THE CREATION OF A NEW SHADOWGIRL!

Finished up another Shadowgirl painting and I thought it may be neat to show the process of creating the painting. I tried something new with this one,instead of a usual canvas or artboard, I decided to try to paint on cloth. So I took an old t-shirt, cut out the back of it and put about 4 layers of clear gesso on it. Once it dried, it gives it a rubbery/leathery look and gives me a really smooth surface to paint on.
Then the basic painting of the Shadowgirl can begin. It took me quite a few alterations between the layers before I got it to where I wanted it to be. I would also spray water on the artwork between each session so I get that really cool drippy effect. I'm a big fan of drippy artwork and I like how you never really know how it's gonna turn out. That's part of the whole painting process that's really fun for me. Even though I have a basic idea of what I want a painting to look like, I always like to play around with it and let some random effects happen to it. Ya just never know what cool thing it may lead to. Plus, like I said, I just LOVE drippy paintings. Something about them I just love and which is why I'm not a big fan of super-realistic backgrounds and figures. I much prefer a stylistic approach to artwork. But that's just me. Ok, here's a few different versions of the piece in order of their applications.








Then, once I was happy with the figure,I added the hair. Some people prefer the figure without the hair, but I'm a big hair fan and I like how hair can frame a face and really bring out the features and energy in a piece.




Then I darken it all so it all looks cohesive. Since the previous pictures were taken with a cheap camera alot of the colors and details are lost,I scan it into Photoshop,and darkened it even further. Even the scanner didn't pic up alot of the colors. Sure, the actual painting looks slightly different,but the scanner can only pick up so much. Then I cropped it and got the final piece.


And there you have it. Eventually I will come up with some unique way to hang and frame the actual painting. Since it's painted on cloth and has all these jagged edges,I'd like to do something different than just throw it in a glass frame. Thinking of having some painted branches from trees blown down from a recent storm to attach to the top and bottom and ,because it's so flexible, it would be hung like a scroll or banner. Once I get that done I'll post pics of it.

There ya go. Hope you enjoyed seeing the process of one of my new paintings. I'm putting together Shadowgirl paintings for a possible gallery show in September here in Flint,MI and The Horned Shadowgirl painting will surely be there, for display and for sale.