http://dorith.stumbleupon.com/review/17062200/

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:25:25 -0800

Technology is a wonderful thing - especially my MacBook Pro and it's built-in camera...that allowed me to do a mini-art show via Skype with my brother in Switzerland. I showed him a few pieces I had finished, and also a set of panels I had started to send to him for his fancy-schmancy office in Basel . After a bit of back and forth bantering, we decided that he would need three panels for that space, so today I spent some hours working on all three for him.
Here is where it all started

�
I started by sketching in the rough shapes of the leaves and undergrowth in Prussian blue with Turps. Then I added some splashes of color, with the brightest color where the highlights will fall later, the colors in the background I muted down a bit to make them recede.
�

�
here I've layed the color in to the painting with some highlights and shapes. The blue looks too gaudy here, so those will need to be taken down quite a bit.
I want the large leaf to stand out and the rest to be a bit of a backdrop for it.

This is the very close to finished piece - yes, it's very loosely painted...I'm not a very precise painter, because it kills my workflow to have to fiddle around with stuff forever...
Here is a close-up of the texture and colors, since the light was reflecting on the previous pics:

So that was panel number one - two more to follow...

http://dorith.stumbleupon.com/review/17061961/

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:16:30 -0800

More Jungle Fever...

is headed your way...
Yep, it's quite a departure from the sheep I usually paint - but that's just what you see at first glance. If you push aside some of the jungle foilage, you will see the sheep crashing through the underbrush in their tropical explorer garb, with binoculars hanging round their neck and a machete clenched in their teeth.
They really are versatile, you know...Who'd have thunk an animal sooo sheepish looking would be so adventurous...
So here is the second installment - that is, the second panel in this series. I'll just skip the sketch part - it was pretty much the same procedure as the first: rough shapes with prussian blue and turps, color splotches added and then the various greens, reds, yellows, browns, etc. added. I tried to add the feel of light filtering through the tree canopy down to where it's rather dark and odd fruit and creatures grow. Which, incidently is also where sheep tend to get lost - they really are not very gps or compass savvy...
Here we go (oh yeah - if you DO find those sheep in there somewhere, please let me know...they're late for dinner):

Here you see how I worked with the prussian blue in the negative space - the space around the shapes of the leaves. It allows that part to recede into the background, while the warmer reds, oranges and greens appear to be in the foreground. Something to do with atmospheric perspective...You can see on that unfinished leaf on the right that I used a fairly large paint brush to keep it from getting too finicky. I like "sloppy" paintings, so now you know where that "lively" look comes from.

After covering all the white of the canvas, it's time to adjust the shapes and colors - especially that blue that looks rather poisonous. Sheep love blue - it reminds them of the sky, fresh water, and my favorite sweater that comes towards them with buckets of corn attached...in this case, too much blue - not good.

I've darkened the background by adding various shapes, greens, blacks, and browns - that should be enough to spoil any sheep's appetite.
Here is a close-up so you can see the brush strokes and the texture of the paint:

I love thick paint - it's what makes me love oil paints
And finally, this is the finished version - the colors are not quite accurate, since this picture was taken under artificial light (the others in daylight).

Hope you like it - feel free to comment or ask if you have questions. And of course, if you see that sheep, tell him he's REALLY in deep hay now for being late for dinner...

StumbleUpon | dorith's blog posts

http://dorith.stumbleupon.com/review/17062200/

http://dorith.stumbleupon.com/review/17061961/