Fragment Series of Wall Art Prints

Included in our new range of printed Wall Art panels is artwork featuring the Gaddi Torso. Painting her interpretation of this classic sculpture in oil paint, Kim shares some technique tips. 

Pushing Through

We have had many visitors to the Art Shop over the years who have been very worried about how to transfer a drawing to a painting surface. There are many ways of doing this, of course, and we have mentioned some of them in previous posts. These include using a prepared transfer paper or tracing the image onto tracing paper. The image can then be pushed through by carefully drawing over the linework or ‘pricking’ along the lines and dabbing powdered pastel or pigment through the holes to leave the outline on the painting surface. Of course it will depend on the media you are using as you don’t want to apply too much material to a surface if it is not going to be part of the artwork and the the paint is not going to cover it. For instance, a hard pencil that transfers less graphite to the surface is preferable when plotting out a watercolour.

Freehand

With oil and acrylic, though, I prefer to draw free hand onto the painting surface with the paint. The  beauty of both these media – especially with 0il – is that you can paint over and over correcting and perfecting any issues with the linework. Painting the Gaddi Torso, the starting linework was very rough. It is at the point of painting in the background  that I zero in on the preferred line using the negatve space to define the form. Roughly plotting in areas of light and shadow ensures that the drawing is sound and the layers of colour can be built up.

Diving In

I might have mentioned that I just love working in oil – it is just so forgiving and, if you simply dive in, there is no need to ‘faff’ around pushing through!