04/03/2005: "Still nothing new..."

Wow, i had 4 days off in a row for getting work done and I did nothing but eat junk and watch and read junk. I *tried* to do some new, "edgy" pieces but my heart wasn't in it. Everything turned out looking pretentious and horrid. Ironically, the John Water's picture "Pecker" came on right in the middle of my frustrating lack of clever...(the film pokes fun at art world irony).

I guess the truth is that I really enjoy the paintings that I've been doing. I love bright colors. I love outlining everything and I don't care if it flattens the image. I'm not saying that I've given up on the idea of trying to be experimental, I just don't feel that I should force it just for the sake of trying to be different.

So instead I worked on the painting of the harmonica player, only as Holly pointed out, she continued to look like she was ready to sink her teeth into a chocolate bar. Since the bluegrass themed show isn't an issue anymore I just painted the damn thing out. Repainted the hair, the face, a bunch of other stuff, it still doesn't look right. I think there's too much rose color in the lower part of the panel. I'm going to paint the lower part of her dress the same color as mountains, and the upper part the color of the glacier. I'm considering adding something else to seperate the flowers from her hair, maybe a book, or sheet music, or a sleeping cat...Other ideas? I'll finish this damn painting if it's the last thing I do!

Replies: 4 Comments

on Monday, April 4th, holly said

A book. Open, face-down, held by both hands. Of course, you'll lose the boobs, but hey...

on Monday, April 4th, Elise said

Great suggestion Holly, I'm takin it!

on Tuesday, April 5th, greg said

If it were me ... I'd accentuate the line of her form with darker shadows (like the trees) adding another level of line below trees & mtns ... stylize the hair just a tad more ... no book, blues harp, or acoutrements ... just reposing serenely 'pon a lush rich dark green moss bed with tiny white flowers ...but only if it were me! :D

on Tuesday, April 5th, Elise said

I think you're right about her body needing more definition and shadows to match the trees etc. I was planning on stylizing the hair a bit more, I just need for it to dry, but you're right about that too.

As for not having any accoutrements, well, I really like the book idea, (big advocate of reading being a librarian and all) so I think I'm going to PhotoShop it and see how it works from a design standpoint.

I do like the tiny white flower suggestion. I keep trying to incorporate my favorite flower, the fireweed(see two photos at the end), which you see in the distance, but it's looking stiff compared to the curves of the figure. I'll PhotoShop that as well.

Thanks so much for the input.