start of the painting, I drew the image in charcoal on a ground of charcoal colored chalk paint, painted it in bone black and titanium white Golden liquid acrylics
next step still in black and white, the texture of the octopus. I drew the patterns in charcoal and painted them down with Golden glaze medium, then highlighted with white
first coat of color with Golden fluid acrylics and glaze medium. I dipped a piece of sea sponge in the wet glaze on some of the background to get the sparkly effect, and will put more of the blue on after it dries. Colors include raw umber, quinacridone red, vat orange, Jenkins green, and thalo blue, green shade.
finishing up the painting, I put more thalo blue on the background, added the school of fish and picked up the contrast where needed with charcoal painted down with glaze medium. I varnished it with two coats of Golden UVLS varnish. The painting took three days total.
These are the steps in my latest painting, a 36x48 painting of an octopus eyeing a school of Sergeant Majors. It came to me in meditation that my spirit animal might be an octopus. It used to be a turtle, I had dreams about turtles, saw one at most significant times and could interpret what they were about, but turtles have not been on my mind for years. I looked up the meaning of octopus and got: Totem, Spirit Animal People with the Octopus totem know how to get what they want intelligently and efficiently. They are also productive workers and often accomplish far more than the average person in the same amount of time. Folks with this spirit animal know how to get what they want and can effectively camouflage their desires until the last possible moment. Octopus totem people are often very flexible and agile, quick thinking, and gifted at abstract reasoning. They also rarely get upset at things and are always adapting and adjusting as needed to make life easier. Also, housekeeping is not their strong suit. They can be clingy in relationships and be self-sacrificial in the rearing of their children.
All of that sounds sort of right. I've also read about octopi punching fish for fun. I commented to Bob that it didn't really sound like me, but he said "oh, I don't know, you invite in Jehovah's Witnesses and argue religion with them." so, yeah. That too.
This painting drove my recent love of landscapes right out of the water, they were good for breaking the stranglehold of other people's art and what the market wants but this one brought me back to when I wanted to be a marine biologist. I've whined for fifty years about being sidetracked from that goal, but if I'm honest I will admit that I don't actually like science, by my reckoning it puts the dogma of religion in the shade and is mostly concerned with drilling down on minutiae while I am interested in the global POV. What I really wanted was to see these beautiful underwater things and maybe reproduce them with art materials and get paid for it. Now that I'm retired the getting paid for it would be nice but not so essential, it seems that life seems to take care of itself. I wouldn't sell this one anyway, it's mine.
All of that sounds sort of right. I've also read about octopi punching fish for fun. I commented to Bob that it didn't really sound like me, but he said "oh, I don't know, you invite in Jehovah's Witnesses and argue religion with them." so, yeah. That too.
This painting drove my recent love of landscapes right out of the water, they were good for breaking the stranglehold of other people's art and what the market wants but this one brought me back to when I wanted to be a marine biologist. I've whined for fifty years about being sidetracked from that goal, but if I'm honest I will admit that I don't actually like science, by my reckoning it puts the dogma of religion in the shade and is mostly concerned with drilling down on minutiae while I am interested in the global POV. What I really wanted was to see these beautiful underwater things and maybe reproduce them with art materials and get paid for it. Now that I'm retired the getting paid for it would be nice but not so essential, it seems that life seems to take care of itself. I wouldn't sell this one anyway, it's mine.