Thursday, August 26, 2010

From Tight to Loose

Yesterday I once again joined my friend La Vonne to work on another painting from Italy. You've seen it before, but I took it to La Vonne's for her expert critique. Although I felt it was done, she was able to help me improve it in one large way and several small.

Here is "Sisters" before.

 
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The large improvement was to wash down the street to get rid of the "connectors" I had added and lightening the street in the distance and to the left. I did a bit more of a wash in areas and then redid the splatter, ending up with a much better street.

I also curved the skirts, blouses, pants and nun's wimple, changing the rather straight, stagnant shapes.

 
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I also worked on softening the edge of the shadow to light on the left, reshaped the plants, and finally added the touch of color several folks mentioned a lack of by adding a red logo patch to the backpack and red trip to the nun's bag.

 
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And here is the result--I consider this painting a job well done!

 
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Sisters 18 x 21

So after finishing this rather tight, realistic painting in my studio, I took off on a different approach to a figure painting--loose and juicy. This is my interpretation of Liz, poet/gardener--done in one afternoon.

 
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Liz 21 x 18

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazing what a few well placed changes can make. mvw

Anonymous said...

Both paintings are well done. You are on a roll. I like the looseness of the Liz painting.



Linda