Practicing on board...- Refinement of ideas

I have taken inspiration from Mark Powell by drawing one of my family members for my final piece. I am to drawn my Uncle Ray on this board, however I am unsure what medium to drawn him in. Therefore, I have practiced painting and drawing on top of a sample board.

I firstly painted this board with white emulsion in order to create an even surface on which to paint on and to prevent the paint from soaking in to the board. I quickly drew a portrait of my sister when she was younger in order to practice painting and drawing the human form. This is something I have practiced throughout my project since attending life drawing classes and taking inspiration from Jenny Saville and Edgar Degas.

I practiced with a range of mediums including acrylic paint, watercolour and dry painting. Each of these was tested upon the child on the board. I had a few issues with painting on the white emulsion. The pigment in the paint appeared dull and boring. This was because the emulsion was somehow mixing with the paint I was putting on top of this. This was causing the paint to have a milky appearance. I tried painting different sections of the board using a different emulsion, however although there was an improvement, I wasn't keen to use this in my final piece as I wouldn't want to risk the painting looking dull and unrealistic. I also tried watercolour, which I preferred as there was a degree of flexibility with the paint which allowed me to blend my colours more easily, however, when I painted the child and the paint dried back, it often appeared patchy in places. The final technique I tried was dry painting. For this I used black oil paint and 2-3 drops of engine oil in order to give the paint flexibility when spreading on the board. However, I found that it produced the same effect as acrylic, by blending with the emulsion paint.

After testing these mediums, I have refined my ideas further and came to the conclusion that I will use pencil instead of paint. Looking closely at the child, you should be able to see especially in the red fabric that I have worked into the fold using a coloured pencil. This was because the paint was just too patchy and the painting looked inconsistent and incomplete. By using the pencil I could pick out specific details and produce a more accurate response. Furthermore, I have also decided that white emulsion Is not a suitable background on which to paint and draw. Therefore, I have also refined this idea by deciding to draw on top of paper. I will take inspiration from Mark Powell by drawing on top of a meaningful surface that will somehow relate to my uncle or the person I drawn on top of the paper. Consequently, like Leonardo da Vinci and Mark Powell, the drawing and its background will be united and come together as one. To make the drawing more substantial, I will stick the paper onto a thin piece of board.