Elizabeth Beckley’s Gallery Entry – Path of the Worthy

How did you go about selecting what you wanted to paint for your gallery entry? 

I really wanted to have fun and focus on things I don’t normally get to try out for the painting I do for work where I have to follow references. I’m a big comic book fan, so it was neat to dive into the characters I wanted to include in my piece. I feel it helps me brainstorm ideas about the theme and story I want to tell.

How do you go about planning a competition piece? What steps do you typically take to lay out and organize the process to stay on schedule? 

I plan by first brainstorming ideas with the miniatures I’ve selected for a scene. At that point, I do a lot of sitting and thinking. I enjoy envisioning what I want to create while I’m falling asleep at night. The next step I usually take is gathering up the main contents I’ll need for the project. A base is always important, for me, when I have that in hand, I can blue tac on my figures and get a feel for how I want the base configuration, flow and story. The building and painting process I try to give myself enough time to make changes and mistakes. For me, before I put primer on the scene, I can have a hard time being motivated. I have a hard time knowing if something I’ve sculpted or want to freehand will look good. I usually focus on something about the piece I’m really looking forward to. The first thing I painted was a little still life that I had been wanting to challenge myself with that was the size of a postage stamp.

Can you walk us through anything you had initially planned one way, but later decided to change – or did everything fall out according to plan?

For competition pieces, I have a lot of freedom to make decisions. I am constantly tweaking what I want to add or subtract when it comes to objects or even paint colors. For this piece, I sat for a day thinking about what color I wanted to paint the artist’s smock. I didn’t want to the color I chose to clash, so I started with a dark brown and as I was painting it, decided it would look better being off white. For this piece, I’d say about fifty percent is set from concept and as I go, the other fifty percent falls into place up until I put final highlights on and say I’m finished.

Do you find this piece to be indicative of your style? How so or how not so?

I feel this piece from a painting perspective was very much in my style. In my free time, I enjoy painting on canvas and the freehand I incorporated into this project is very much in the style I paint two dimensionally. I also had a lot of fun playing around with the theme I wanted to convey, I’d say it’s like my personality, never too serious.

Did you learn anything new while working on this piece that made you excited to try it again on a future project?

I was able to use different materials and see what did and didn’t work. I cut up pieces of paper and used them as the “garbage” on the base as well as sculpting thicker pieces from two part epoxy to simulate discarded canvas. I always enjoy hunting for real life objects I can translate into something else on a base, like toothpicks or little bits of dried plants.

Can you talk about how you considered 360 degrees of dimensionality for this piece? 

I try to always create a focal point in my pieces, the fun part is hiding in thematic elements so when the judges look at the entire piece, there’s always something to discover and hold interest. This is an excellent way to push the theme or story I want to convey as well. I included footprints on the back of the canvas Deadpool is painting. Many of my life size canvases I’ve painted have my shoe prints on them from building and stretching the material before painting.

Art is subjective and everyone has their own opinions. As a judge, what impresses and delights you most when you see it in an entry?

Much like my own project I did, I think I like when someone tells a solid story or I can figure out what’s supposed to be happening in a piece from not just the main figure(s) but all the details surrounding it.

Thanks for joining us to learn more about this awesome showpiece from Path of the Worthy Judge Liz Beckley! Stay tuned for a second showpiece from Ben Komets – and come see them both at Adepticon 2024!