People sometimes ask me to describe my working processes so, as it’s Sunday, here they are. I have only taken sequential images of a painting in progress once, so have dug those out to put into an animation. It was a self portrait commission from Turkish collector Omer Koç in 2011 (the brief was simple: do whatever you want!)
For some reason I photographed it every few days over about three months. What surprises me now is how little changes from start to finish; at the time I feel like I’m continually adjusting everything, and indeed I am…but what seems like a big change to me at the time is probably quite tiny in fact.
Anyway, most of the compositional development happens during the planning stage: after the first idea, I make drawings from imagination initially, then from the subject in front of me to see how it differs, then scores of little thumb nail sketches adjusting, honing and generally working the thing through on beer mats or backs of envelopes. When the composition stops changing from sketch to sketch I square up the latest, in order to transfer the main rhythms and proportions to a prepared canvas.
A proprietary oil painting primer is then used to create a monochrome under-painting, working quickly and directly from life, generally in one day. Being indelible and relatively spontaneous this lays down a road map to prevent my getting lost along the way, but leaves room for improvisation. It also allows me to control where I want the luminosity. As I like to use thin translucent oil (with occasional bravado patches of impasto) some of the ridges and brush marks of this ‘skeleton’ remain visible throughout, meaning early quirks don’t get lost along the way.
The compositional drawings, which I regard as disposable, then generally get shredded and composted.
[Originally posted to Instagram]
A proprietary oil painting primer is then used to create a monochrome under-painting, working quickly and directly from life, generally in one day. Being indelible and relatively spontaneous this lays down a road map to prevent my getting lost along the way, but leaves room for improvisation. It also allows me to control where I want the luminosity. As I like to use thin translucent oil (with occasional bravado patches of impasto) some of the ridges and brush marks of this ‘skeleton’ remain visible throughout, meaning early quirks don’t get lost along the way.
The compositional drawings, which I regard as disposable, then generally get shredded and composted.
[Originally posted to Instagram]
