ExhibitionFor this piece my goal was to show how looking at the small details of something can be just as important as the big picture. I used this piece as a way to practice looking at clear shapes as well as color matching practice.
I used the picture to the right as a reference. I chose this image as my reference because it immediately caught my eye. I also wanted a challenge, knowing I was going to simplify and not blend this piece I chose the one that looked the most blended. |
Early Process
I picked a 2x1 inch rectangle on the image. Once I had my area marked out I divided my canvas into 4 equal sections and began to sketch out the area onto my canvas. I tried to look for the largest blocks of color and then drew them on in proportion. I used slash marks to show the direction the colors were flowing and tried to keep my base sketch simple, allowing myself to add the details in paint as I go. My sketching process was pretty simple. I started with the largest shapes then went from there, I tried my best to make sure everything was in relative proportion to each other and that nothing looked out of place. |
Later ProcessOnce I got the base color areas down I added more distinctive "blocks" of color to define the shapes I saw in the original image. I started by mixing colors I knew I would need then making different variants of them for more detail. As I mixed I compared the colors to the ones in the picture. Once I was satisfied with the color I put down a base layer then added the varying shades over it to create the look I wanted. While I painted I switched between 2 references, one was the original image where the details were tiny and hard to see but was good for mapping out large shapes, the other was a cropped and heavily zoomed in photo of the specific area I was painting, I used that for more specific color matching and detail work.
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Experimentation About half way through this piece I realized that my colors were getting swampy and blended. I had to step away multiple times to clear my head and reset my perspective on this piece. When I looked back at my project I went through and made more distinct lines and a more solid color. I found that my issue was too many color swatches and that I was looking too closely at the details. That is when I shifted back to the larger reference photo.
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Other than experimenting with color I also experimented with the brushes I wanted to use. I decided on a small square brush as it gave me more control over where my paint went.
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