WDE 7.29.05

My first drawing for the WDE (weekend drawing event) at wetcanvas.com. There were a lot of good references this week, as usual, and I chose to start with "Ricco." I did this while watching the movie "Hitch" and laying in bed. It is about 6" square in my sketchbook - graphite pencil and prismacolor black.

Multi-cultural Revolution Take 2

Okay - maybe this time I finally have it. I darkened the background and the table top - then added in some light in the background. It comes across as a very light painting, though, I think - the background kind of drops away. I like how finished the apple is, as opposed to the pears - I think (hope) it draws attention to the apple, in it's poor lonely place.

close up of the pears 

close up of the apple 

I like it better - getting rid of the blue was key. I also refined the pears some and changed the table top. I am pretty happy with everything but the table. I am going to try and pull some of the green into the table top - more of a greeney-grey, maybe? I need to refine the shape of the apple when I am done, too - all that gesso takes it's toll on other objects! I'm also going to work on the shading for the forward pear - it's not quite what I'm wanting. It is amazing what shows up in a photo !
 

Well, just in the interest of honesty, I'm posting this. I'm pretty much not happy with it at all. I like the apple, and I like the cloth, but there aren't enough dark darks or light lights, I think - It's all too middle ground. I tried to make the pears really loose and full of thick brushstrokes, to offset the smoothness of the apple, and to make them appear a little garish and mocking. I don't think it worked :-( I'll be going back in and reworking them, proably making the wall behind the surface a little darker (?) and adding some more darks here and there...sigh. At least with acrylics, I have that option... 

Multi-cultural Revolution

More work on the table and the cloth. I think they are done - now I can get to work on the pears and the apple. I'm liking that that upper pear is green, now - really makes the apple look out of place. Don't you just feel sorry for that poor little apple? Look - that pear is pointing at it...how rude!

Here's some progress. I decided to kind of unify the pears with a blue cloth (the actual one is unprimed canvas...yawn...) I'm liking it, but I think that the upper pear needs to be the same color as the two lower ones - makes the difference with the apple stand out more. I gessoed out the table completely - couldn't figure out what to do with it - I don't want it to complete with the red of the apple - it needs to be the focal point. I'm trying to not rush this one, as is my usual trend. I'd like to to really feel finished. I actually started this one with a plan - compositionally, if not color-wise, and I'm hoping to see it through!

Started a new painting today - a still life with some pears I got the other day. I had planned to just do the pears, but then I spied the apple in the fruit bowl and was inspired by a sermon I heard on Sunday. It was all about how easy it COULD be to spark a multi-cultural revolution, if only we were willing to speak to those we perceive as different from us. So - the pears and the apple...when it is finished, I think it will be obvious that the pears are all huddled up in their little like-minded group and the poor apple is sitting outside of the community just because it's an apple and not a pear. I thought that it was appropriate to use pears and apples, because really - they aren't that different from each other (not like apples and oranges, anyway) - at least not as different as they may appear surficially. I'm still thinking about the title, but a good working title might be, "You say hello...no - you...no - you..."  

Too Hot to Paint...

Man - it was hot today!! Heat index over 100 - acrylics dry just way too fast for that! Worked on a logo for a while, but I can't show it yet, and built and gessoed a couple of canvases after the sun went down - not much to photograph, there...white, square - that's really all you need to know. :-)

So - I'll give you a digitally manipulated picture I created a while ago ---gotta have some new art!!

This is an angel atop a tomb in Lafayette No. 1 Cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana, digitally altered using Photoshop.

Weekly Drawing Event 7.22.05

I painted this today in about 2 1/2 hours for the Weekly Drawing Event (WDE) at wetcanvas.com. Every Friday, a host posts a number of reference photos for everyone to choose from - you have ~30 minutes to choose a reference, then 2 hours to post something.

This is my first time to participate, so I was a little nervous at what I could actually produce in 2 hours, but I think it went okay. The colors are a little darker than I originally planned (and even darker in this image, unfortunately), but I think I learned a lot and had some fun!

Friday's Flowers

Not much to say today. The boys and I were cleaning out the garage, and we spotted this bumblebee pollinating our zinnias. I may just have to paint one of them!

Bumblebee on Pink Zinnia 

Up close and finished. 

okay, I couldn't leave it alone. That smile line is okay now. whew. 

Goal Number 1...NO GRID!

Well - here is my first attempt at goal number 1 for the week: "Achieve a likeness, with a reference photo, without using a grid." I did draw some reference lines on my reference photo, but not on my drawing paper. I'm pleased that at the outset, I've got everything basically in the right place! But, no one would recognize this as my son without the photo next to it - so there is some work to do! His face is too round...the space between the left eye (his right eye) and cheek is too wide, and his left eye is too open...

adjusted the left side and the hair, but the left (his right) eye is still too big and the left (his right) nostril is too low. 

fixed eye and nostril, toned down some shading - maybe too much? 

added some shadows and highlights, but something is still not right about that nose!! grrrrrr. 

refining a little more - just noticed that the smile line on the left side is WAY off.