Live painting session, 1 August 2025

We're going to kick off with black today just to try and get some more detail and a few of these little bits and pieces in here. And because I'm a girl dad and actually surprisingly fun, a lot of these brushes have they're actually makeup brushes because the brush bristles are more sensitive. That's a winner. I need my fluid. All righty tighty. Here we go. This stuff's key. It's a special liquid and you only need the tiniest few drops of it. Hey, Michael. And the tiny few drops you add, what it does is it impacts the surface tension. So if you imagine back when you put a liquid on say a marble top and it would try and clump and spread and not keep a perfectly even sheen.

That's the surface tension all pairing up in little clusters. So we don't want that to happen with the paint. We want even pigment dispersion. And this liquid means that's what's going to happen. Yeah. So, I guess I have been a bit MIA as of late and I apologize for that, but I've got two commissions that need doing and they're pretty special. This one here is a family scene. Just going to get that Stark light behind me. Gone. Give me a second. T, we're actually inside because the wind is a bit stronger today. I thought rather than letting the paint dry out and all sorts, I would just There we go.

This over here. There we go. Wonderful. So, we're working inside today effectively and that's okay. And like I said, kicking off with the black zones. And since we're inside, we're sitting down and it's more relaxed, which is, you know, I'm actually here for that. But I was actually recently watching a video with Picasso of all people and they had him on a stool and he was painting a chicken and I've got to say I didn't like the way he was painting the chicken. I used to paint inside all the time. But one of the big things is the chemicals that you come across when you paint.

The chemicals you come across when you paint inside, they're more abundant. They're not dispersing as easily. That's not what you want. You actually want the chemicals to actually and the offging to go somewhere. So, but these paints are not perfect, but much more delicate. So, this is a mixture of a little bit of egg temper when we work inside cuz it dries completely differently, but this is actually gouache paint and you put different mediums through it. So, it doesn't dry matte. It has more of a luster to it. Cuz gouache paintings, typically gouache, can actually seem a little bit boring. They're not glossy. They're not vibrant to the same degree, but that's not because of the gouache.

That's because of its application. So, when you actually mix the gouache with the right things, you get a result that it's kind of unparalleled for the I mean unparalleled. All paints are different. raw color though, you're just going to find that gouache will win on the raw color front pretty much every time. Let me just see what's happening here. Sorry guys. Let me just rotate you around for a second. Back up. Rotation is locked. Rotate device back. You are rotated back though. It doesn't seem to know what. There we go. Now it's playing bull. It's wild. Stream got interrupted because phone died. It happens. Anyway, this lovely picture here.

It's going to be a It's effectively a dinner scene, but it's also a family shot. So, we have a table here across this part of the picture. There'll be characters around here, and then through the top, there's going to be some lovely points in the interior of the structure that'll create a bit of perspective within the shot. There's a couple of really little interesting points. Massive picture on the wall here. Characters smiling, each individual, each with their own little bit of style. and a lot of warm tones. So, I know we've kicked off with the purples and the greens underneath because I want those colder colors in there first.

So, then when I come in with these reds, oranges, yellows, you know, more of these potent warmer colors, then we're really going to see them pop off the page a bit more, which will be a bit of fun. Anyway, and because I'm copied out for the morning, I've got an organic mandarin yuzu kombucha. Yum. Too sweet for me, but I'm glad it exists. All right. So, like I saying earlier before my phone died, we're working with bada bing bang boom black carbon black, the strongest black on the market, which is quite fun. And we're going to put it just in all the little spots to just build up a bit more of that contrast because at the moment it kind of looks like porridge without a whole lot of definition.

And we'd like to get a bit more definition into it before we start actually you know before we do what? Nothing. just we want more definition. There's so many little shapes though that fact of the matter is there will be kind of abstract feeling to this no matter how far we go into it. It's always going to contain that. And not I'm kind of here for that. I'm kind of here for that. Let me just You see these massive sort of window pieces coming along there. Hey, let me slide this here. No, the other way. There we go. And for those who are returning after a long stint of me being away, I've been working a little bit in private, finding my feet creatively a bit more and lots of things.

My daughter's now 15 months, so that's been an amazing journey. I love being a dad so much. And there's two commissions right now that we're focusing on before we go off on a few personal projects. This one here, and there's a wedding shot. The other three have left the country. It's very, very sad to see those three go, but they've left the country and now it's this one and our wedding shot. And like, and then I'm thinking, I'm pontificating, imagining, considering that the next one wants to be a face because we've done a lot of these group shots, landscapes and wedding shots. I think it's time to really zoom in and capture some character.

Oh, thanks Ryan. I appreciate that. I did disappear. I did. artistic blocks can come in all different shapes and forms. It's not always straightforward. And one of the big things that I've been personally battling with is fumes with paint. I can't be near paint fumes in any way, shape, or form. It completely sends me for a tail spin. I can't think straight. I can't work straight. And what that makes a challenge of, what that makes into a challenge is obviously I'm a painter. So things like oil paints and acrylic paints, unless I mask up, they're not viable. But for me personally, it's not even a streaming thing.

It's for me personally, a mask isn't a vibe. It's kind of it's this thing on your face. It stops free breathing. And I really don't enjoy that. So, it's about finding methods like eggtemper and other methods. I always thought egg temper is amazing, but it's very delicate. But finding methods to make art that I can do is the thing. It's hilarious the idea that a painter and artist can't be around paint. You think, okay, it's quite funny, entertaining, in fact, for me. I see that I see the comical side of it. But, that's where I'm at. All right. So, as I was saying earlier, as I was saying earlier, we're trying to create a bit more of that contrast in this image.

And I think after this black, we'll leap on in with a light color and just keep hammering that contrast front until we get somewhere special. That's the plan. just jump onto a new brush. I kind of want blue now. I feel like blue is going to play a lot of the role bridging that gap between those colder colors and where we want to be going. Here we are. This is a phthalo blue. It's kind of halfway between Ceruan, which is also a Pokémon town, and Ultramarine, which is probably the most potent blue you could think of. And I've got some super fun brushes to work with.

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