I-Fri: Change

I really don't know why this image popped into my head for 'Change', but once it did I really wanted to paint it. 'the smoke changed into a genie'? 'his life changed after that moment'? Anyway, I had a lot of fun with this one. Experimenting a bit with collage too - i always like the extra dimension it adds.

The painty bits were done with gouache. Even though I use gouache a lot like watercolours, I really prefer it for its versatility of being able to layer light colours over dark. I don't often use it like that, but in some cases it is necessary. Like with this piece, I got a bit carried away with the blue smokey part, and painted too much over the genie's face. I often like to let the background colour show through, but in this case the blue on the right side of his face made it look like a shadow, whereas I wanted the shadows on the left side. so hooray for white gouache!

It was a beautiful warm springy day here, and quite still as well, so I painted this in our backyard, in the sunshine, listening to the really pitiful band rehearsing next door. but I loved it. oh thank you sun gods and Vitamin D! oh how I have missed thee!