Friday, December 13, 2024

Quick Hit

For a friend’s housewarming, I painted the outfit my friend wore in her recent Kathak dance performance, which I attended with that friend group.

I was so diligent on this project! I was inspired by another friend's suggestion on a Tuesday, did a sketch to test viability, and ordered supplies that night. Picked up supplies on Wednesday, painted it all that night, and applied isolation coat/varnish (first time for me!) on Thursday and Friday. Gifted it during the friend's housewarming on Saturday (which went until 2am doing absolutely nothing in the most chill way possible).

I’m not posting this painting to the IG, but still wanted to document a few random thoughts on the process:

-Gifting: Before this, I’ve made 2.5 other paintings for other people as gifts. In general, I don’t like to paint for gifts due to a combination of (1) lack of inspiration, (2) not liking the expectation, and (3) not wanting to give away my creations, legitimately. But this one was fun because I was super excited about the idea. (My vision for the subject matter, pose, medium came really quickly.) I was also warmed up from my painting retreat, which made it lower activation energy.

-Uncertainty: Sometimes I surprise myself with how easy paint is to work with. For the two hours it took me to complete this, it was looking wonky for a good hour. But the amount of control and ability to “erase”/adjust indefinitely using acrylics, really helped in making the angles and proportions look right in the end. I was extremely unsure whether I could do it, since it is a larger human figure than the characters in my Christmas card series, but it felt similar enough that there was hope to be worth a try!

-Medium: I knew immediately that I wanted to paint on a ceramic coaster to make into a magnet. This might be my first time painting on anything that’s not canvas. But having prepped with many base coats of gesso on the unglazed side, the painting experience really wasn’t much different. To assemble the magnet, I superglued 3 small neodymium magnets to the back, which I tested to be the right strength.

-Varnish: This was also my first time trying varnish, but I felt it was important to protect the piece. My varnishing did the job, though the edges were uneven. There's more I'd have to figure out to be confident enough to varnish my other paintings. I'd need to find the right larger brush, and solve the issues of dust and streakiness. I also learned that the varnishing process is lengthy. Isolation coat should be put on after the painting is completely dry which could be several days post-painting. Varnish is then put on a day or more after the isolation coat.

The part of my vision that didn't pan out was that I wanted everyone to sign the back, but markers wouldn't stick to the shiny glaze of the original coaster. That would have been perfect though if it worked out.

But yes, this was a fun and productive gift project. I don’t have an urge to paint another gift. It is difficult. But no one’s asking either so I don’t have to worry about it. :)


It turns out, this is the best photo I have. Don't mind the shadows.