Friday, October 12, 2007

With My Chisel


Vineyard in Oregon, reference
approx 4 in x 5 in (10 cm x 13 cm)

This afternoon I decided to do another quick piece. I spent about an hour and twenty minutes on this. It was a fascinating experience, again I used the sculpting idea.

Some learning points:
  • Bravery: I took on a complicated landscape, normally I would be afraid to try something like this, but I was willing to go for it as it would only cost an hour.
  • Speed: I finished this in a short time (it is small, but I did some peppers yesterday, same size, and didn't come nearly as close to finishing).
  • Insight: I just moved down from the top, starting with "washes" in 3 or 4 areas. At each step, my mind could see what to do and my hand just followed. (I think this is why it felt quick). And then, on the next go, as I'd reach a new area, my mind had ideas for that.
  • Style: I'm hoping this method might push me towards a more painterly style. This is something I've been wanting to explore for a while.
  • Growth: It felt really good while doing this to have some of the things I've been learning recently right at hand...complementary colors, cool shades for recession, suggestion over detail, incorporating colors all over the piece.
Next week I plan to move ahead with the commission, do something for IF, and do some more quickies - perhaps with some new pencils. Have a good weekend everyone!

6 comments:

Kasie @ ~The Art of Life~ said...

Good for you Rose, for trying new things!
:)

Valerie Jones said...

I'm liking this! I had an instructor once that had me go over the whole painting with the pencil that I had currently in my hand....use it everywhere it was needed and then go to the next color. It was a time saver and made you really look at your reference. I'm proud of you for trying new things!

Belinda Lindhardt said...

Wow well done Rose i might give this theory a whirl myself you have done a great job. Does the hour include tracing / line drawing or is that separate ?

Rose Welty said...

Thanks everybody for the encouragement!

Belinda, that's just it...there is NO line drawing. My first marks were to fill in blue at the top, green in the middle, and then another blue at the bottom for the road (which didn't really work). I think because I just put splotches of color in the general areas and then refined on the next pass-thru. It sounds odd, but I think it enabled me to get more depth and variety/life in the trees than I normally would be able to achieve with CPs. I think this sort of thing would work really well for you, because you can see it all in your mind beforehand!

MD said...

Nice work and very interesting reading. Like how you are pushing and challenging yourself. Also find the 5 headings you used to assess your work very interesting and thought provoking.
MD
x

Rose Welty said...

Marie-Dom,

Thanks for stopping by. I'm at a fun point right now, lots of experimentation, some of it successful! :-)