ZAPstract - art that zaps!

The Generation of an Image

19 July 2016 by Rey Armenteros

Here we have textbook steps for a painting; this is textbook in the traditional sense, which is something that rarely happens in my work.

Buddha 1

This began with a rudimentary drawing.

Buddha 2

The drawing developed a bit more before going into color.

Buddha 3

In this case, before introducing the colors, I placed more gesso over the drawing to allow for later transparent washes of color.

Buddha 4

Textures were added for still more washes of color.

Buddha 5

With a return to drawing, I further cut into the forms, refining them a bit by using lines. There were no opaque painting in this one.

This image, like all my images, is from memory. It was done with the Great Kamakura Buddha in mind, which I had seen twice when I lived in Japan. I did it in 2012, and looking at it now, I clearly see where this falls short (on all manner of levels, including the fact that it has only some remote resemblance to the real one). I will say that I did have a slightly different way of entering paintings in those days (notwithstanding these steps), and it was more of a purist, hit or miss approach, where in this case, I got the essence (or structure) without getting the details, without really getting the subtlety. I may explain this better one day.

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