With the title, design and color palette in place, I was all set to create “On the Shore”. When I received the fiberglass star sculpture it came with a coat of gesso acrylic medium already applied. As with any canvas the surface needed to be prepped in order to have the best surface for acrylic paint to adhere properly. The surface was a little rough so I lightly sanded the fiberglass and then applied a coat of outdoor primer to all 12 sides – it was now smooth enough to paint.
Depending on the subject I’m painting, I would either paint directly on the canvas or sketch out the design first. Since my sketch was to be used as a guide, I drew the entire design in pencil in order to make sure everything was to scale. As many of the design elements overlapped on multiple sides of the star, adjustments needed to be made. Now comes the fun part. With the drawing completed, I proceeded to paint the entire outline in black acrylic paint to give the piece more definition.
Then with the paint swatches previously selected, the cool colors were applied in phases. The two-tone water occupied the top section of the sculpture so I painted the turquoise portion first and then added a variation of violet colors throughout sculpture to keep the drying time to a minimum.
While rotating the sculpture 360 degrees to cover all the star angles, I then painted the green color combinations. And finally the remaining two blue tones for the sea shells were painted. But the sculpture was still not complete, up next the finishing details.
This is the second of a three blog post series providing a behind the scenes look at the making of the Star Art Project. The Centennial Star Sculpture outdoor public exhibit runs from late May to end of August 2012 in Chicago’s North Shore area (Winnetka, IL). This is a no cost event open to the public.