I use both old-school and new-school methods to bring a painting to life. Here’s how this Elf Sock Monkey was born:
First I posed the sock monkey seated in my desk chair and shot a reference photo. Then I popped into Canva and removed the background. My original intent was to leave a ton of white space so that I could later add text for my Christmas cards. However, once I completed the first statement, I decided the background was too boring. So I shot another picture, placed it into Canva, and tried more backgrounds. I settled on the wreath and bow, and headed back to the easel. I gotta tell ya, using Canva sure saves me a lot of sketching and painting time.
Once I got the second statement done, I realized the wreath looked too much like a lifesaver candy and it was placed way too high. Adding the bow would have helped the composition but it would have detracted from my sock monkey center of interest.
So I popped it back into Canva, added a new wreath, and adjusted the composition. Once I was completely happy with the composition, I was able to go back to the canvas finish the painting.
He’s now a very happy elf sock monkey 🙂
