Creating Gluttony

When Enough Was Never Quite Enough

Gluttony began on a monumental scale.

From the earliest stages, I wanted something enormous and imposing—a presence that seemed to rise above the world around it.

But the first version was also relatively aloof.

As I worked through the layers, the great formation remained almost geological: huge, remote and commanding. For quite some time, I thought that was where the painting was heading.

Then, quite late in the process, I changed my mind.

It wasn't enough.

And there is something wonderfully appropriate about saying that while discussing Gluttony.

The painting began asking for more.

More richness. More embellishment. More atmosphere. More evidence of the world that had been created around it.

New ideas appeared that hadn't existed in the original composition. The character of the structure changed. Even the sky eventually joined in.

What began as something monumental gradually became something much more excessive.

These photographs allow you to watch that appetite develop.

I'm not going to explain what all those later additions mean here. That's the job of the Artist Journal.

Here, we're interested in how Gluttony grew.

Watch the Appetite Grow

Begin with the early structure and follow the layers.

For quite some time, Gluttony appears to know exactly what it wants to become.

Then it changes its mind.

And, rather fittingly...

it wants more.

Original sketch for Gluttony by Julia O'Sullivan, establishing the enormous central form and early composition for the Seven Deadly Sins painting.

1. The First Idea — Giving Gluttony Scale

Gluttony begins in the sketchbook.
At this stage, I'm trying to establish scale, structure and the relationship between the enormous central presence and the world around it.
The drawing doesn't need to answer every question.
It needs to give me enough information to begin asking better ones once I start painting.
I already know that Gluttony needs to feel imposing.
It cannot simply occupy the composition.
It needs to dominate it.
The details can wait.
First, I need somewhere enormous enough for Gluttony to exist.

Gluttony composition transferred from the sketchbook onto the painting surface, establishing the main forms before the first layers of oil paint.

2. From Drawing to Painting

Transferring the sketch onto the painting surface changes my relationship with it immediately.
What felt manageable on paper suddenly becomes physical.
The scale becomes much more apparent, and I can begin judging whether the main forms have enough presence to command the composition.
At this stage, everything remains open to change.
The lines give me a framework, but I don't regard them as instructions that must be faithfully followed.
They are simply the remains of my first thought.
Once the paint begins, the conversation changes.
The sketch has brought me this far. Now Gluttony has to stand on its own.

First painted stage of Gluttony, with broad areas of colour beginning to establish the atmosphere, landscape and monumental central form.

3. The First Colour — Establishing the World

The first colour is broad and uncomplicated.
I'm not interested in tiny details yet. I'm looking at the painting as a whole—establishing atmosphere, separating the major areas and beginning to understand how colour will move across such a complicated composition.
This is one of the loosest stages of my process.
There is freedom in it.
Large areas can change quickly, and nothing has yet accumulated enough hours for me to become too protective of it.
The enormous structure begins emerging from what was previously only line.
Gluttony is acquiring weight.

Early Gluttony painting in progress as the large rock-like central formation gains colour, shape and greater visual weight.

4. Building the Giant

With another layer, the central formation begins becoming more substantial.
I'm strengthening its form and beginning to establish the relationship between its enormous scale and everything around it.
At this point, it still has something almost geological about it.
It feels like a great rock formation rising from the painting—remote, solid and somewhat aloof from the smaller world beneath it.
For now, that works.
I am still building the foundations rather than questioning where they will eventually lead.
Gluttony has found its scale.
Its personality will come later.

Gluttony oil painting during the colour-building process, with deeper tones and stronger contrasts beginning to create volume and depth.

5. Giving the Structure Weight

The layers continue accumulating.
Colour deepens, contrasts strengthen and the initial flatness begins disappearing as the central form develops greater volume.
This is where I spend a great deal of time stepping backwards.
Close up, I can convince myself that a particular section works beautifully.
From across the room, it may disappear completely.
So I constantly move between the two.
The painting has to work as one enormous image before I allow myself to become absorbed by the smaller things I know will eventually inhabit it.
First comes presence. Then comes complexity.

Developing Gluttony painting as the central formation and surrounding landscape become more established within the layered composition.

6. A World Begins to Form

The separate areas of the painting are now beginning to communicate with one another.
The main structure feels more established, the surrounding space develops greater depth and the composition starts becoming a world rather than a collection of individual shapes.
I'm still working relatively broadly.
There is a temptation at this stage to begin adding all the things I can already imagine in the finished painting.
I resist it.
If the foundations aren't convincing, no amount of intricate detail will rescue them later.
Gluttony is still relatively restrained.
Which, considering the subject, was probably never going to last.

Gluttony painting in progress with the original monumental structure becoming increasingly defined through layers of colour and shadow.

7. Strengthening the Original Vision

By this stage, the painting has become considerably more substantial.
The monumental form is established and I am strengthening the relationships between light, shadow and colour rather than making dramatic changes to the composition.
For a while, I thought this might be the direction I would simply continue developing.
The great structure had presence.
It was aloof.
It dominated its surroundings.
Technically, it worked.
But as I continued painting, another thought was beginning to creep in.
Was presence really enough for Gluttony?
I didn't have the answer yet.
So I kept painting.

Gluttony painting showing the established rock-like structure shortly before its appearance begins to change towards a richer, more embellished form.

8. Before Gluttony Changed Its Mind

This is an interesting stage to look back upon because the painting is approaching a crossroads without yet knowing it.
The original idea is well established.
The huge rock-like formation has developed considerably, the colour foundation is strong and I could quite easily have continued refining what was already there.
But the longer I looked, the more I felt something was missing.
Gluttony had scale.
Gluttony had power.
But it didn't yet have the sense of excess I was beginning to want from it.
I wasn't ready to dismantle everything.
I didn't need to.
What I needed was to push the existing idea somewhere richer.
Gluttony had plenty.
I was beginning to think it needed more.

Gluttony during a major creative change as the previously austere structure becomes more ornate and additional land begins appearing within the composition.

9. Gluttony Wants More

And this is where the painting changes.
The great formation had been relatively aloof until now—monumental and imposing, but still carrying something of the rock-like structure from which it began.
I wanted more embellishment.
Gluttony had created a gilded life for itself, and I began to feel that the world I was painting needed to reflect that.
So I started enriching it.
The structure became less austere and more extravagant. Detail and ornamentation began altering its character, and what had previously felt almost geological started becoming something much more deliberately constructed.
Then another idea appeared.
Land.
It hadn't been part of the original plan.
As my thoughts about Gluttony developed, so did my thinking about appetite on a much larger scale—about consuming not simply what surrounds us, but reaching beyond our own boundaries for more.
So the additional land entered the composition.
I won't take that thought any further here.
That's for the Artist Journal.
For now, what matters is that something changed.
Gluttony was no longer simply occupying its world.
It was beginning to expand into it.

Gluttony painting gaining richer embellishment and intricate detail as the transformed central structure and newly added landscape are integrated.

10. Embellishing Excess

Once I had decided Gluttony needed more, I could begin pushing the new direction.
The richer structure gave me a very different surface to work with.
What had previously felt remote began developing a sense of the gilded world Gluttony had created around itself.
The additional land also needed integrating.
I didn't want it to look like a late idea—even though that's exactly what it was.
That's one of the challenges of changing a painting as I work.
A new thought can arrive months into the process, but if it belongs, I have to make it appear as though it was always there.
The layers begin absorbing the changes.
The original austerity recedes.
And the painting becomes increasingly indulgent.
The more Gluttony acquired, the more convincing it became.

Advanced stage of Gluttony as the sky becomes darker and more menacing while new details begin changing the character of the central figure.

11. The Atmosphere Turns

Very late in the painting, the atmosphere changed again.
This time, it was the sky.
I wanted more movement and something more menacing.
The sky began developing a darker energy, appearing to spread outwards from one particular area of the composition rather than simply existing quietly behind everything else.
That immediately changed the mood.
The background had begun participating in the painting.
At the same time, other new elements appeared within Gluttony itself.
They weren't huge additions in relation to the scale of the painting, but they altered its personality and gave me something new to respond to.
I won't explain them here.
You'll meet them properly in the Artist Journal.
What interests me in this gallery is that they appeared this late.
Even at stage eleven, Gluttony wasn't finished asking for more.

Completed Gluttony oil painting by Julia O'Sullivan from the Seven Deadly Sins collection, with an elaborate central form, dramatic sky and densely layered narrative detail.

12. When Gluttony Finally Had Enough

By the final stage, the aloof rock-like beginnings had almost disappeared beneath everything that followed.
The structure had become richer and more embellished.
New land had appeared.
The atmosphere had darkened.
Small additions had changed the character of Gluttony itself.
And layer upon layer of increasingly intricate detail had transformed the painting into something far removed from those first broad areas of colour.
None of that happened in one grand decision.
It accumulated.
One thought suggested another.
One addition created space for the next.
And perhaps there couldn't be a more appropriate way for a painting about Gluttony to develop.
It kept wanting more.
Eventually, though, I had to decide that enough really was enough.
There is always somewhere I could add another mark.
Another object.
Another detail.
Another layer.
But eventually more stops improving a painting and simply becomes more.
And so, after spending all that time creating a work about appetite, consumption and excess, the final decision required something Gluttony itself finds rather difficult.
Restraint.
I had to put the brush down.
Gluttony finally had enough.

When Gluttony Finally Had Enough

Looking back through these stages, Gluttony seems to have behaved rather like its subject.

It kept wanting more.

It began as something much more aloof and monumental. The enormous rock-like formation had scale and presence, and for quite some time I thought that would be enough.

It wasn't.

As I painted, my understanding of what the work needed began to change. The structure became richer and more embellished as I started thinking about the gilded world Gluttony had created for itself.

Then the land appeared.

Another thought that hadn't been there at the beginning, but one that expanded the painting beyond individual appetite and allowed me to take the idea of consumption somewhere much larger.

Even towards the end, the painting wasn't finished changing.

The sky became more menacing and began moving with the composition rather than simply sitting behind it. Other elements appeared almost at the final stages, subtly altering the personality of Gluttony and giving me new relationships to work with.

Those changes are what these photographs preserve.

If you looked only at the finished painting, you would never know that the grand, embellished world you see now began as something considerably more austere.

You wouldn't know which ideas arrived late.

Or how many times I stood back and thought:

It needs something more.

There is an obvious irony in that.

I spent years creating a painting about excess, continually adding, enriching and expanding until eventually the most important decision left to make was the one Gluttony itself struggles to make.

When is enough, enough?

Eventually, I found the answer.

I put down the brush.

The Creation Gallery has shown you how Gluttony grew.

But it hasn't told you why it needed to become this particular world, or what all those strange details within the finished painting actually mean.

For that, we need to go deeper.

Gluttony has had enough. Now it's time to discover what it consumed.

Jupigio-Artwork-Gallery

Rare - Unusual - Unforgettable

Creating Gluttony

When Enough Was Never Quite Enough

Watch the Appetite Grow

When Gluttony Finally Had Enough

Read Behind Gluttony →