Monday, September 1, 2014

Resolving a Painting

Here is one for you.  After sitting back and reviewing this painting I found a few things that did not make sense.

Piles of It, 8x10, Oil on Canvas on Board

This was done on an overcast day.  So, the chroma and the values do not add up.  I slid my value checker over it just to make sure the colours weren't deceiving my eye.  So I went on to change these to make the painting "read" more consistently.  By the way, on site the barn roof was the lightest value by a fair amount.  So that is key.  The Wolf Kahn colours provided their own challenge.

Point is that I see many examples of such unresolved paintings proudly hanging on walls.  Fortunately many people fail to see them.  But they will as they review the painting often enough.  Here are some common examples.

The light coming from 2 sources for the sun - happens plein air quite often
Reflections with no shadows on light day
Values obviously wrong, say back to front
Reflections incorrectly rendered - painting what you think
Linear perspective way off
Lack of aerial perspective
Inconsistent edges
Organic shapes not organic
Chroma inconsistent with position in space
Brush and knife strokes inconsistent in space
Many paintings in one

There are a host of others.  Before the last touches are done a review of these concept breakers needs to happen.  With my plein air limit of an hour and a half I have to make this happen near the middle of the time limit, not back in the studio.  Fun!

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