You are about to see a painting in its adolescent stage! Beware! You will be seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly! View at your own risk! Hope that you enjoy seeing this daunting process.
Once I decided on the portion of the photo that would be most effective for this painting, I lightly sketched in the important details. Now I take the plunge and put paintbrush to paper.
I started by lightly painting in the background and the boy to get a sense of the colors I would be using. Next, I started on the tile floor. Here, I used richer colors that will eventually be toned down.
Still in the preliminary process, I start to refine the hair, shirt, pants, and sneakers, as well as lay in some turquoise for the beginning of the copper patina on the drinking fountain.
Here's where it starts getting UGLY! I'm laying in colors for the stone wall with its green algae.
As you might have guessed by now, I am very slow and deliberate in my painting process. It takes me a long time to complete a watercolor to my satisfaction. At this point, I am nowhere near being done. Once all of the colors are "in," the refining begins. There must be "dark darks" and very "light lights" to make the painting have depth. Once these "values" are established, I can attend to the most difficult and time-consuming part, adding all of the minute details.
Can't wait to hear from you!
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This is both fascinating and daunting to a non-artist, Barbara. When I was in high school art class, I found watercolor work particularly scary, as one false move meant a complete re-do, whereas oils seemed to be far more forgiving.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these stages of your work with us. It certainly gives me a greater appreciation of the process.
My youngest brother is an artist who went into animation, and although I'm very proud of him, and am glad he makes a good living with his talent, I have fond memories of the fine art he produced in his college days.
K
It's wonderful to see the process from beginning to . . . well, quite a long way from the end, apparently. It's fascinating. I like watching artists at work but feel I'm imposing on a very private activity.
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful - and I'm loving the look at your process too. I can't wait to see it all finished!
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up!
Sarah @ A Cat-Like Curiosity