New ‘Erebus’ canvas – applying texture and using different techniques

For the next canvas in my ‘Erebus’ series, I knew I wanted to play around with colour and perspective. I still included my own skin tone as the foreground however wanted the background to almost wrap itself the limbs. What sets this piece off as different to my previous ones, was a new technique of trying to layer parts on top of one another forming new perspectives and colours.  

In my opinion, I don’t feel the layering technique was successful. It created a stiffness and flatness to my canvas which I was trying to move away from. I would have liked to practice this technique further but couldn’t due to time restrictions, however, in the future will try again. One aspect I felt was successful in this piece was attempting to scratch and scrape into my canvases surface, adding texture and energy. In addition, I also attempted to use more paint as to create a new surface (such as Jenny Saville does) as well as focusing on the awkwardness and uncomfortable nature of how limbs fall linking to Egon Schiele. It is hard to visualise with these digital photographs but I have also used palette knives and thicker paint, something I wanted to really experiment with. Overall this painting is my most ambitious and has given me confidence to be even more generous with paint and texture. After finishing this painting, I decided I wasn’t keen on how the composition looked, I felt it was to square and not fluid enough. This is something I will work on, but I have learnt that composition is just as important as actually applying the paint.