Variation of Ripped Paper

I was pretty inspired by the ripped paper directive I came up with this week so I made a variation to do at home. I am usually intimidated by a blank canvas (I think this is the same with most people) and my painting teachers always told me to just cover it with another color. That somehow doesn't usually work, either, because then I just have a blank brown/yellow/blue/orange canvas instead of a blank white one.

This time I made an unplanned shape on the canvas:



Then I stared at it for a little while. I left, did some grocery shopping, cleaned a little, came back, and it still kind of looked like a troll doll waving hello. Hello troll!

I turned it around and looked at it from a few different directions and finally left it on its side and began to fill it in. It was kind of random at first, but the shape jutting out to the side now looked more like a leaf than a troll doll's head.

This is how I left it yesterday:


Today I attacked it with glazes. I like glazing because it makes the colors glow and add a lot of depth since you aren't just layering opaque paint on top of opaque paint. Also there's a lot of surprises since you don't pre-mix the colors on the palette; they mix on the canvas when you put down the transparent glaze layer.

And the final product:


I like this technique, I had a good time painting this piece with pretty low-pressure in terms of having a desired outcome. When I started feeling like it was being overworked I just stopped.

I have at least one more canvas board sitting around and a few canvases that have paintings on them I sorta hate, so maybe I'll keep going with this idea :)


11x14" acrylic paint on canvas board