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| Can I Be Excused?, graphite 8 x6, Thirty Minute Daily Drawing |
A thumbnail actually of a possible painting of my niece. It's not a good likeness, but it has painting possibilities. I would be willing to spend some time with her.
On The Easel:
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Painting small in an hour or two is not for me. This 9 x 12 is coming along, but at a pace I can live with. An hour and a half is all I can put in in a session--and only two thirds of that is actually putting brush to canvas. The rest of the time I'm matching colors and mixing values, cleaning brushes to avoid color contamination and stepping way back to squint at my subject (a reference photo) and compare what I see through eyes half closed to what's on the canvas.
Taking photographs of work in progress is another way to step back and evaluate how a painting is going. This gal is coming to life. Her weight is firmly placed on her right leg. Her head is tilted correctly; the point where her neck meets her shoulders is in line with the hamstrings of her right leg. The skin tones on her legs need correction, but the value is right.
While this reproduction doesn't show the actual turquoise color of the sea, The roughness in the water is evident. The yellow cast in the foam and on the sand doesn't show here either. I really do need to upgrade my photo editing software. Can anyone tell me which Adobe Photoshop to buy? I shopped Light room 5--but then there's a 13 something. It was all too confusing to choose. My birthday is next week. Photoshop would be a great selfie gift.
For me personally, I have been delighted seeing some color come back onto the blog. I like your drawings very much but I LOVE the stimulation of seeing paint!
ReplyDeleteI think you did a brilliant job with this one and really enjoyed the explanations along the way.
I just wiped her out. The initial drawing wasn't good enough; points didn't jive. --I like colorless drawings. My objective there is to develop a more sensitive line; I get a little heavy handed--probably due to the short time period and the desire to get something of meaning down on paper? I'll start the lady on the beach in paint again tomorrow.
DeleteLove your command of capturing the gesture. Good gesture is the key to convincing figure work and is a great skill to have in your armoury. Love how the painting has developed.
ReplyDeletethank you Mick. Now to translate that skill to paint. I am very comfortable with a pencil, a pen, a marker, any tool you hold like a pencil on a small surface. Give me a brush and a small surface and my painting turns skills become awkward. The lady on the beach proves it. I wiped her out today. Tomorrow, I'll try a different approach.
DeleteI love the graphite painting of your niece, Linda...perfect title as well.! I can definitely see a painting here... Your previous graphite "Glad to Be Here" is absolutely amazing...I could never do that in thirty minutes...pretty impressive! and it would also make a beautiful painting.. I've been trying to catch up with everyone's work so I haven't started on anything yet...maybe tomorrow!!! My Aunt was so happy to see the family on her birthday and she even had the strength to blow out her candles...NOT 105 ...lol I will look forward to seeing the progress on your paintings. By the way,
ReplyDeleteI love how you painted the water..very realistic!!
Thanks Hilda. Me too. The expressive gesture is challenging, but I do love how it expresses the moment, the situation without using the gestural or impressionistic technique. The telling is is the drawing,
DeleteLinda, "Can I be excused" is alive! Wonderful drawing! I can see an excellent painting coming from this. And your woman at the seashore is great. Take your time ... I do :) It's worth it.
ReplyDeleteI tried Adobe photoshop, and found the fiddling with the editing to be more work than it was worth in most instances. But then, I only gave it a month. I think one needs a lot of practice with the application to become satisfactorily efficient. My wise words on photoshop :) :)
I appreciate those wise words. I am looking for software that will give me more accurate color. Then, when I'm working with a photo I want to use for a painting, I would like to be able to clean up the unnecessary details--like remove them. I might want to add something to an image. My Jasc isn't that sophisticated. I guess I'm missing my darkroom when I could do all those things using dark room trickery techniques. But that was when an SLR was an SLR and no photo was a point and shoot digital. When I read about photoshop's different products, the specifics don't go that specific.
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