Painting Knife Procedure to Restore a Smile

2017 is coming to an end and I wanted to finish one more painting. Again, it is on hare hide, and this one had an immediate story to tell. Here is the hide – can you see the discernible form telling me what to paint?

Well, when I first looked at it I saw an unhappy face in profile. Here is the profile looking left. The nose is prominent and the mouth shows a sad lip.

I wanted to finish the year with joy, so decided to give a soft smile to this face. But who is the hide telling me to paint?

If you look closely, there seems to be two dark colour feathers on the head’s back. Ok, then it will be a Native American, a happy one!

Decided to use a painting knife and leave my brushes clean. Well, I have made a painting knife from an old letter opener that fits my hand just fine. In addition, I use a credit card (an expired one!) to apply the sgraffito technique as I work with oil. Here is a close-up of the technique:

So, the black feathers blended with his hair as I added a single feather. Then his hair got wild, but I think with character. Now it was time to change that smile!

With minimal lines, I wanted to make this face not only a happy one but also pensive and calm.  Here is the final product:

The oil needs to dry before I frame the “canvas”, but I thought it was what I had in mind regarding finishing the year with joy and a smile.

But… As I looked at it from a few feet away, I could not tell if it ended up the face of a man or a woman. There seem to be stereotypic features or an attitude making me think that this may be seen and interpreted differently according to the viewer.

And that is just fine.

December 19, 2017

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2017