May 9th, 2010
Babbles, A Mother’s Day post
When I first started this I was so worried I wouldn’t have enough to paint. I want to paint some of everything. I want to do a series about love, one about pets loved and lost and loving and living, about mistakes, I want to paint a whole series of yoga poses, of herbs and fruits and vegetables, and one of children. However, I have no idea how many of these ideas will work. I decided to try out a few for the first show. This is about my first painting of a child.
Babbles is the daughter of my friend and fellow musician, Ian. It came about when he was showing off pics of her one day and I told him to send me one to paint. She’s a doll with dark, crazy, curly hair and eyes that make Disney animators jealous they didn’t think of them first. The picture he sent me was a deadpan look at the breakfast table. It killed me.
Babbles, contour painting
When I started painting this one I didn’t even realize there was a mess from a previous painting in the lower right corner. I wasn’t sure that I cared yet either. Kids are messy, why should the painting be vastly different?
As I began painting with the glue I noticed one thing: it’s kinda creepy looking for the first couple of layers. When you have blank dried white eyes and blobulous, wet, pink skin staring at you it’s a little unnerving.
Dry eyes, wet skin...
Now you see here how this skin is pink, right? Like a little kid? Well, this painting is the one that taught me that the glue and food coloring are the things that decide the final color, not me.
Dry skin, day one.
This is after the first day of drying. Now, I hope you’re paying attention because by the end it’s totally different.
Well, this is the point where this becomes a Mother’s Day story. To hear Ian talk about his family is wonderful. His wife and daughter changed his life in the biggest of ways and he couldn’t be happier about it. It was March when I started Babbles and I had a great idea: Ian could give this as a Mother’s Day gift! I immediately asked him about his wife’s favorite color so I could incorporate it into the painting. I was told lavender and yellow. This is awesome. I am good with yellows.
The shirt came first, then the chair and the dishes.
Every color required a day to dry before adding the next.
Now the brown hair was a problem for me. I didn’t want to chance getting it either too green or too red or too mud. Browns I am not so awesome at making. Brown too often means mud when I’m painting. I went with a pre-made brown from Wilton’s with some black added to it. I left some bubbles in her hair, like some stars got caught there and she hasn’t combed them out yet…
Now I have a girl.
Now came the background…
See, for this whole series the background is the hardest part. It takes the most creativity as I’m trying to incorporate part of the subject without distracting from it. The figure is fairly simple in comparison. I mean, I’m just trying to stay in the lines, right? I knew I was going to keep the messy splotch on the front. So I sat, and thought, and came up with a bunch of nothing. As I mentioned previously, Ian is a fellow musician. So I grabbed the two albums I have with him on it and set it on repeat and just started going. It was somehow helpful to have him ‘here’ while I was working on this.
Kids are messy, so am I. Best painting mantra ever.
Since I was doing lots of layers of different colors I could experiment more with the fan. I left it on for the first half of the blotch layers and then left it off for the rest. I noticed on Michael that when I turned the fan off in between layers the glue became very rippled. I formulated a theory: When the surface dries faster than the inside of the glue it then buckles. If the glue is dried at a constant rate it dries smooth except for where it is pulled taut around a previously dried section. I wanted to see if I could get some of those ripples to stay while keeping other parts smooth.
Wiggles here, ripples there...
My theory seems to be correct, at least in practice. I’m not a science major or anything so I can’t tell you why the chemical properties create these effects but I can tell you that it works!
I couldn't wait for it to dry to take a picture!
As you can see, the blobs that were exposed to the fan have a deep ripple to them and the rest was allowed to dry naturally giving it a smooth texture. Also, you can see how impatient I am because it was only about 3/4 dry at this point. All the milky parts dried clear, just as Elmer’s Glue All is determined to do. Also, notice the skin tone. It’s gone from pink to tan to this. Oh randomness of the universe!
Now the next part I am sorry to say I never got a really good picture because of the same impatience. This was my first piece to have framed. It was a gift and couldn’t be allowed to be left undone in any way. Andy Essink (see link to the right) of AE Custom Guitars was kind enough to do a 48 hour rush job. It took him less than 24. I took the picture that night using my ceiling lamp for ‘sunlight.’ Then the next day there was great light but I was in too big of a hurry to clean off my fingerprints and water splotches from the front part of the piece and then touch up the contour painting to have it dry in time for Ian to pick up while he was in town. I promise a good picture with the frame properly lit from the show in three weeks.
Babbles, framed and in the light
Today I got a few texts from Ian. The first one read, “She. Loves. It.” Another one said, “You didn’t sign it!” Argh! Oh well. I will.
So to Ian’s wife and all mothers everywhere (especially my own), Happy Mother’s Day. I am truly glad you like the painting. Thank you for letting me paint your precious child. I am honored to be a part of your day.
