Down an oily rabbit hole

I have been avoiding finishing ‘Male’ because I am anxious about painting the morse code pattern in the background. I definitely want to do it but I think because I didn’t plan this at the beginning I’m worried it wont work. It’s a practice painting! Just do it already Lucy!!

While thinking through other ways to paint the background differently for ‘Young & Free’ I went down an oil painting rabbit hole. Perhaps I should use acrylic high flow paint and a dip pen for the initial drawing, then an acrylic underpainting then layers of oil paint + Galkyd Lite (an oil painting medium that thins the paint and speeds up the drying time).

I am currently using only acrylics on primed canvas. The canvas is very absorbent as it is primed for printing fine art prints on it. While this surface has worked for my painting style it also has some pretty intense (for me at least) limitations with how I can apply the paint. Without going into too much detail it is very hard for me to paint a ‘flat’ wash of paint on this canvas. The pigment is absorbed so quickly it can’t be ‘pushed around’ at all. That has been very problematic with the green background of ‘Male’.

Oil paint could possibly blend easier. But there are also methods of using acrylic paint that imitate oils. But then it comes back to the problem of the surface.

Solution to try: prime this canvas I have with acrylic primer. Draw the outline with a dip pen and acrylic high flow paint. Do the underpainting/wash with acrylic. Then try different methods: acrylic washes (the same method I painted ‘Male’), acrylic imitating oil paint and oil paint.

It will be worth taking the time to do this.