Post 3: Oversaved 2 Progress and Finish

Put the layer of red on. Doing the eyes, eyebrows and mouth. I do this first before applying the flesh tones.

Put the flesh tone in. I usually do layers and then use brushes but mainly my fingers to apply the paint to the face. I also make sure the eyes have a lot of character and really pop.

Photo I used

Example of spirit writing

I approached the second part of the series the way I did the first painting. First, do the main face, then the babies then the background and put the text in. I painted the main face and decided again to keep the hair black. I'm deconstructing Joseph Smith.Does it have to look like him? Not entirely. He is a symbol, and on some level when I start distorting faces the realism of the face becomes irrelevant.  I think the eyes are piercing like the photograph. I made subtle changes like instead of carrying watering cans they are holding water pails  But then it was looking too safe and pristine. I started twisting the words " Holiness to the Lord." Some of the letters, are backward, forward and generally making no sense. I finished only about half of the painting the other day and called it a day. Then I came home and read a book about the video artist Tony Oursler: Imponderable: The Archives of Tony Oursler. The book isn't so much about the artist which was a bummer. It was still a bizarre photo and newspaper clip collection. Lots of photos of circus freaks, magical hoaxes, odd scientific instruments.Spirtualists would write words unconsciously like in a trance. Some of what they wrote down definitely looked like ghostly abstract art. Very gorgeous. I think I came in the next day and became inspired by the photographs I saw. The words no longer became the issue. It became more about the beauty of the line and a subtle haunting quality of the letters in general. I am going to glance at some of the examples more in the book and try to emulate them in the next couple paintings.