Paint

About once every 10 years I get the urge to pick up a paint brush. This time it was after seeing Wayne Thiebaud at White Cube Masons Yard.

I had a classical art foundation but then went on to study Graphic design, so technique wise I am more conversant with illustration techniques than fine art.

What is the difference?

I think an illustrator knows exactly how the end result is going to look and builds up the work in layers, putting down the background first, starting with darker colours, then moving up to the light highlights.

Studying Thiebaud's work, he started with a coloured ground (often orange) then painting each part of the picture separately, so it's not viewed as a whole but separate parts which make a whole. His brushstrokes are also quite loose.

Anyway, I had a go at using his technique.

Only when I had finished and took a look at the catalogue again did I realise he didn't blend his colours. Until I physically started painting I hadn't realised.

Like anything, photography, painting, music, doing it is more important than theorising.