Friday, April 11, 2008

Waterfront Dining-24x30

these large ones are starting to get fun. i like the pressure of having to get it done in the two hour window you have painting outside. i definately noticed the shadow patterns had moved but also the sky started clouding up so all the shapes were taking on different values and colors. thats why the blockin is so critical. you put it in and dont mess with it. light can move, change temperature, whatever but you do not "chase the light" as its called. put it in leave it and work from that and memory. the more you paint outside the better and better your memory will get. i can even go back to the studio and remember how things were and tweak it a bit if needed. especially liked the two trucks over on the right. simple boxes with wheels. simplify, simplify, simplify!

todays not giveaway day. check back tomorrow. you could win.

2 comments:

Frank Gardner said...

Man, you did that on the spot? I am going to have to try some bigger plein airs.

mike rooney studios said...

yeah, the whole thing was done in 2 1/2 hours and dropped off at the local gallery in the beach town it was painted in.
you gotta paint totally from instinct when you to them this big in one setting. let the paint fly. if you get bogged down youre finished. so i just put it on auto pilot and hope for the best. this is where the super loose feel comes in, even tho its so big. block in's super important this big too. if you trust it and its working for the first hour your in the clear and you can just let go of thinking and paint. if you sense somethings wrong early on you'll basically have a 24x30 mess you have to let dry so you can gessoe over it and try again. i probably paint over every third one for one reason or another. most are composition problems or value problems. another side benefit of doing them this big outside....makes doing the 9x12 seem super easy when you do one of them!