~Technical Studies - Wayne Thiebaud's Technique and Approach

For my technical study, I chose to look to the inspiration for my series: Wayne Thiebaud. His background as a cartoonist adds some very fun and interesting influences to his paintings that bring them more life. That's why I wanted to paint the subjects of my series in a similar style. Artistically, I an drawn to his subjective use of color and his approach to art that is both child-like and professional. But what I am especially interested in studying is his signature application of paint.

Here is a picture I took of Wayne Thiebaud's "Girl with a Pink Hat" at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The figure is expertly rendered, presented in a "buffet" of fully saturated, unexpected color. Consistent for Thiebaud is the application of thick and creamy paint that we can see in this piece. If we look closely, we can see how Thiebaud drags his brush with white paint right along the outer edges of the figure, then carries those strokes outside horizontally to the edges of the canvas. I admire this discipline paired with creativity,

 “I think an artist’s capacity to handle the figure is a great test of his abilities,”  said Thiebaud. In "DELICIOUS, The Life and Art of Wayne Thiebaud, author Susan Goldman Rubin responds to this quote, saying, 

   "That’s true. And an artist’s capacity to paint row upon row of cakes and pies is a great test of his sanity. This man must be crazy sane."

I begin the technical study with a 6"x 8" canvas panel loosely replicating a cropped area of "Girl with a Pink Hat". I do a quick freehand sketch directly on the panel laying out basic shapes.

I start adding more color using Thiebaud as a guide. I try to replicate the color in his cool and warm shadows, while also making some of Thiebaud's so-called "arty strokes".

To achieve a look of thick paint, I first try a dollop of white paint poured directly onto the panel. From here I will drag the brush along the outer edges of the figure, then outside to the edges in horizontal strokes. 

After the white paint has dried, I realize that this approach may not work best. The paint thinned out a lot more and cracks began to form in the paint.

Next, I tried applying Dick Blick's Acrylic Gel Medium thickly to the panel. I laid down the gel with the same strokes used previously. Once it dried, I was happy to see that it had not chipped the paint or lost its thickness. I can duplicate this process with gel medium and white paint to achieve a much thicker, textural look for the empty spaces surrounding the figures in my own series.

I am already applying what I learned from my technical study. I will work with more gel medium (Dick Blick brand specifically, the best I've used so far at $18 a quart) and modeling paste, another medium I have just started using. The gel medium dries on completely transparent and helps saturate color, It dries exactly as it is applied to the canvas - there is no dripping or thinning. This allows for thick applications that may be a little hard to control. I will work on refining my strokes with the gel around and outside the figure according to Thiebaud's approach in "Girl with the Pink Hat",  I will experiment with modeling paste a bit as well, which dries on completely opaque unlike the gel medium I use.

It is my hope that this improved thickness of paint outside the figure will add textural interest to an otherwise static white background. Additionally, I want my subjects to be looked at, One good way to ensure that viewers will actually give the figures the attention they deserve is to treat the entirety of the composition with the same reverence.