Hello my fellow steemers, today I decided to showcase a step by step of a split canvas paining I did of a giant squid and sperm whale wrestling around and just generally having a good time. I did this piece free hand (without an outline) which I don't do often but sometimes I just like to party and have a good time with a painting, not really concerned with the outcome, it just feels good to put something on canvas. I've noticed I can get tighter details this way though, because I have no borders keeping me from following an Idea or direction I may have for the piece after the planning stage.
I started this off with the background, establishing a light source by laying down layers of turqouise green and light blue in the left hand corner, gradually working my way down to dark blue and deep purple in the lower right hand corner. I got that blotchy effect by crumpling up some paper towels and just dabbing away at it.
Next I just start spilling white on it and start working out a rough idea of what I'm looking for. This part of the process proved challenging because I wasn't smart enough to tape the four segments together, or make a temporary frame, or do anything to keep them from moving apart from each other, just continuously readjusting and squaring it up. It's important to keep them in place, especially when working out the parts of the animals that spread from one canvas to the next (i.e. the tentacles).
Then comes the basic colors, just setting down a base for what's to come. As you can see I put a little more work into the whale at this point, but to get the effect I wanted on it I needed to work with the paint while it was still wet. Again, the split canvas style really made this a chore, I'm really just trying to achieve a fluid look between all four pieces.
To finish it off I did a lot of dot work on that squid then allowing it some time to dry before adding some white on top. There was also a lot of blending to be done, that I had to rework many times to make it look natural between the canvases. Then of course came the black, I can't stress how much I love this color, it enforces negative and positive space and adds dimension to the subject(s) making it not look so flat. I also like to give a nice outline around everything with it, giving it a crisper feel then it would if you were to leave it without, at least for me.
Thanks for checking out my post and I hope you enjoy my sperm whale vs. giant squid painting, which is still currently untitled, so if you got a good idea, lemme know!