Hatton vs Pacquiao is going to be a tremendous display of the human spirit and skill! This is a quick acrylic sketch of the two great fighters. It is shown here in fast motion to give you an idea of how I start the painting process.
The painting, all in all, took about 3 - 4 hours to bring to this point – acrylics dry really fast (as compared to oil paint) and helps create a good foundation of color without having to wait for the painting to dry. I am using Winsor Newton Finity Artist series acrylic paint – unlike many acrylics they are expensive but you can achieve a very rich depth of field as well as adding wonderfully light fast and vibrant colors to your painting.
I began the painting by, very basically, blocking in the images – only using one or two colors. Quickly adding color to eliminate the great white expanse of the unpainted canvas, I stood back and realized that the figures needed to be much bigger than I had painted them… So I scrapped the first 10 – 20 minutes of my work and began again. Here is a quick little tip that I learned from a great artist: NEVER try to finish a work of art if you are not happy with it – starting over can be a horrific and mind numbing thing but even if it is – Do it – the final result will be worth it!
As I made sure that the two figures were the right size I began to paint – as fast as possible. I am a portrait artist by trade (you can view my art by visiting www.mctierart.com) but I relish the freedom in painting the human body in motion and there is nothing like conveying to an audience the poetic energy of the pugilistic science!
Using bright and highly contrasted colors I slowly begin to bring the images into focus – There are many different ways to paint, no one way is wrong or right, that is if you arrive at the finished product with extreme artistic satisfaction, but I usually paint this way…
Imagine looking through an unfocused camera, and then slowly sharpening the image until the focus is just perfect – exactly the way that you wanted it. That is how I paint; after blocking in the subjects I slowly begin to bring the image alive, into MY focus. If you could throw a ballet, a train wreck and the courage of two warriors into a blender and hit puree – you would get something akin to sport of boxing! That is what I want everyone who views my Boxing Art to experience - The power, passion and determination of the ancient sport.
Jace
