Irish Sheep Micropoint Painting in Stages

Sketch stage

This is the image I sketched for Irish Sheep on the canvas. I did it in washable fabric marker. This gives me a drawing to paint on top of that will wash off so you won’t see it in the final painting. Plus washable fabric marker is easy to make corrections in the drawing stage.

Now any areas I want to stay white, I paint with silkscreen blockout mixed with dishwashing soap. This blockout mix acts as a mask by blocking any paint, but is still able to be washed with water. After I paint the areas I want white with the blockout, I spray yellow acrylic paint with a mouth atomizer. This gives me a faint tint of yellow. Any area I want to keep that light yellow, I paint over it with more blockout.

Yellow stage

I keep repeating this until the canvas is covered with solid yellow or blockout. When it’s completely dry, I wash the blockout off.

After the all the yellow paint is sprayed and I do the first wash down of the canvas, I now have a painting with white and different tints of yellow.

The process is repeated, but the colors change. Now any areas I want to stay white or yellow, I paint with the blockout. I then spray magenta acrylic paint with a mouth atomizer.

I keep repeating blocking out and spyaing paint until the canvas is covered with solid magenta or blockout. When it’s completely dry, I wash the blockout off.

Red stage

After I apply the red (magenta) paint and do another wash down of the canvas, I have a painting with white and different tints of yellow, orange, peach, and red.

The process is repeated a last time. Again any areas I want to stay the colors they are, I paint with the blockout. I then spray cyan acrylic paint with a mouth atomizer.

I keep repeating blocking out and spyaing paint until the canvas is covered with solid cyan or blockout. This is where the painting gets difficult and more of a mental process. The blockout I use is a purplish green and I’m covering the exposed areas with cyan. I can’t see the image well at all in the last stages. I have to remember what I want it to look like in my head and hope I’m applying the right amounts of blockout and paint. This is the scary part of micropointillism.

Final stage

This is how the canvas looks when I’m finished with the blue (cyan), but before the final splashdown. With all the paint and the blockout, it’s nothing but a mass of purplish green murkiness. I’m just about to start hosing it down.

Splashdown

This is the most fun part (although it’s scary too) and the part that's great to do before an audience. I’m not sure how my painting will turn out. The image is only inside my head at this point and I hope the painting under the blockout matches it pretty closely. It’s starting to reveal itself under the washing, like a developing of a Polaroid.

The final painting!

This is what I ended up with and I was happily surprised.

Micropointillism is a very mental process. Instead of just applying any color with a brush, I have to use some forethought to how little or how much of each of the three colors I want applied to different areas of the canvas. There’s no green paint in this painting. Your eye is fooled into seeing the fine spray of yellow, red, and blue dots to make it think it sees greens.

I hope reading this makes you want to try doing one. My descriptions of the process were very brief and I encourage you to read the detailed instructions by Stephen Goodfellow before you attempt yours. If you have any questions about the technique, contact me and I’ll do what I can to help you out.

Return to micropointillism gallery

Return to top of page