For my portraits, I usually start from a b/w photo template. This does not influence my choice of colours. In terms of colour, I limit myself to the three basic colours red, yellow and blue. Together with white, almost any colour tone can be mixed. Black does not appear in my paintings, although very dark red, blue or even green tones can be mixed from my three basic colours.
Lately I have been using more and more other painting tools like palette knives, rollers and paint sprays in my paintings, or I paint with my bare hands. This way I try to give my paintings more spontaneity, depth and intensity. Until recently, I used to let a layer of paint dry before the next work step, but now I am more willing to take risks, continue working directly on the still wet layer or mix the paint directly on the canvas. Slowly I am trying to find my way back to a playful and spontaneous way of working with paint and tools.
Step by step I approach my motif, from the large areas to the important details, usually alternating between light/dark or warm/cold colours. I try not to get lost in the details and to leave room for the viewer's own interpretation. At the moment I still orientate myself strongly on the original. My big goal, however, is to detach myself more and more from the original and to use the original only as an impulse and generally to abstract even more.
A tricky phase for me is usually finding the right time to finish. Often I am not completely satisfied with the result, but by touching up mistakes for too long I have already completely destroyed the overall impression of a painting several times. Christos Tsimaris, whose works I admire very much, says that for him a painting is never definitely finished. At some point he simply stops working on it, but he never excludes the possibility that he will continue working on it again at some point. Maybe I'll manage that one day too...
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