I used to work for an art supply company and after we would shoot photographs of paint squirts or blobs on a canvas for catalog covers, the canvas was chucked into what we affectionately called The Cage. In between designing catalogs, it was often my job to tidy up The Cage, and got to take home the “junk” canvas for my own projects. This one had a nice big pink swipe on it! I sketched out my idea in marker on the canvas.
This is after about an hour’s worth of work. I try to work in hour increments, a habit I started during the pandemic. The photo I worked from was one I took after seeing Star Wars IX at our little local theater, it has one screen and shows one movie a week and only costs about $5. I have a lot of fond memories there.
Started blocking in color. I work in a limited palette. Honestly you don’t need a ton of colors to achieve richness and depth. Also I have a rule when painting, I don’t use black out of the tube. If I want an area to be “black” I have to make it. It adds a layer of interest when you’re mixing Prussian Blue and Burnt Umber together, you can control the temperature of the black. Black out of the tube is often very stark, and it works with the flow of the painting if you build it from the raw materials of the other colors.
I’m pretty down and dirty with my painting set up. I used a sheet of plastic as my palette, only 2-4 brushes, and a teeny jar of spirits to clean the brushes when absolutely necessary.
Lights! Sometimes all you need are some well placed blobs. It’s a balancing act to figure out which areas you want to be painterly and the areas you want to be finite and exacting. I’m not great at perspective, so the marquee was a big “hold my breath on all the straight lines” area.
The finished project! If you think drawing letters is difficult, try oil painting on a diagonal. But, it was a fun challenge, and I like to think I improved a canvas that was left for garbage. This painting is going in my private collection, can’t sell this one quite yet.