A friend had a fantastic suggestion for me: do a test painting of the kangaroo.

As soon as I read this I relaxed. I didn’t realise I’d become so anxious about this painting! I am anxious about the logistics of painting it now that I have a new studio without a flat wall to tape the canvas to.

Another friend’s suggestion to use plasterboard (drywall) is great, but I will have to make a frame to attach it to and join two pieces of plasterboard together. It doesn’t come ready made in the size I want to make this painting! Why don’t you make the painting smaller Lucy? Because it needs to be BIG. It needs to be a life-size kangaroo.

This is not impossible. I can learn to do this. With my plasterboard ‘movable wall’ I can lean it up against the studio wall or lie it flat on the ground - excellent for washes of paint!

But back to the test painting - this is something that I could organise soon. I have a free piece of hardboard (masonite) I can tape some canvas to and get going with it.

At the moment the head looks like this:

I can’t seem to rotate it or make it look any more interesting then that at the moment. I think I need to move the ‘world’ around the kangaroo ‘object’, rather than trying to move the kangaroo around in the world, to get a different angle of the head.

I suppose there is something interesting about seeing the kangaroo head on. I can paint the diamond eyes so that they look like they are looking directly at the audience, or my reflection. This view also makes my reflection quite clear and noticeable - I think. It will also look a lot more interesting when it is painted. The 3D model is a bit boring. A painting is much more thrilling.