Monday, June 14, 2010

Indirect Painting for Texture

The still life at the school is progressing. Nearly every area is ready now for the second painting stage except for the cloth. In the winter, I painted several layers of white over areas of the the red (an indirect painting technique) to create the foundation for highlights, primarily on the front flap and the middle of the roll. Later I applied several glazes of red back over the white areas, and then the highlights I wanted emerged. What I didn't get was a sense of texture. The cloth has a strong weave in two directions and its edges are very frayed. I should have built that texture into my original layers of white when doing the indirect painting because I can't achieve it with the cadmium red paint on its own. So I'm back at it again. Over the last month, I've applied several fine white lines and white blobs to mimic the pattern. Now when I re-glaze it with red the pattern should be retained... We'll see.




Surgery -- unfortunate, avoidable, but necessary this time

I've been stuck for a long time on this painting. I thought my challenge was dealing with the large windows but the real issue was one of distorted proportions that I unwittingly made in the figure. Most of the distortion takes place in the legs and it is grows proportionately the farther down you go. In the photo below, the source photo is placed to the right of a photo of the painting. Using the head as a measuring unit, my painted figure ends up being half a head too short. This is something I should have checked at the cartoon stage before transferring the drawing. I didn't leave myself enough room on the bottom of the canvas to fix it so..... off with his legs! (Sorry Wayne)















The revised composition is below. I restretched the canvas over 12x18 stretchers and I like the result. I started painting in a background through the windows and will add details of the deck in the lower 2 pane. I also began reworking the figure's facial features, moving the eye and lips down. Next session, the cheekbone will be moved down as well and widened.