Day 3 of art school in Florence started and ended with a bang. Coffee and cannoli for breakfast and italian karaoke until way too late into the night. I thought I'd have more trouble getting up this morning but I'm fine.
I started out the day just redrawing my sketch because the first was just way to off I'd fix one thing then something else would get thrown off so It was going to be quicker cleaner and easier to just sketch it again.
Normally I just sketch on my canvas or if I'm not sure what medium I want to do a picture in I'll sketch things out on transfer paper. The teacher had me sketch on regular paper then I used red charcoal on the back and traced it out onto the canvas.
I have never done it that way I'm not sure I'll do it again but I really liked the red charcoal. I didn't have to worry about line showing through or about the paint getting muddy with black charcoal. It went on light enough it didn't bother my paint colours at all but dark enough I could still see it.
I decided to go with oils on this painting after my teacher showed me a drying medium to help the oils dry faster. It's been at least 10 years since I've used oils and one of the reasons is the drying time. One I don't have the space anymore to have 5 or 6 pieces drying at the same time. Two I'd always have to have so many pieces on the go because I'm impatient and always need something to work on.
Let me tell you I was a mess. I had paint everywhere, on my shirt, on my face and on my hands. I kept forgetting the oil doesn't dry right away and kept leaning my hand on the wet areas. After lunch I finally got back in my grove with the oils.
It was like meeting a long lost lover. There are some things I've never been able to get look right in acrylics straight off. I always have to mess about with them until I get to where I want to be.
The rich creamy textures, how easy they flow. I forgot how much I really do love them. It's one of those things that just feel right. Maybe because they were the first thing I used? I don't know but I had a great time with them.
Overall the only real corrections I had were the colours in the skin. Which is what I tend to mess up on in my portraits. They'll look good but something always seems a bit off. Not true to life. The other thing was blending. I always have trouble blending with acrylics. Even adding different mediums i could never get it how I wanted it so I end up going about it kind of the long way. I will literally just paint it in. Which is very time consuming.
That's what I was doing when the teacher was like why don't you just blend it a bit more it will look better and be faster. It was one of those sheepish yes I know I should be moments but old habits take over. I had to have a bit of a laugh at myself for that one.
I thought I would be finished with this painting today but forgetting it was oil and even with the drying agent it did take over night to dry hopefully I'll end up having to finish off tomorrow.
So looks like I won't be able to touch on anything else this trip.
Late night italian karaoke. If you've been following me for awhile you'll know I've been teaching myself italian and also how to play guitar. Sometimes I will practice both and learn Italian songs. There's only 3 or 4 I can actually sing to sound decent and cohesive. So when we headed out for dinner at the university cafe and they were doing karaoke I figured why not.
I had a blast and ended up singing half the night away with this woman i met there and one of the hosts, who ended up also being a belly dancer. We were lucky enough she danced a few songs for us.
Beyond the songs I knew I horribly messed up the rest. They would get me to sing in English. Mostly ABBA. I don't know why but everytime I don't in Europe someone always asks me to sing an ABBA song. Must be the tone of my voice or something. It was good practice though and lots of fun.
It was 4am by the time I actually drifted off to sleep. I am going to be dragging today but honestly it was blast.
Jackie ❤️
You should post the piece you're working on, would like to see the visual reference. Btw, I'm low key jelly of your trip to Florence, lol!