Working title: Nuggets
12 x 12 ", Acrylic on Canvas
12 February 2008
I started yet another painting today (I've now got five paintings, and one test piece, going). This one started because I wanted to test out some iridescent paints that I have.
I'm quite concerned about the composition and wonder how I'm going to resolve it.
The biggest problem is that the face is very oddly situated, almost centered, slightly tilted, and dominating the painting. The little blobs or nuggets were a late addition to try to balance the face (particularly giving high-contrast areas away from it) and they actually did fairly well at that. However, it's not enough, and even though most of the black (hair?) around the face will probably change color and lighten a little, I need some other dark masses to balance it.
I really like the masklike quality of the face, and will work to keep it as I refine the painting. I'll also straighten it out because I find the tilt disturbing. (Well, I do often deliberately create disturbing or unconventional compositions, but the tilt is disturbing in a way I don't want it to be.)
17 February 2008
I'm going to abandon many of the iridescent paints in favor of their non-iridescent counterparts, at least for now. Some of the iridescents will return on the final layer. I added a pair of tires on the left; I've had snow tires on my mind since I started planning a trip up into the interior.
The background and minor elements still need a lot of work.
8 June 2008
I finally got in another painting session today; I just haven't felt like it for a while. My day job has been keeping me very busy. Anyhow, the nuggets themselves went blue today, which was my plan all along. I've also tried to clean up the background and some of the other elements, but overall I'm not happy with much other than the face and the nuggets...and those aren't even nearing their final form yet.
4 July 2008
Another month later, and I'm back at this painting.
Today I started to balance out the tones by darkening most of the white area on the right while leaving a bit of it untouched. I think I made it too dark, and the remaining white will have to be downgraded somehow so that it doesn't compete for too much of the viewer's attention.
Things had been looking too disjointed, so I took some of the red background elements through the middle region. I also repainted the bottom peachy areas so that they are smoother and more consistent. For the first time I'm starting to feel that the background might work.
On the other hand, there's still a lot that's not working, or at least not final. I think the upper-right area is too circular, or has too tight of a radius, and I'll need to flatten it out a bit. The shapes in the upper left need better definition. The yellow stuff surrounding the head is looking rough, and the left and right greys need the be harmonized. The tires need reshaping. And I've painted over some linear elements that I want to reintroduce. So there's still a long way to go
5 July 2008
I got in a solid session the next day.
Today I repainted most of the yellow surrounding the face, to give it a smoother appearance. As you've probably observed, I tend to rough in my ideas and then go back later to give it the detail (or lack of detail) that I want.
I also warmed the two white background areas, to distinguish them; that seemed to work well. I was thinking that I should have one high-contrast area (the face), but now I'm thinking about having four or so distributed about the painting: the face, the upper left, the left-edge blobby thing, and the tires. That should still keep the focus on the face, and gives me lots of room to play with the other contrasty elements. I tend to not like to subdue most of the elements in my paintings.
I also repainted the peach lower background, and worked on shaping the tires. Still more work to go there. The two upper corners also got some attention.
I'm not extremely careful when photographing my in-progress artwork, so there is color and lighting variation amongst the images. This photo had more glare along the bottom (from the camera flash) than did the previous one. The iridescence on the silvery part of the face shows up better in the previous one, too; that part hasn't changed between versions.
12 July 2008
Today I hit lots of areas on the painting. I put more contrast in the upper-right; it still lacks a little something but is getting close to what I'd like. I reworked the grey background areas. I did slight reshaping in the upper-right and on the white things in the upper-middle. I repainted parts of the yellow around the face, but didn't change it much. The peach background at the bottom got worked on; now the right half is too dark and I'll have to give it another go. I tried to firm up the tires a bit, but I still think they're in need of some slight reshaping adjustments. Finally, I did more straightening and detail on the face.
Right now I feel that the peach background on the lower left needs lightening, the grey on the middle right needs detail, the area in the upper right needs resolving, and the blue nuggets are looking too worn and simple and thus will need a repaint. From here I think it will be mostly small adjustments to the appearance, although that may require major repainting. And then the iridescence will have to be brought back.