After 2 months of making study paintings on paper, I finally took to canvas again this weekend. The whole idea behind making the studies was to focus on the purpose and composition of the imagery over the time and effort of making substantial pieces. I'm glad I trained my brain a little bit to make a vintage image before using canvas. Making this piece was a crazy amount of fun, and while it's miles from perfect, I'm pretty proud of it. It's my first real attempt at subtle distortion of the figure with the use of elongating the neck and arms compared to the photo. My mentor has been encouraging me to at least try what he does with a real wet on wet style of painting with tons of paint and black as a base. I made some little studies and they were really awful. No one will ever see them and they will haunt me forever. What I did take from those experiments was a better understanding of paint viscosity, so I used that here. I also substituted the black for my favorite violet, which works great with ochre in a vintage color scheme. It feels like I'm on to something- I can't wait to start the next canvas!
1 comment:
Nate!! How've you been?? I'm digging your new piece! I personally like the wet into wet oil painting technique, but I've never used (or heard of) having the underpainting be black. That seems... difficult! haha The combination you mentioned sounds wonderful however, I'm sure those complimentary colors really play off of each other well and help things pop out on the canvas. This piece is great, and I'm sure it looks better in person!
I can see the distortion you're attempting to play with (more so in the torso). Are you planning on pushing this further? I can tell that you've gotten a better handling on paint w/this piece. The ironic part, is this painting seems almost more polished than your previous ones. I like the aesthetic better, but I think the roughness of your studies and previous paintings tied in well with your intention of recreating old photographs. I can't decide which I like better though, just thought I'd share.
Sorry I've been MIA for awhile and neglecting the blog world, but I'm back so you'll be seeing more of me here. Hope you and the family are great!!
:) Cyn
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