THE PROCESS BEHIND ‘THE INSIDIOUS WHISPER’

Part 1 by David Denton

INITIAL PLANNINGI start all of my paintings by using a form of free association. This

is a technique taken from psychology that was used by the Surrealists. I use it to bring out ideas from my subconscious.

L’Ange du Foyer, (1937) by the Surrealist Max Ernst

THE CENTRAL IDEAThe main theme of this painting comes from times when the thoughts in your head turn against you and constantly tell you that you are worthless. This is very common in depression, a

type of mental illness.

In the very early stages of planning, the main visual idea I had was similar to the image above. This was all about to change...

• Persuasive

• Bully

• Insistent

• Repetitive

• Under the radar

• Heavy

• Darkness

Now for the hard work: I chose a starting word that fit in with my theme - I went for ‘Persuasive’ - and then wrote down the first word that came into my head, and then

the next etc.

• Persuasive

• Bully

• Insistent

• Repetitive

• Under the radar

• Heavy

• Darkness

After that, I highlighted any words that stood out to me. I didn’t think about it, I let my subconscious do the work.

• Bully

• Scared

• Frightened

• Pick on weak

• Sneaky

• Powerful

• Strong

I started a new list with one of these words and repeated the process, again highlighting words that stood out to me:

• Powerful

• Strong

• Business

• Surging

• Devastation

• Wasteland

• Rubble

And one more time:

The bottom three seemed to fit together really

well.

I repeated this process many times with different words and by the end I had created a bank of words that could influence my

painting. These are just a few:

Business

Persuasive

Heavy

Powerful Devastation

RubbleWasteland

For example, the word ‘business’ led to the pattern of raw skin on the creature that is similar to a world map and also the

skyscraper-like towers that come from its mask.

In Part 2, I will show you how I used photographic reference to help me develop my final image.

www.daviddentonart.com