Today Echo and I went back to paint with Elana at her studio in Germantown, the same place we painted last time. This time I painted the houses I almost painted the last time. Of course after about 90 minutes the sun shifted pretty hard so i then woked on the little spots where the sun had not changed yet. You can see Echo's effort on her blog, she's got a great tight little composition going on.
To avoid getting trapped by detail, which is easy for me, I used a huge brush to lay in the big masses. Elana offered a few helpful crits too. I don't know when I'll get back to finish this since I'm going to Michigan next weekend and when I get back I have to finish my Secret Saturday's sstoryboard and keep on with the monster paintings. So I may finish this one in the studio like the last one, from the shot I snapped with my camera. Afterwards we had lunch with Elana and her hubby Ari at the Macaroni Grille--yum!
I really like a lot of things about this one. The cool harmony, the airy light/ shadows, the subtle colors... Bravo! The whole directness of keeping it a simple portrait of a house is a great step for you. Less is more and this proves it... However, ;-) Two things... the one, two, three, triangles of shadow side by side on the top front of the house create a distracting pattern and centering the Main element (the house) is usually not a good idea as symmetrical in the center is not as interesting as asymmetrical. You know that, but it's easy to forget. I still do.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bill, yes, I know that sort of dead on shot isn't very dynamic and sort of a no-no, but I did it on purpose as I was trying to do that sort of Kubrick thing where you are looking straight at something and figured that the "personality" of the house would come through. That was what I was going for anyway. I will go back and work on it. I agree, the shadows don't work now. At the time I did them I kinda' liked them, and when I started the painting they were not present as the sun was behind the house a bit. Luckily I snapped a pic, so I will go back and finish from the snapshot and take the shadows out.
ReplyDeleteI like those houses so much I think I'll even try painting them again from another angle if I get a chance.