Mini-Paint: Action Figure / Still Life

Mini-Paint:

Still Life

Hey, it's another Mini-Paint!  Rather than just featuring one Star Wars (in)action figure, this painting is a still life of several nerd-based toys and such, gathered together.  In this case, it is a ceramic Chewbacca cup which I use as a paint brush/pen holder; a Hulk Funco Pop toy; and a GONK/Power Droid action figure (see?  I had to get a Star Wars (in)action figure in there somewhere...)

This is another in the paintings I am getting ready for a small art show in September 2019, which I am doing with my daughter down at the Middleton Library in Middleton, WI.  The (in)action figures are for the Children's section, while in the other part of the library, I will be doing more mythological based pen-and-ink drawings.  So, we'll see how that goes, as well.

Fingers crossed, I'm hoping to have 4-6 (in)action figure paintings--of which I'm on target with 5 of 'em so far.  And for the mythological drawings, I'm also hoping to have 4-6 of 'em done, too.  Again, we'll see how that goes...

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STEP ONE:  I started with an 8" x 10" piece of matboard, over which I painted a mixture of matte medium and blue casein (it's a paint that uses a milk-based protein as a binder--it's a lot like acrylic paint) as an ad hoc gesso for the painting.  Using a Blue Violet colored pencil, I did a rough sketch of the still life I set up.

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STEP TWO:  Here is the first layer of paint thrown down to give a sense of what the painting was going to be color-wise.

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STEP THREE:  I'm not sure if it was too much matte medium/casein, but the gouache kept wanting to "lift off" the painting more than usual, where I would touch the paint to the board, but then the layer of paint would kind of dissolve or run off down the board.  So, that was a bit of a pain in the @$$.  But, after enough patience and persistence, I was able to get the painting finished.

Hmmm, I should have thrown more shadows in the background for the pens and paintbrushes.  But, then again, it was already a pretty dark painting.  Oh, well...

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Done with Gouache on 8" x 10" primed matboard.

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