thought i'd show you one that came back from the gallery unsold. it was painted plein air near Marshallberg halfway between Beaufort and Cedar Island Ferry, near Harkers Island. i really liked the scene and the painting was loose and colorful. when i got it back i decided on seeing if i could do something with it. the first thing that hit me with the painting (and its lack of selling power) was it really didnt have a focal point. thats like having a story but its not about anything. no matter how well you tell the story its still about nothing and is a lousy story. so i know i need to do something about that. i'll put a boat in the water, darken the shadow area behind the white bow and voila! a focal point.
next the weeds on the right would be in shadow and i have em too light in the original, so i'll darken that and the baseline of the weeds all the way around, again adding more form and complexity to the painting (if only in a small way). the sky on the top right is too light in value so i'll drop that about 1/2 value step and make it more blue. the tree sun shapes look to fragmented so i'll drop the value and connect em. then add highlited areas to those shapes. that will give them more form. darkened the values of the tree shadow shapes to make the tree pop out away from the background more.
i stop before i mess the thing up!
Morning Light and Reflection-8x10
SOLD
What do you think? better?
5 comments:
Wow! Awesome. Perfect. Love the new tidbits and info you've been adding lately as well. It's so cool to see your thinking process and the work come to life in finished form!
Police Officer: "May I see your license please, sir?"
MR:"Sure officer, just let me dig it out for you...ok here you go."
PO:"Sir, this is not a drivers license-in fact, I can't tell what the heck this is...it's all covered with paint!"
MR:"That's my artistic license, bub...the only license that counts."
Great punching up on this, Mike...the insight you offer into such things is a great help and answers lots of questions. I bet this piece won't last long now.
Thanks.
Steve
julie- glad youre enjoying the ravings that go along with the paintings. hope its a help
steve- i hope it doesnt last long! ive gotta go get that license for my wallet. been painting without it for so long and ive been meaning to go get it. LOL
its liberating to know that you can do whatever you want even if youre a plein air painter.
Mike
had spelling probs in first post! Ha! Anyway.. this was really good. thanks for clarifying what you were doing. nice teaching tool, i learn a lot from reading your posts and thought patterns. have you changed your palette lately? in the last few months your paintings have taken on more vibrancy. very nice. I am really enjoying visiting your site. Dean
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