Each of the paintings progress and reasoning for changes of paint work/layout

When originally starting this painting I enjoyed the plainness of it without  the hair or eyes painted in, however I thought that the painting looked too unfinished and it wasn't creating any of the conceptual ideas I had when I initially started the paintings.

I began to draw out the hair but I then realised that I didnt lke the bold lines and I thought if I painted the hair thickly, that it wouldnt work with the delicate facial detail.

I then wiped out the hair and after speaking over my work with a tutor, they introduced me to Rembrandt's work and how the background of a portrait has a very important aspect to create a 'good' painting.

I decided to darken the hair to hold a form within the background. I wanted to create the illusion of there being a form of hair there however a ghostly type as it still blends into the background, I added a gloss medium to give the hair a shine so that the hair's colour would change depending on the different angles you viewed it. 

After speaking to another tutor, he asked me the reasoning for my background and I realised that I had painted it very irrationally without much thought. I had initially added yellow paint with a thought of the novel 'Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, however the touch of yellow paint in the drip marks didn't demonstrate my thought process or ideas behind the work, except the image of a woman emerging out of the canvas background.

I wiped off the original background and repainted the image above with a floral wallpaper design with a more yellowed background, I made the decision to have the drip marks and blend a range of different shades of yellow and hints of browns so the floral outlines aren't too bold contrasting with the woman's face and figure. I originally started painting the floral designs by filling the middle of the floral drawings however I thought this was too bold and wiped it off again and drew the outlines with yellowed paint leaving the middle of the floral drawings to be empty, which I think works better. I also darkend the woman's hair as I thought that before it was too light and looked like the painting was unfinished.

Yellow Wallpaper

This painting has been the most repainted painting though different stages, from the feedback I have been given as well as my own judgement on it.

I started this painting working from a black and white image, this threw complications to me as I had to make up what I thought was the correct shades and colour for the woman's face. I asked advice on the painting of the hair and my tutor suggested three different options, 1. paint every strand of hair     2. paint the hair in different shades suggesting a implication/gesture of hair      3. paint an outline of the hair in block shading. I decided to go for the second option, as I think that painting every strand of hair has too much detail and I didn't want this to be the main focus, I also think that using suggestive brush strokes to create the impression of hair I was also able to create a messy, nest like hair style. I painted the clothing with Michael Borreman's 'Girl with feathers' in mind, however I let my own style take place and allowed my paintbrush to loosely shaping the woman's clothing. However at this stage, I was unsure how to paint the birds placed on her head as I found that so far throughout the painting there was a good balance with the painting of the woman.

I decided to outline the birds as I thought that if I filled in the birds with full colour and form it would become too heavy as the hair is also thickly painted and her hair is a browned shade, the same as what the birds would be, which I thought would throw the painting out of balance, so I decided to paint the birds in thin delicate lines, which I think creates a new form of context because of the lines being bulked out in a fleshy tone like scar tissue, which links much better to the narritive of the painting.

Girl with clipped wings

This painting was easier to paint as I had an idea of what kind of image I wanted to end with, however I did have more decisions to make whilst making it as not everything went to plan as I originally imagined the painting to look like. In the future I am interesting in repainting a few more versions of this portrait with different styles, to learn different ways of successfully painting an image to learn different ways of balancing the paint.

I was really inspired by Rembrandt's work when painting this piece and I found that I didn't have and image in mind how I wanted the final result to look like, I found the inspiration from Rembrandt took over, especially when painting the background. I found myself painting mainly with my finger tips and really getting stuck into the painting, becoming expressive and felt as though I was creating art rather then a particular image that has been planned out, instead I let the paint do the work and let it happen. I originally painted the woman in the background in a bold background, but then realised that that became a strong focus in the painting and I wanted her to be fading into the background so I rubbed the lines with my fingers blending the yellowed paint into the background.

I painted the birds more boldly in this painting, I was very quick and expressive with my brush marks and wasn't as focused on being so tight with the image of the bird by trying to paint it exact, instead I created an impression of the bird as their purspose is a demonstration and symbol rather than an image. The hanging of the bird was inspired by Jean Baptise Oudrey.

Discharged from the avery

I felt that this painting painted itself as I didn't have to do hardly any decision making as I let the paintin happen itself after inspiration from artists, I found that this was a really nice way to paint because I have absolutly no idea how the painting was going to finish, it was really exciting and a big step from my style with my previous work.

I began this portrait with more confidence as I had now painted two other portraits,  I think I looked less at detail and tones as I did with 'Girl with clipped wings' and 'Yellow wallpaper', so I don't think that this painting has been as well painted because I was less careful with it.

After looking at Rembrandt's backgrounds, I was again influenced again by one of his younger self portraits as it also had a lighter background, I found this to be quite liberating as the painting's context is also displaying this by blowing the feathers away and is a relief for the woman as the colour of her eyes begin to light up again. I also found that when painting the feathers fully that it didn't work as well as when there was suggestion of a shape/form of a feather, therefore I decided to rub some of the paint work out and repaint part of the feathers with lines. 

I repainted this image slightly again by darkening the corner of the bacground to give it some more form, I also realised that there was no hair going over her face, which looks very unatural unlike the 'Girl with clipped wings', the hair even though bulky has more fluency and has parts coming over her face. So I added more hair onto this painting. I also left the bubble blower with pencil marks rather than any paint because of the blower being a fictional prop within the painting. After discussing with a tutor my different paintings on which to exhibit, I realised that this painting was not as well painted compared to my other paintings, also colour wise the blue doesn't fit in as well with the other three as they are shades of burnt umber and yellow ocre. 

Blowing a Nightingale