I’ve finally finished my Fractured Salvador Dali painting. I didn’t love this process as much as the David Bowie, but I enjoyed trying out Ala-prima painting and liked how quickly I could get this one finished.
What I learnt about before making this artwork:
- I generated this image from an online AI image generator. I love the way that the machine interpreted a portrait of Salvador Dali, despite there being thousands of images available online for it to choose from. I think this has something to do with the filters I pre-selected.
- I wanted to see whether I can manipulate the colours to be something completely unexpected – pastel palettes are not in keeping with Dali’s style.
What I learnt during the making:
- Pure black is quick to dry.
- Blue on the other hand takes days to dry, which is frustrating.
- When blending from two completely different colours, the smoothness of the blend has to take place while the paint is still wet. Blending corrections are impossible to make afterwards. In this way, I ‘painted myself into a corner’ with the background, finding myself having to finish the whole background in one sitting.
What I learnt after completing the painting:
- If I let a painting sit for too long, I lose interest in it and am unmotivated to finish it at all.
- My art teacher said never to use pure black on a painting. I used pure black and feel that the overall effect is great…
- Learn the rules so that you can break the rules.
- AI as a main topic of enquiry is exhausted.
Debbie New 