texture (both real and impressioned) as this one will have, I like a rough stretched canvas. I stretch my own and gesso once with no further refinement or sanding and re-gessoing. AND in this case, the canvas already had a painting on it that had a whole different type of texture on it created from the underlying painting. I just gesso-ed over the old painting and began this one. Sometimes I don't even gesso over the old one - I just turn it upside down and begin the new painting. Talk about strange colors that appear!
My palette for acrylics is a Masters Stay Wet Palette. Boy, I wish I had a nickle for every time I recommend this palette to acrylic painters. But I really love it. Here is the palette as I start my work. The paper in the palette is stained from a previous smaller work but all I did was wash the paper off and set it back on the sponge in the palette. When I put out my acrylic paint (you can see a nice little blob of yellow ochre on the palette) and finish for the day, I just close up the set and can literally open the set two to three days later and the paint will still be wet. Yep, that's right, acrylic paint still wet after three days! This is great if I've created a color that I don't want to have to try to re-mix. The only thing I have seen people do "wrong" with this set is to spritz your paint with water. This is not a watercolor tool. You don't spritz the paint like watercolors, you just get the sponge wet. All the instructions are in the "kit" when you purchase one. By the way, one of my Jane's Perspective pet peeves is to see someone try to reconstitute their acrylics by spritzing them. All that does is make a big watery mess. Acrylics is a plastic kinda paint. It does not reconstitute like watercolor. In acrylic's dry state it's just hunk of plastic that basically repels water so why spritz?!?
Because this painting is so colorful, I thought I'd let you see the palette at the end of the painting. Sometimes even palettes can be inspiring. Next blog, I start the painting. You're gonna get a kick out of how strange it looks as I begin.
First of all, it takes nothing fancy in the way of supplies. This painting was done in acrylics but I could just have easily done the picture in oils. Oils might have taken more time since I might have to wait before I applied each layer of color to prevent excessive blending, and I really wanted to get to the finished product sooner. The brushes, as you can see, are just some old scruffy ones like I use in all my work. OK, sometimes I buy new brushes, but these old ones just work so well, I hardly ever discard them. Notice two things. First of all, none of the brushes are smalled than a #8 flat and secondly, notice the condition of the second brush from the top in this photo. That's not a special brush that you can just go out and buy. It's a square brush that has been literally "sanded" off on the edges as I paint on some of my rough surfaces. For a painting with as much texture (both real and impressioned) as this one will have, I like a rough stretched canvas. I stretch my own and gesso once with no further refinement or sanding and re-gessoing. AND in this case, the canvas already had a painting on it that had a whole different type of texture on it created from the underlying painting. I just gesso-ed over the old painting and began this one. Sometimes I don't even gesso over the old one - I just turn it upside down and begin the new painting. Talk about strange colors that appear!
My palette for acrylics is a Masters Stay Wet Palette. Boy, I wish I had a nickle for every time I recommend this palette to acrylic painters. But I really love it. Here is the palette as I start my work. The paper in the palette is stained from a previous smaller work but all I did was wash the paper off and set it back on the sponge in the palette. When I put out my acrylic paint (you can see a nice little blob of yellow ochre on the palette) and finish for the day, I just close up the set and can literally open the set two to three days later and the paint will still be wet. Yep, that's right, acrylic paint still wet after three days! This is great if I've created a color that I don't want to have to try to re-mix. The only thing I have seen people do "wrong" with this set is to spritz your paint with water. This is not a watercolor tool. You don't spritz the paint like watercolors, you just get the sponge wet. All the instructions are in the "kit" when you purchase one. By the way, one of my Jane's Perspective pet peeves is to see someone try to reconstitute their acrylics by spritzing them. All that does is make a big watery mess. Acrylics is a plastic kinda paint. It does not reconstitute like watercolor. In acrylic's dry state it's just hunk of plastic that basically repels water so why spritz?!? 
Because this painting is so colorful, I thought I'd let you see the palette at the end of the painting. Sometimes even palettes can be inspiring. Next blog, I start the painting. You're gonna get a kick out of how strange it looks as I begin.