Child Of Woe

Josslyn Taylor-Francis

The concept of associating personalities with the day of the week a child is born originates from a poem first published in 1838, known as "Monday's Child."

Wednesday Addams, a character from the Addams Family, first appeared in comics in 1938. These comics were created by cartoonist Charles Addams and were published in The New Yorker. Initially, the characters did not have specific names or consistent designs. However, over time, Addams developed distinct names, personalities, and appearances for each character, culminating in the 1964 TV series, "The Addams Family."

My take on this part of the Disused doll series, whilst there are some similarities to the later versions of Wednesday Addams, my design goes back to the original poem.

My Process

1. Visualisation & Drawing

Photography

Photography has been another long-time favourite hobby of mine. Whenever I take a photo I will often think of composition at this early stage, photographing a subject from different angles. Right from the start the painting is forming in my mind and in the camera.

As part of my process, I create several thumbnail sketches in my visual diary focusing on composition. Drawing gives me a deeper insight into the subject, forcing me to look closely at shapes and values through this process I am getting to know and understand my subject. I often incorporate my photographs into the painting process or use them as inspiration. I use Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Photo 2 as a tool to layer, compose, manipulate, and transform images into a visually pleasing composition that fits with my vision for a new painting.

In this painting,

I incorporated a watercolour stage.

Final Photoshop composition

2. Choosing the canvas

I prefer painting on board which has been cut to the chosen frame size, stretched and glued with fine canvas or linen fabric. Using fine linen helps me achieve intricate details, as the weave does not distort my line work.

3. Image Transfer

Transferring my sketch onto the canvas has been a challenging area for me. There are various methods to do this, from tracing to using grids. Ultimately, I believe in finding what works best for you. I have experimented with many systems but find that drawing my image at a 1:1 scale on paper (making all necessary corrections during the drawing stage) and then using transfer paper to transfer this image to the canvas works best for me.

4. ’Kill the canvas’

One of my favourite quotes from Martin is "Kill the Canvas." When he first suggested it I was not too sure what he had in mind. Macabre thoughts aside, it basically means to cover the entire canvas with a mid-range colour. (Blood Red sounds good.) I usually use Burnt Sienna using either acrylic wash or a 1:5 ratio of linseed oil and pure gum turps. This allows for the highlights and shadows to be measured against the mid-tones. In this example, I used Burnt Sienna wash and washes of Prussian Blue.

5. Blocking In

After applying the ground colour, I re-establish my line work and block in the larger shapes. I identify the darkest darks first, followed by highlights to create a monochromatic grisaille painting.

6. Paint

I prefer working with a limited palette of colours to avoid feeling overwhelmed by choices. I build up the colour layers in my paintings, starting from large shapes and gradually moving to more detailed shapes.

7. Self Analysis

I'm attempting to blend less these days and trying to use more mark-making by placing colours next to each other to create the desired hue. It’s a work in progress and let’s face it, we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes.