Monday, May 31, 2010

WIP "The Gifting"

I had this plan to do the three fates of Greek mythology one at a time. I was going to start with Clotho, the fate that holds the distaff and begins the weaving of the fate of each human. I am intrigued by the fates, and other web/weaving goddesses like Ariadne. They are often connected to the stars and spiders. Also the word faerie is derived from the Latin fata, or fate. It has been speculated by many that actual faeries were "people" with the gift of second sight, or the ability to see the future.
I wanted to do my Clotho in a very modern way or another one of my "pop surrealistic" goddesses. I started to work on the pencil sketch on a larger size (for me) 24x36 canvas.



I struggled with her face a little more than usual. Something about her really bothered me. I decided to give her my bangs for some reason. I almost think she looked too much like me and that was what was bothering me. I erased her face more than a few times and finally decided to just let it go and she would evolve once I started painting.



I sometimes do my sketches with a water soluble graphite pencil that does not need to be fixed before you add the acrylic paint. It ends up just blending away with the paint. For this painting I used regular old graphite and sprayed it with a fixative before I painted. I thought I wanted to leave a lot of the graphite lines showing, but now I am wishing I would have put a light coat of white gesso over it to dim the pencil lines a little; you live and you learn I guess. Here she is with an added hand:



I have drawn a barn owl in the background that I planned to be bringing her the beginning of the thread. I wanted it to be as if she was chosen by nature to have the gift of sight. As I am looking more and more at it though, I am thinking about making the thread that the owl is holding a snake instead. I guess I haven't quite gotten over my snake obsession yet. Here she is with some background color:



I finally started to like her face and her general look. I am not really sure if she is still Clotho, maybe just an ambiguous woman being gifted by the Otherworld. I still feel for some reason there is more of me in her than normal.



This is the last photo I took of her. I have since added a delicate off the shoulder blouse on her. I hardly ever dress my girls so I thought I would play around with some fabric. I need lots of practice with fabric folds. I am excited about this one now, I wasn't at first. Funny how your work can evolve sometimes into more than you expected when the idea was first birthed.

4 comments:

Patricia Ariel said...

she is very very beautiful. amazingly, I am now working in a self portrait on canvas and using absolutely the same palette as you in your Clotho -- and I also have an owl coming from the left side! and in the painting i have red hair! funny that you think that your Clotho resembles you... what's in our unconscious right now? lol

i've been struggling with acrylics on canvas lately, trying to keep my penciling smooth and detailed like on the paper, but the texture of canvas doesn't make me happy at all. i have applied some extra coats of gesso to see how it goes... when I see wips of people like you, who are more experienced with acrylics on canvas, i always learn a bit more. thanks for sharing, Tammy!

MoonSpiral said...

Haha Patty, I just looked at your work...and my mouth was on the floor. It looks gorgeous! I can understand your frustration though when you are so use to such tight drawings. I first started with oil painting and pastels and I actually like things not to be controlled and enjoy the flexibility of those mediums. It is like you and I are coming from 2 different directions. I think we could both learn a lot from each other!
Very wierd about the pallette and the owl and the self in there. I strongly feel myself coming into some new "gifts" lately....you and I girl....I think we are more connected than we might realize.

Unknown said...

Superb work. I look forward to seeing the finished work.

MoonSpiral said...

Hey thanks Helen, I deeply appreciate that!

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