Showing posts with label acrylic painting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label acrylic painting. Show all posts

Friday, 6 May 2011

face #7 (2011)

face #7 (2011) by kelise72
face #7 (2011), a photo by kelise72 on Flickr.

size: variable
media: digital using Inspire Pro for ipad.

This is a painting over a photograph, which I then printed to transfer paper and fixed the image to a piece of canvas to be stretched over a small frame (approx 10 x 10 inches). The printed colours on the canvas are much brighter/more vibrant than seen here. I'm pretty pleased with the experiment; even though it looks like mass-produced "art" you'd find in Ikea (I sort of expected that result).

The mass-produced feel of this painting is still OK with me after seeing the finished piece...it's a "legitimate" painting in my view, even if I haven't used old-fashioned paint to create it. In this digital age, I fully anticipate digital artwork to be recognised as... well... artwork in its own right.

Sometimes with art, it's the IDEA that's important...art is not just about HOW you materialised that idea (see: Andy Warhol). i.e., Just because my painting was done on a computer doesn't make it something other than a painting... look past the screen print to see and think about the IMAGE, COLOUR, COMPOSITION and the FEELING/RESPONSE to see the ART. :)

Friday, 30 July 2010

still life (2010) - bowl, chopper, mortar-and-pestle

16x24 inches, acrylic on canvas

This is one is now version 2.0 (after feedback from my tutor who makes some very good points).

Basically, the "problems" with the original (see previous blog) were
- the composition that included strong diagonals was a bit too "dynamic" for the soft palette chosen
- the mortar-and-pestle was "floating" - because the shadows were inaccurate, and seemed to be a different shape than the object throwing the shadow. Also the shadow was not really "connected" to the object, giving the appearing of floating
- The bright colour of the mortar-and-pestle caused the object to be out of place, ie., it didn't "fit" in the picture - seemed to be from a different palette maybe.

All in all, I'm happy(er) with the painting after the changes... the little jar in the front isn't "floating" anymore (having been firmly anchored to the countertop by the shadow) and also, the colour/tone of it seems to fit better with the whole composition.

I worked on the mortar/pestle, and the shadows a bit, however, hestitated to change the diagonals (as I really wasn't sure then how changing diagonals would affect the shadows?) So in the end, I merely softened the diagonals with lighter grays/taupes, and I think it worked out OK.

I like this 2nd attempt MUCH better now, so it is saved from the bin :)

Tuesday, 27 July 2010

still life - bowl, chopper, mortar-and-pestle (2010)


still life (2010)
Originally uploaded by kelise72
This is one is attempting to imitate Morandi's style, using a limited palette to paint still-life objects (bottles, bowls, jugs and such). heh, I just said "jugs"...

I like the softness of this painting very much; it has quite a soothing quality which is a bit unexpected for a painting of a collection of simple kitchen implements... makes me think of the sleepy shuffle to the kitchen to make the morning coffee...

Technically speaking, this painting wasn't very difficult as I spent about half the time (about 4 hours overall) just to set the initial drawing (using graphite pencil). Drawing well to start makes the rest of the piece easier to accomplish. Interestingly, the first layer of paint sort of blended with the graphite and moved around the canvas, helping the shadows to appear. (I'm thinking to do something similar with charcoal as the underlayer with just water or maybe watery white paint to move the charcoal around ... hmmmm....)

As it was, I used the following Liquitex colours in this painting:
- Titanium White
- Dioxide Purple
- Cadmium Yellow Medium
(two complementary colours)
- Payne's Gray

It seems that the composition is quite strong too, in that the diagonal lines move the eye around the picture quite easily - without the strong diagonals (of the countertop, the shadows), I think the composition would be weakened.

If I'm to make one criticism, the yellow stone mortar/pestle seems to "float" a bit, almost seems to hover over the countertop but as I'm now bored with the thing, I won't bother to make any changes. And the "floaty" mortar/pestle is less apparent in the real painting anyway.

Other than that, I'm pretty pleased with this one!

Next up: a portrait using the same limited palette, it will be interesting to see how that turns out!

Friday, 5 February 2010

Tuscany

I finished the first painting of an intended series, with the working name "Tuscany". Hopefully, these won't be seen as trite, but rather as charming little paintings to simply enjoy, even if there's not a great meaning behind them. (There's no law, anyway, that says all art has to MEAN something, right?)

As I haven't painted a great many pictures, I'm using these as an excuse to practice mixing colours and forming simple compositions.

And as for meaning, well, these paintings remind me of a lovely anniversary holiday in Tuscany.