Untamed Land

Untamed Land
Untamed Land

Monday, June 3, 2013

What to Paint Next?

For about the last week or so I have been kicking around ideas for the next painting. I really want to do better than what I have been doing lately.
It occurs to me that I have not really done justice to the subject of Sandhill Cranes.
The challenge is to come up with an interesting composition. Because I tend to get bored of my own work, it is difficult for me to muster enthusiasm for painting.
I have many, many photographs of sandhills to use for references.
Instead of starting a whole new painting from scratch, I pulled out this 12x24" painting, and tried to think of a way to improve it.
An image popped into my head and I got busy laying down a foundation of warm tones that I could build upon.
I almost obliterated all of the earlier work of the original version of the painting. There is just a ghost image of the cranes remaining. Oh no, what have I done?
One thing that I thought would help to achieve the effect that I am hoping to create, would be to darken the cranes just a bit.
After adding the dark tones, I began adding some highlights to the birds. I still have not completed this stage of the painting. My idea for this painting is to weave a lot of tall reeds all around the cranes.I will try to put in some strong highlights in a few selected areas to direct the viewer's attention to a center of focus. Will I improve this one, or have I already ruined it? We shall see.

 

4 comments:

Marc Calvo said...

This is the risk,for changing,the pictures,i have to restore several ones,but not related in the scene painting or the background thone.

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