" Continuing with his permanent marker, Varoujan adds facial features or a curving arm with fingers. He delineates faces with simple, stylized lines that seem a part of the initial sketch. Reading into the abstract lines, he adds details that help the viewer see the story hidden within. In the demo piece called "Romeo and Juliet" he first sees a reclining female figure and sketches in her lips, eye, and eye brow. Then he introduces the profile of a lover, before deciding his composition is not just any couple, but the classic Shakespearean lovers. "Lines lead to lines. One line tells about another line," says Varoujan. He followsthe curve of a shoulder or leg and changes a shape to define the form he is pulling from the abstract. He builds shapes over the whole picture, not just one part at time. And, when he introduces a pattern, he repeats it somewhere else. "A pattern in theleft corner needs to be balanced with the same in the right. Then I form a triangle by going down to the bottom and so repeat it in the floor." Soon, he turns his canvas sideways to see how the additional shapes have influenced the balance of the composition. Eventually, he decides the lines of his figures have become obvious enough, while still maintaining an abstract quality.
Building Contrast
He is ready to start building his black and white contrast areas, but first brushes on transparent texture gels into the border and over certain shapes in the composition. This texture gel leaves brush strokes or can be carved with the brush tip to add a subtle dimension under the areas about to be painted. Selecting a pivotal shape, Varoujan uses a thinned, black acrylic paint to introduce his first dark area.
In the demo of "Romeo and Juliet," the first shape was that between the faces of the lovers. "The face is to be light, so I add dark around it. Then it's black, white, black contrasts all over the canvas. If a problem arises as you are setting in the black areas, add a window or other shape to break up the contrasts." With a #8 brush he says, "It's easy to cut right in against the black marker line with this black paint.
The mixture is not too watery but still has some body in it, so that your brush willflow." While painting the blacks, he changes some shapes and also adds more lines with his permanent marker, wherever needed to suggest his figures amidst the abstract. The placement of dark colors added later will be determined by these black shapes. With a smaller brush (#1), he starts working up details of the faces withthe thin black mixture. But he warns that at this point it is still important to concentrate on "getting the basic shapes in place. Don't overdo details."
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