My Painting Process - From Drone to Finish
Since I started this re-discovery of painting the one question, I keep getting asked by people is “How do you go about creating a painting?” The first time I was asked that I thought, what do you mean, I just paint it? It seemed so strange to me that I was being asked that so often. For some people that was actually more fascinating than the finished painting.
It then dawned on me that something that seems so natural to me is actually quite a methodical process. When I break it down to each part of the process it actually has very defined stages.
So, I thought I’d share it with you all, not only for the interest of the nonpainters out there but also for the fellow artists to see how it may or may not differ? Since realising my process it’s becoming quite fascinating to me to watch and understand other artists processes. I’d love to hear from any other artists out there, comment on this blog post if you want to share your method.
Stage 1:
My first port of call with starting any piece is to go to the chosen shoreline and take lots of reference shots. I take my trusty drone and I hover above the ocean, waiting for those beautiful rolling waves to come in. Sometimes its peaceful, slow and steady lines rhythmically rolling in. Sometimes it’s big, powerful waves roaring into the shoreline and crashing into rocks. I love how every day can be different.
For that reason, I go back various times to the same spot to capture the varying swells and conditions. It is a wonderful, child-like excitement when you look down on the screen of the drone controller and see a shot that you immediately know will be a great painting.
Polzeath, Cornwall - Drone research trip
Stage 2:
Once I have edited the photos, I then normally end up with two or three that I know I can work from. The hard part is selecting the one that I work on first! If I really can’t decide then I do sometimes decide to create a collection and work on all of them.
I then work out what canvas shape and size would work for the composition of the shot. I normally have a selection of canvases in my studio to choose from. I play around with the photo, turn it around all directions, because sometimes by just flipping it 180 degrees it can completely change the dynamic of the shot.
Once the canvas is chosen, I begin drawing out the basic elements of the scene….
Lets get started…
Stage 3:
I break down the image, map it out onto the canvas in pencil so I can stand back and work out if I have the right balance of each element within the photo. Sometimes just by moving one line it can completely change the balance of the painting.
Once I feel happy with the outline sketch, I then work on the first layer of the ocean. I normally start with the darkest tone in the water, a thick sweeping of the deepest teal or Prussian blue.
I then start to build layers of lighter tones on top of that while that dark underlayer is still wet. By added those slightly lighter tones on top while it’s still wet the colours start to bleed and blend together in the most mesmerising way. My main technique to apply these lighter tones is….this will sound odd….but its flicking! I load my special flicking brush with paint, and I grab the end of it and flick it at the canvas. It’s the closest way I have found to create that natural movement in the ocean and flickering of light on the surface of the water.
Stage 4:
Building the texture of the white water. This is one of my favourite parts of the process and has become my signature in all my work. This is where I mix in the sea salt and sand into the paint to build the movement in the white water of the waves and depth in the rocks and sand.
I can spend hours upon hours in this stage. Not only because it sometimes takes multiple layers of textured paint to create the movement I want, but also because some of these thicker layers take hours to dry!!! You can’t build upon the layers until the first has dried off, so it becomes a bit of a waiting game.
I’ll go into more detail on how I obsess over texture in my next blog post ;-)
Stage 5:
Working on the finer details.As you will have seen in a lot of my drone photos, there are generally always lots of beautiful fine white patterns on the surface of the water once a wave has broken or there is an undercurrent below the surface.These details are so fine I have to get really up close and personal with the canvas.I get out my finest paint brushes and also start using a white poska pen to slowly work in those delicate lines.Sometimes there is only a few wispy lines in the scene, sometimes there are layers and layers needed to build the almost spider web like detail.It is the part of the process that takes the most concentration.I normally have to put some incredibly tranquil music on to do this part ;-)
Stage 6:
Finishing touches. This is a proud, fulfilling moment when you realise your work is done. Its finished. You stand back and look at the scene before you. I created that!
Don’t get me wrong, there are times where you feel that there is something that you can’t quite put your finger on, something that’s not right, not complete. But I think a lot of artists feel like that. There have been some paintings that I actually think I will never feel are finished. That if I kept them, I would continue adding or playing with until my final days!
I then finish off the back of the canvas, tidying up the back from any paint spills, making sure the edges blend perfectly from the surface image. Then I am officially finished. My process is complete. I would include an image here of this finished painting but I want to keep it for a big reveal for the release.
If you have any questions on any part of my process I’d love to hear from you! Like I said I am fascinated by other creatives methods and if you are a nonpainter I may have skimmed over something that you may want to know more about.
I did intentionally skim over the building texture part of the process as that has a lot of detail within it. If you keep an eye on your inbox or my social media feeds for my next blog post, you will find out all about it next time….