Development of Outcomes: Series of Small Portraits on Calico

Looking at artists such as Mark Powell and  Ed Fairburn inspired me to think about different media that could be used as a background to a portrait. While looking through different artists I was drawn to Colin Davidson. He tends to use oil paints on linen to produce his portraits. I was particularly interested in the texture the paint created on the fabric.

I love the way Colin Davidson has applied the paint, using
different techniques to add a varied range of  brush strokes
to create the "blurry", "faded" effect.

I want to experiment with painting onto fabric. I decided to produce a series of paintings by Colin Davidson onto calico with the idea of producing a bigger portrait of my own.

I started by looking at the way Davidson paints his portraits. The initial process he used was to draw out the face and shade the different tones.
















I then draw the out line of the face onto a piece of calico.
At first I found it difficult to mix the right tones as they
come out a lot stronger fabric.

As I produced more of the painting I found the technique of layering the paint very quick in comparison to when I blend tones to create a flatter continuous colour.

I carried on making more of theses paintings on A4 size calico.