Monday, April 21, 2008

Savannah Sunset



just as i thought, i hit another blank spot, i do it to myself for some reason, the fear of not knowing where to start stops me from working, i was ready to start on April 1st, and i finally got to work and finished it on the 20th of this month (April)
It took me 19 days to finally get off my lazy ass and do it, 19!!
well i did attempt to paint it 2 previous times so maybe it wasn't 19, maybe it was 15, but still, i did it in 10 hours, why did it take me so long to finally do it? oh well

like i had mentioned i had tried to paint it on 2 previous occasions, making this last successful one, the third
the first time i had started out with the dark foreground at the bottom first, followed by the large shape of the clouds and then the light colors of the sky, but i wasn't liking the result, i kept going over the same areas, and the dark color kept smearing into the light colors and making a mess

the second attempt started out with the large shapes of the clouds, but i kept getting the proportions wrong, and i could mix the colors the way i wanted, and when i'm not enjoying the result, i immediately grab a rag soak it with varnish and wash off the color i have on the canvas

before the third attempt, i made a small study of a section of the picture, i needed to get familiar with the colors i was mixing and what were the overall colors i was going to need, this really helped me out

I also noticed that recording myself painting it, was both a major distraction, but also helps me out
while i'm working keep checking to see if i'm blocking the camera, or if the lighting is right, and i don't put my full attention to the piece, but it does help me out, i get to see the process it takes, and study it and learn from what i've done, or what i need to avoid, and i get to show people the video!

I really enjoyed working on this one, there was so much area to work with!
i might do more large pieces in the future, but for now i'm going back to the smaller panels, i have so many!

One thing i'm planning on doing is to work on a small landscape everyday, or every few days, on small 6x8 panels, this will help me to simplify the shapes and colors, and learn to paint faster, we shall see