Thursday, January 27, 2005
Jonah's Last Look
Ok, this is my first attempt at creating an oil painting for the Jonah's Last Look concept (see previous posts). Overall the painting is ok but I know I could have done a much better job. Part of my reservations with this painting is that overall it just doesn't hold together well. The biggest outage is too much indecisiveness in some of the color choices. Also the line work in the waves appear extremely forced and overworked and finally the texture strategy has the wrong priority.
When I first started applying the color to the canvas I was using more of muted palette but as I progressed through the painting the colors began to brighten up and become more pure. You can see how the ocean area takes on a brighter richer look than the waves. There should be a marked difference between the waves and the ocean but I think in retrospect I would have allowed just the texture to create that difference without having added a hue change. All I needed to do was muddy the color of the ocean a bit. I'm also getting a spiral overload. There is way too much of a good thing happening. It's like eating two tons of cotton candy. By eliminating half of the outline work especially in the waves on the right side the composition would have been much more pleasant to look at. It's the old More Is Less principle rearing its ugly head again.
And the spirals themselves just lack craftsmanship. Some adept drafting skills would have come in handy here.
Finally, the waves in the foreground have a paint texture that is flat and the ocean's texture is really thick. I believe that should be reversed the waves should have the deepest highest raised texture.
When I first started applying the color to the canvas I was using more of muted palette but as I progressed through the painting the colors began to brighten up and become more pure. You can see how the ocean area takes on a brighter richer look than the waves. There should be a marked difference between the waves and the ocean but I think in retrospect I would have allowed just the texture to create that difference without having added a hue change. All I needed to do was muddy the color of the ocean a bit. I'm also getting a spiral overload. There is way too much of a good thing happening. It's like eating two tons of cotton candy. By eliminating half of the outline work especially in the waves on the right side the composition would have been much more pleasant to look at. It's the old More Is Less principle rearing its ugly head again.
And the spirals themselves just lack craftsmanship. Some adept drafting skills would have come in handy here.
Finally, the waves in the foreground have a paint texture that is flat and the ocean's texture is really thick. I believe that should be reversed the waves should have the deepest highest raised texture.
