Wednesday, January 11, 2012

UPDATE: Abstract Turned impressionistic Landscape

 This is pretty much the finished painting I started last week.  I added a few more reds, and removed some of the distracting darks in the top left corner in an effort to balance it out.  It might not ever feel quite finished because I really had no reference other than colors and shapes in my mind.  The second photo is some detail to show how I was letting some of the colors pool to form shapes, hopefully giving it a more loose feel.

   Posting Photos can be tricky.  I tried to add captions to each of these first 3 photos, but they showed up as one, so hopefully this isn't too confusing. The top 2 photos are my final update to the original post.  
The third photo from the top is of the first washes.  I planned on doing a loose abstratct watercolor, but my sketch had me worried that it was going t o be unbalanced
and bland, so I changed it to a landscape.
Forming an idea. I didn't yet know where I was going to go with this . Whether I was going for a snow scene or water scene or put a road in. (Maybe if I grew a large Afro I would know where to put some "happy little trees")... Everything was very loose.  I began to worry about the composition but sallied forth without much hesitation anyway.

After laying in some light red and yellow ochre, the painting began to show a little more depth. I am now at the stage where some finishing touches will be made where necessary. Some things are not making sense, but I am happy with the overall composition.  With this one exception.  This looks like 2 paintings so I have been trying to tie the right side in with the left.
I got up early this morning and decided to paint the abstract painting that was floating around in my head. When I sat down to sketch it I started to worry because  I didnt have a solid idea in place and could feel myself getting impatient. I wanted to get a painting done today, not spend all morning working on the composition. I knew the color scheme I wanted.  Earth tones with cool blues and some reds....
I started by making a quick sketch of some trees in the foreground and a stand of trees on the left.  I had no idea what the right background would look like, but I wanted to get to painting so I took a chance and threw some paint on.
At this point I was playing with fire, but I didn't care. I had blues scattered all over the place with a few trees blocked in and went to work.  As a result of my impatience, and lack of a reference photo, I spent a lot of time laying colors in, taking them out and putting others in. I was so impatient to get going, I didn't bother to use the 3 Ply Plate Bristol.  This would have allowed some nice "happy accidents" and the paper would have been more forgiving.  The cold pressed Canson 140lb I used actually does alright until you push too many washes too soon onto it. You can't blot it with a paper towel too much or the paper fiber starts to wear, leaving that overworked texture to it.


2 comments:

  1. You've done something I can't do - work from just imagination and what's in your mind and get that on paper - well done. You are obviously very aware of composition and values and colors so not much I can help with - I did think the left side needed to be tied in a bit more to the right - but that can be done with more blue-greens on the left side, I think. I like this and enjoyed seeing how you started and came to this point with it :) You did make me laugh about the Afro and happy little trees! ha ha Perhaps a touch of reds peeking here and there (you may have them but hard to see in a small pic on a blog always); and Canson paper is horrible to work on (at least, I've found it to be). Happy weekend and thanks for visiting my blog and leaving me an email.

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    1. Thanks RH. I did a little bit more on this one this morning, but I am trying to dig out of my slump and I feel like starting something new. I will eventually finish the painting and post it. I always appreciate all comments and suggestions. As for the canson, I don't have an extensive list of papers that work for what I do to them during the process of painting. Since I do a fair amount of lifting and layering, I need something pretty tough. The Canson is designed to withstand some abuse and was readily available. For a longer term project, I would probably use something else.

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