A Peek Behind the Canvas
Creating My Latest Painting, “Malus Avalon”
Initial Vision and Planning
I recently completed an oil painting that was meant to represent my matrilineal line — my grandmother, my mom, and myself, through the portrayal of Morgana le Fay & a raven.
My grandmother named my mom after Morgana le Fay, enchantress from the legends of King Arthur, who was said to be from the Isle of Apples, known as Avalon.
The raven represents me, for obvious reasons if you know me lol. But Morgana was also said to have shapeshifting powers, a raven being her preferred form.
My favorite detail about this piece is for my grandmother, Nova (a name that means “new star”) -- her zodiac sign is Capricorn, and I painted the Capricorn star constellation in freckles on Morgana's arm/side.
The Beginning
Finding references — I bought pose photo references on Gumroad from Rachel Bradley, a talented model and artist.
Building & prepping my surface — I cut down a panel of masonite to the dimensions I wanted — 21” x 35” — and attached backing pieces of wood to give it structure and keep the panel from warping over time. I mixed up a bit of red acrylic paint into my primer and painted on 2 coats (sanding after each layer dried).
I initially sketched my composition onto the panel in charcoal and sprayed over it with a fixative spray to keep my drawing in place without it smudging everywhere.
I had to decide on a color palette, and I chose to get outside of my normal comfort zone and use someone else’s go-to palette this time — one of the painters I look up to most, Aaron Westerberg. He uses one of my most dreaded pigments, viridian green, and I wanted to try and overcome my mental aversion to the color by using it in this painting.
With all of my prep work and decisions made, it was time to get to the fun part — laying down the first layers of paint.
I generally try to use the thinnest layers of paint possible for my first layer, so I thin out my paint with odorless mineral spirits and block in the darkest parts of the painting first. The form of the painting tends shape up pretty quickly once you identify the darkest and lightest areas, so I try to get that done as early as possible.
The colors I use in this stage don’t have to be exact or what I intend the final colors to be, which gives me the freedom to try out different color combinations that I can choose to keep or change as the painting progresses. Here, I used a dark purple (mixing alizarin crimson & viridian green) for all the dark areas, which I ended up keeping a bit of in the skin tone shadows.
I try not to get hyper-focused on one area or part of the painting and build it up evenly over time, but I also am terrible at that and so I definitely got focused on some areas first, like the raven and Morgana’s dress. Sometimes a painting can be intimidating to work on, so I focus on what I can do in the moment and try to forget about the other parts. This sounds good in theory, but then at the end I’m left with only the scary parts to work on and I procrastinate. It’s definitely something I’m working on!
At this point, it’s time for finishing touches, which is adding texture to the background (the scary part for me), working out the kinks in lighting on her hair, and my favorite part, adding the Capricorn constellation in freckles on Morgana’s shoulder/side.
This one is forever going to be one of my favorite pieces, and as of now is my favorite painting I've made yet.