March 13, 2010
There's only about an hour's worth of painting left on You Are Here. I worked on a few spots that needed work today, and realized there's not that much more to do. Well, unless I decide to take it to a whole new level and go all-out on the natural realism. But that would probably take another year.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Snow and Snowdrops
March 12, 2010
The giant snowpile down at the end of the driveway is almost gone. We've had some steady rain overnight, and the world is changed this morning, though it still looks grey and grim. Snowdrops are blooming and the back yard is full of the spikes of wild crocuses, unopened because of the hidden sun, but ready to pop.
Spent all of yesterday gallery sitting, and then had a surprise phone call from my sweetie, who suggested we have dinner out. We did, and it was fabulous. But: no painting got done yesterday.
Today: work on the doggie painting is not going well and I'm beginning to have doubts about whether or not it will come together in time. The skin tones just looked too dull, so warmed them up today but it looks like I overshot. The male dog is beginning to have some structure, so that's, at least, encouraging. I must say that acrylic is not my friend.
The question continues about the right name for the painting of the young woman taking a picture of the Villers.
Point of Viewbrings the viewer into it in a subtle way: the young woman is viewing the Villers; it looks like the girl in the Villers is observing her; and the there's the unseen spectator--- the viewer. So, I like that goofiness. But Echoes intimates that something mysterious is reverberating across time. I welcome input on this issue.
A Concentrated Effort
March 10, 2010
I'm going to finish You Are Here very soon. And not soon enough. I have to have it printed up as a postcard, delivered, and sent out to everybody on the mailing list for the upcoming show, which is about 1300 people. Meanwhile, Point of View, which I might rename Echoes, has to be done in time to send it off to be printed up for the Galleries Magazine cover. Why am I writing? I should be painting!
At right, a detail from You Are Here; this is the area I worked on this morning.
Killer Pillars
March 8, 2010
I took up the brush on Conversation again, a couple of days ago... The pillars are just as I remembered them, and probably the reason why I haven't wanted to work on the piece for the last few months. Painting the straight vertical lines is bad enough, but trying to get the color/values/gradients right at the same time is practically insane. The light's bouncing around all over the place because of all of the (beveled!) mirrors, so the planes of the pillars are lighter in some spots, greyer or greener in others, etc. What a nightmare. And I'm still having trouble with the female figure, despite the fact that S.M. did such a great job of posing for me.
Meanwhile, I continue to make progress on a few other paintings. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on You Are Here, and Hats is moving along quickly. I love Hats--- it makes me smile every time I look at it.
Faces in the Crowd
March 4, 2010
Working solely on You Are Here this afternoon in an effort to get it completed in time to use it for advertising. A lot of it is done--- I'm working on the faces of the people in the background and the light fixtures, mostly. The faces are so tiny that I have to use a very small or well-pointed brush to get the details right. A little slip can really mess things up when you're painting the edge of a nose that's 4mm long.
Looking forward to getting back to Conversation tomorrow. Most of the vignettes are too wet to work on today.
Working solely on You Are Here this afternoon in an effort to get it completed in time to use it for advertising. A lot of it is done--- I'm working on the faces of the people in the background and the light fixtures, mostly. The faces are so tiny that I have to use a very small or well-pointed brush to get the details right. A little slip can really mess things up when you're painting the edge of a nose that's 4mm long.
Looking forward to getting back to Conversation tomorrow. Most of the vignettes are too wet to work on today.
Modifications
March 2, 2010
My new monitor is saturation-happy; it displays colors in a harsh and truly lurid fashion, making me wince every time I upload a new photo of a painting and see it on screen. As a result, I've taken to desaturating some images, but now I worry that they'll look washed out on other people's monitors. Not sure what else I can do.
I finally figured out what was bothering me about Downtown Crossing--- it was the dark foreground. I've changed it and broadened the lighter area, also changed the color of the impatiens (flowers) on the left side. The fuchsia was clashing with the natural reds of the fruits and vegetables in the background. There's still a fuchsia undertone, but it doesn't compete with the reds anymore.
And So It's March
March 1, 2010
The sun is shining brightly today, and you can see patches of ground under the melting snow. Started painting early this morning; added a cast shadow on Day Job, not sure it's working as far as content goes, but the placement is correct--- just what that corner of the painting needed.
The sun is shining brightly today, and you can see patches of ground under the melting snow. Started painting early this morning; added a cast shadow on Day Job, not sure it's working as far as content goes, but the placement is correct--- just what that corner of the painting needed.
Green
February 28, 2010
Worked with a lot of green paint today. The wall on the right side of You Are Here needed to be resolved, and it took a while to get the various shades of green mixed correctly. The wall itself has some surface irregularities, and it's hard to show those without making it look like bad painting. The color gets a little more yellow up at the top, and a little bluer on the lower flat part where it picks up the light from the window.
From there I went to the new painting. I don't need to be starting a new painting right now, in light of how much I've got to finish for the May show, but this is a pro bono effort I'd promised to a neighbor for a charity event. I just found out that the deadline is April 1...
Anyway, the new piece is called "Meet Cute," and I'm doing it in acrylic (otherwise it might not be done until December!) but the colors seem really artificial to me when I mix them. It's like they're made of plastic. The kind of plastic that cheap toys are made of. The greens---which I painted into most of the background---are particularly unnatural. Have to see it through, though.
Worked with a lot of green paint today. The wall on the right side of You Are Here needed to be resolved, and it took a while to get the various shades of green mixed correctly. The wall itself has some surface irregularities, and it's hard to show those without making it look like bad painting. The color gets a little more yellow up at the top, and a little bluer on the lower flat part where it picks up the light from the window.
From there I went to the new painting. I don't need to be starting a new painting right now, in light of how much I've got to finish for the May show, but this is a pro bono effort I'd promised to a neighbor for a charity event. I just found out that the deadline is April 1...
Anyway, the new piece is called "Meet Cute," and I'm doing it in acrylic (otherwise it might not be done until December!) but the colors seem really artificial to me when I mix them. It's like they're made of plastic. The kind of plastic that cheap toys are made of. The greens---which I painted into most of the background---are particularly unnatural. Have to see it through, though.
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