After struggling so hard with my last painting (‘Envy’ see previous Blog) because of no defined light source, I am really enjoying this new work. Very early days yet, but I have a good feeling about it. I was really pleased with the composition of ‘Envy’ and the end result worked, but this painting feels so easy in comparison. So….my studio is relatively small, and is also where I live, so am mostly confined to photographs to work from. In an ideal world, I would always work from life, but this is just not possible at the moment (I need a gallery to take me on lol) so photos rule for now. I teach life drawing locally, and asked one of my models to come and pose for me in a series of poses that I set up and this is the result of one of them. I shall emphasise the lights and darks more as I go on – again Caravaggio comes to mind here – and I have put more red into the model’s top to bring in an element of colour interest. As yet this work is untitled, and I would welcome help here if anyone has…
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This has taken me longer than I anticipated for two reasons. The first is that I used a snapshot to work from and it is always difficult to find the detail in a quick photograph like this. When I used to paint portrait commissions I would always ask if I could be given a good, clear head and shoulder shot of the sitter so that I could really get down to the details etc. The second, and possibly more important reason for me, is that there is no direct light source, ie. definite lights and shades, so the overall effect is for me a bit bland. Not the sitters, I hasten to say, nor the composition, which I love, just the lighting. When I set up a composition using a model, I will always try to have a defined light source coming from one side, wherever possible. This then produces wonderful lights, tones, shades etc. Have a look at Caravaggio’s work on Google to see what I mean. Having said all this, I am happy with the final result, although I feel I may have overworked the details as a result. Looser brush next time…. The painting is available…
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So Week 3 and nearly done here. I have been messing around with Photoshop trying to get the colours accurate for the purposes of this Blog and my Twitter feed, but am not totally there, unfortunately, so please bear with me. I wish I was better on the computer….. The dress on the left is more turquoise than the blue shown here and I have changed the colour of the girl’s shoes accordingly to compliment the dress. Have also added touches of that turquoise mix into the curtains behind, which help pull the work together. Next week I will tone down the lemon shade of the belt as I think it is too ‘in your face’ at the moment. I have added the same turquoise touches and some of the lilac from the chairs into the girl on the right’s white dress to make it stand out a bit more from the chairs and background white. Have also added in a touch of yellow ochre from the blind to the white walls again to show subtle (hopefully!) differences between chairs, lilac chairs and white dress. I still feel the lilac chairs are competing a bit too much with the figures,…
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Getting somewhere this week, as was not sure I could pull it off last week. A handy tip I pass on, for what it is worth, is about perspective. If you feel you are struggling with this, or just feel something is not right, either hold the painting upside down, or hold it up to a mirror. You will straightaway see where you are going wrong. I think the eye gets too used to what it is seeing and can’t see the errors, whereas we all know the mirror can’t lie… At the life class I run locally, I sometimes suggest a student holds a small mirror to their shoulder so they can see their painting and the model at the same time. They will then (hopefully!) see immediately where they are going wrong. Interesting eh? For some reason, I have a horror or browns and greens in my paintings, and am not sure why. Maybe it is because I am a Piscean water sign and I always lean to the blues, purples and lights, I don’t know. So with the floor in this painting, I know I have to have it dark to contrast with the lilac chairs, but…
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Always good to start a new painting. This was a completely random photo of my daughter and a friend at a wedding and I just thought it made an excellent composition. The woman adjusting her new glitzy shoes is happily gazing into the mid-distance dreaming. Well actually, at the moment she doesn’t, she looks like a mad woman, but stick with me over the next few weeks I will get it right! Her friend, however, is looking covetously at the shiny shoes, even though she has her own (probably new) shoes. The title ‘Envy’ just jumped out at me, or possibly ‘Wedding Shoe Envy’, not sure yet. We all have so many pairs of shoes in our wardrobes, but a woman can never have enough of them. I do promise this will be the last painting relating to shoes for a while…. As regards colour, in the photo the colours are rather sombre, and I don’t do sombre if I can help it. The dress on the left therefore, will probably be a brilliant turquoisoe and I think the wedding chairs will be lilac with a sheen to them. At the moment the woman on the right has a white…
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‘Waiting’ is now finished, in as much as I ever think a painting of mine is finished. There is always a terrible temptation to keep on adding in detail and refining the work and you end up with an overworked piece of art. I think most artists are perfectionists and are always finding fault with their work but you just have to let it go. So….this is 45 x 35 cm unframed and is up on the website for £225. It is oil on canvas. ‘Modern Blonde’ is also now completed and available to buy. I could not quite get the exact colour right in the final photograph. The skirts are a little more vibrant and yellow in the original and the blue tops have a slightly more turquoise hue to them. I apologise for this and spent some time trying to get the right colours in the photo but to no avail; first time this has happened…..sigh. I used an old toothbrush to add a little splash of colour on the walls as a finishing touch and like the effect. The painting is 50 x 40 cm and is priced at £325, not £350 as shown on the website,…
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I would like to thank everyone on Twitter who came up with ideas for titles for these two pieces, I was overwhelmed with the response. In the end I decided on a short title for both so this is now called MODERN BLONDE. Everywhere I go, I see people on their phones all the time – it is a truly modern phenomenon – and not sure if it is a good one, but hey, I am just the artist. One follower came up with the interesting thought that both paintings could be about prostitution or call girls, something that had not crossed my mind. I should finish this next week and am keen to get onto the detail as this makes or breaks a painting to my mind – that and my pink and blue spirited touches! As regards a title for this, again a lot of good ideas and thanks. The word ‘Waiting’ featured in so many Tweets with or without prefixes, but in the end I decided little is more and will just be calling it WAITING. Someone suggested ‘He said he’d call’ but I thought that was too specific and gender orientated, after all she could just…
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I have a note written large above my easel. ‘Put pinks in BEFORE adding blue shades’. I learned the hard way that if you mix the blues, pinks, yellow ochres and naples yellow, you end up with a mud mix. So I start with the highlights, then the darker tones, a mix of ultramarine, Kings Blue Deep (Michael Harding paint) and Quinacridine Magenta and then the pink mix. Then, and only then, when all is good and dry, I start adding the blue highlights which for me make the painting sing. I will also start adding in more pink tones next to other shades as opposed to blending in. Blending does work in the initial stages, but it can look a bit bland if done in the final stages. These are just my thoughts of years of learning (and mistakes) so it may well not work for everyone. You have to find your own style really. I have started to put detail on the face but need to do a lot more work here, at the moment something is not right…..will also add pattern on skirt as we go along. Have block painted better with this work so far, i.e…
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So new work as cold gone and roof mended (sort of) and ready to paint after wonderful holiday. I noticed on my travels in and around San Francisco that blonde is still the norm and mobile phones are everywhere, so am not going to apologise for another ‘blonde’ painting or two, but will move on after these two! I liked both poses so much that I decided to have them both in the one painting and I think this works well. Early days mind you…..In the photo the model is wearing black skirt and black shoes, but I always shy away from black for some reason. If I have to use black, I will mix ultramarine and burnt sienna to get various shades of ‘black’. Bright mediterranean colours appeal to me far more as they are happy colours. I may add more orange to the skirt as I go along as complimentary colours always work well (Google colour wheel if you get a chance to see more about complimentary colours – simple but effective use of colour). I am not sure what to call this yet, so any help from my Twitter base would be great, not rude please! Originally…
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