From Photo to Concept to Painting

I thought you might enjoy seeing the story line between my photograph for "Flower Power" and the final painting. It was a long process. I have never done so many versions of a painting but I was just so in love with the idea of the image that I could not stop until I had actually created a painting that satisfied me. I hope it will be encouraging for you. Not necessarily to struggle for weeks! But to hold to your magic and know that you will figure out how to reach your goal.

Do you ever find yourself trying to make a really good copy of your photograph? (It's okay to say "yes"! We've all done it. It's just the natural thing to do). But I'd like to talk about how you might use your photographs simply as a "jumping off point" for a painting.

How to do it? I find that if I have a bit of a fantasy about what I want the painting to look like, or a story to tell, then I can get my imagination going down a path towards an idea that surpasses the photo.

  

Here's my initial inspiration:

 

I took this photograph over a year ago. The minute I saw this young woman with her boxing gloves, I knew there was a painting there.

I asked her to pose for me, standing with her arms by her sides, looking straight ahead, and "don't smile!". There was to be no aggressiveness in her stance;

 the appeal to me is in the contradiction between her sweetness and the associations that come with boxing gloves and a punching bag.

It's taken 14 months for me to finally do the painting that I dreamed of because even thought I was so excited about what I wanted this painting to say,  I wasn't clear about what method I could use to make it happen.

      My first attempt was merely a poor copy of the photograph with none of the magic that I longed for.
I didn't finish it because it became painfully obvious that it was not going to work.  I spent three days on this 22 x 30" "study". I had even hired another young woman to come and pose for me so that I could draw the legs and feet correctly as my photograph did not provide enough information.

By now I realized that I had lost my concept in the first try.

    My second attempt.
 I made major changes in my approach.

My passion for this painting was the contradiction between the vulnerability of a seventeen year old and her innocent confidence in her ability to face the world.  

I decided that I would use hot press paper instead of cold press as I had the first time and fluid acrylics rather than "regular" watercolors.

I masked out each of the flowers, and painted the background all around the figure.

After completing the figure, I painted each flower.

My last step was to paint black watercolor at the top of the painting and drag it down over the entire painting. Because everything else was painted with fluid acrylics and was permanent, it did not lift when I pulled the black pigment over it.

I'll be back tomorrow with the last chapter of the birth of this painting. I am so happy that it came to a good ending!