I am a working girl, I work full time in a pet shop and then come home and work full time at my painting career. When I come home I know I have my allotted paint time ahead of me but I'm not in the mood. Times like these benefit the most during the preparation stage. Through the years I have put together several 3 ring notebooks with sorted clippings of magazine ads, internet pictures and pictures from anything I felt would help me reference ideas from. I'll sit in front of the TV and flip through and pull out what seems to interest me at the moment. Several pages later I'll amass the pile of selected favorites on the floor and mentally compile a few elements that seems to spark my attention. Alittle more eager now, I'll assemble these pices, add a few more, replace some others untill I get closer to what is driving me at the timel Could be a certain pose I had in mind, colors I wanted to try, or elements I wanted to paint within the picture. This particular painting I wanted to paint was a more realistic reef silouetted around my mermaid. I had printed some pictures of natural reefs, fish, corals, underwater formation etc. i had 3 8x10's of a blue reef that had the same lighting. I had those on the side and few more of coral and fish. I was alot more interested now.I put those on the side and pulled out my binder of pretty faces and poses. I pick these reference photos from magazine and internet ads. I look up ads from fashion photoas, hair products, celebrity news or a certain model that I had though looked like the merms I want to paint. (Jessica Alba is one of my current favorites.)
Now I gleen through these photos with the ieda of where I want to got with this painting. Is she doing something? just wimming, lounging or caught in a private moment? This painting I wanted to the the realistic reef and mke it like a fantasy garden. I wasn't sure at this point exactly how or what it will turn out later because when I start to paint, the painting process itself seems to have its' own journey in mind. This is especially true when something disasterous happens like I drop a fully loaded paint brush on the painting or a certain color looks like crap when it dries. The painting takes a whole left turn when things like these occur. So with tat in mind, I choose general ideas and don't become fixated on them. Go with the flow but don't get lost. Keep in mind general design and watercolor technicues. I will hold your painting together. Books on these design and watercolor techniques are available for free at your local library for all you starving artists out there, or on Ebay or Amazon for those who have the money to own them. To those that are new to art, I can't say enough about how important it is to explore techniques and design skills by practice, practice, PRACTICE. Your not going to improve your skills any way else. It becomes second nature then when planning your painting. I have my reef pictures, lighting loose design of an oval garden reef surrounding my main character. I figure I want to paint a girl sitting, playing with flowers in her hair. 3/4 face, a sitting pose and smooth hair and several other ideas I don't even use. I'll actually finally begin drawing at this point. Now I'm in the mood.
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