I had worked up this composition way back in May at the same time as "The Quiet Side of White" and "Brotherly Love" when I finished the primer underpaintings for all three. Since "Brotherly Love" sold from my solo show in Breckenridge, TX, I figured I better finish this one! This one will not be with me at the Beachcombers Art Show July 27-27 in South Padre Island, TX, because my framer is out of town. But I'll be picking up the rest of my solo show this Sunday July 21, so will have plenty of good stuff there!
This one took a while, so has lots of progress shots, Enjoy!
Thanks for watching! Please share! :)
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Firstly, I love your work! I really enjoy your step by steps as well. It was kind of nice that you mentioned that you had trouble with the background on this. That is probably one of my weakest points and something I struggle with on nearly every painting. It would be nice to see yourself or one of the teaching artists have a tutorial or an article maybe touching on how to decide ways to do brackgrounds. I'm guessing there are some general rules or tips to follow? I'm particularly at a loss deciding which color or colors to incorporate and styling techniques that won't distract from the focal point too much.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marvell, I usually just ask myself if I want the subject to stand out/off from the background. If so, the background needs to contrast in value from the subject. I felt the lighter blue of the original b/g was too close (in value) to the top of the heads and didn't 'push' them forward enough. Also, the first green I put in the lower grasses was too close in value (and temperature) to the shadowed shoulders, and I liked the warm gold primer instead. So making the b/g lighter and warmer at the bottom and a darker/cool at the top worked better. I find with b/gs is when I need to ignore the photo and call forth all that boring art stuff I learned in school and forgot...(lol)
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