Surfacing

It’s been a long while, but I haven’t forgotten you!  I’m frankly more active now on Instagram due to the ease of use and few or no works expected, so posting is a snap. Join me there if you like to view images.  @elenacaravela, (paintings) @elena.pics (wildlife photos), and @caravelaelena (digital paintings).

WordPress is the platform for discussion.  Here, I’d like to talk about materials and techniques, so please chime in!  Useful tips and ideas are more than welcome.  I love that we can all learn from each other’s experiences.

Since my time away, I’ve been continuing with lots of experimenting.  New ideas and surfaces.  The piece above was a bit of a struggle for me due to its surface.  It’s painted on cradled gesso board with a very smooth finish. Each stroke is evident.  That worked well with the hair but transitioning color on her face tested my patience.  I finally worked with lots of mini glazes to provide the nuance. The vehicle for the glazes here is Solvent Free gel.  I can honestly say that the board is not my favorite surface, but at least now I am able to wrap my head around how and for what I would like to use it.

Next up, aluminum. Dick Blick is discontinuing this surface. It was on sale and intriguing, so I tried it.  Paradoxically, I very much like the way it defined each stroke because was perfect for this subject and this technique. This little alla prima painting was a lot of fun to paint! So much so that I wiped it and tried a new painting with more refined transitions between passages. I wanted to see how the smooth aluminum surface compared with the ultra smooth gesso board surface.

Ok, mixed reviews when painting refined passages, similar to the gesso board. And another problem.  Apparently the aluminum is covered with a plasticy surface over the aluminum. The gentle rubbing out of the previous image created a little hole in that very thin surface, allowing for some disconcerting  warping.  I get why Blick has discontinued this product.  I would however, like to try a sheet of aluminum sans the extra coating. Stay tuned.  I’ll let you know how it goes when I track some down and play with it.