This is a small painting that was executed as a demonstration piece for my illustration students. Here, I was showing them how to get from a drawing to the underpainting, and how to use the wet-into-wet technique of painting in oils.

The sketch was very simple. I tweaked it and then printed it out onto a sheet of 8” x 10” printer paper. To make it archival, I coated both sides of the paper with acrylic painting medium and then used that same medium to “glue” it to a gessoed piece of masonite /hardboard.

After taping off the live area to be painted, I used burnt sienna to establish the first layer of color and the value structure. I then let this layer fry before I started to tackle the background vegetation— which was layered and painted in on the fly.

I spent a bit more time on the figure. The wet-into wet technique is simply putting down a translucent dark and warm layer on the dry underpainting and then pushing lighter and cooler tones into that layer. That’s it. If you need to do this several times to be satisfied with the results, you wait until that layer is dry (or wipe out the first wet layer). It’s a very old technique developed many centuries ago and is just a slightly additive method to the scumble-and-glaze technique of the Renaissance painters.

The idea of leaping into space with no apparent safety net was appealing to me. Where is she going? Where will she land? It’s much like the act of making any art. We leap and trust that we’ll land where we need to be. Are we safe? Not really, but that’s part of the thrill and delight of making art and making a life. Having faith and trust in yourself to stretch into space— even if it’s uncomfortable, knowing you’ll land just where you need to be is exciting. The dear friends and current owners of this piece made a big move across country a few years ago and this painting became a symbol of their own great “leap of faith”.

When did you make a huge leap of faith? Feel free to share here or just make an entry into your own personal journal. And thank you for reading!