Head of the Harem8x10 inches
Acrylics and Oils on Gessobord
Another week filled with ups and downs and pieces going in the bin. In an earlier post, I mentioned that I had bought some Gessobord and also some Speedball Mona Lisa Gesso Boards which were about 1/3 of the price of the Gessobord. The Speedball boards, whilst they are called Gesso board, really don't have the feel of gesso at all. They are extremely slick, in a different way to Claybord, and actually feel more like laminated board. Whilst the labelling states they are suitable for a range of media, including oils, acrylics, watercolours, coloured pencils etc., I personally didn't find this to be the case. Watermedia bubbles up, coloured pencils slide off, and even the oil painting I got half way through started to peel away.
This painting was done on the gessobord and this surface is a joy to work with - enough tooth for the paint to adhere well, but smooth enough for lovely detail. This gorgeous rooster posed for us a few years ago at our local wildlife park and was just the subject for a little more experimentation with oils, which I have to say I'm really loving. The only down side, of course, is the length of time it takes for the paint to dry, so even though I finished this fellow earlier in the week, I couldn't really scan him for a few days.
