Etude #1
Objective:
Goal: Primary focus is to loosen my mark making and think about how the colors layering on top of each other will impact one another.
Result: I’m kind of happy with it.
Goal: Not to end up with a photoreal copy.
Result: Eh… I like where it ended up. It is something unique.
This painting by Vuillard is obviously a lot more accomplished than what I did. Vuillard is someone I think about often. I admire how he used color.
Not evident especially in this work is Vuillards use of patterns. Vuillard was a crazy mad man.
End of Session 5
There is a point where you get to and feel like everything compositionally is in place.
I feel like I got there with this step and the rest was about color.
… yes, I’m working from a photo, so the composition was planned out. But… there were still a ton of decisions made to get to this point. (i’m a little defensive because there is such a fine line between photorealism and something like this. Maybe I crossed over?).
End of Session 12
I was ready to say this was done here. I posted this image on a forum expressly about giving critical feedback and got a few responses that backed up what was in my mind.
I like the idea of reacting to observations from people who have no stake in the outcome beyond offering a constructive opinion.
There were no dramatic revelations in the comments. Most of the suggestions confirmed things I was already sensing. Still, I used the feedback as an impetus to make one more pass, and the painting is better for it.
It gave me the push to dive in and take it to the next step that I was fearful of doing.
For the images below: I recommend clicking on one, then using the (forward/backward) buttons to scroll through them.
Note: Information on why I’m adding the meta data to the painting can be found here, ‘Objets Etranges #1’.
Reference image
This is a picture of Latour
I tried to not refer to the initial image over the last 6 or so sessions, so it morphed into the end result.
Thoughts:
I came across this video on Fischl. I appreciated the way that he talked his process of painting a piece. I didn’t know that he worked this way. What he said is the approach I’m trying to take with my initial photo based work. (video is starting a couple of minutes in and the clip I liked was around 90 seconds long).
Gil Scott-Heron created what I consider to be one of the best albums ever ‘I’m New Here’ just before he died.
Makaya McCraven, who never ceases to floor me took that album and ‘reimagined’ it. making it better.
I can listen to this album endlessly.