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Author: Dave_(Iconoclast)_Dowbyhuz, Contributing Editor
| Now I must begin to tone down the glare on those cushions in the foreground. I mix a glaze of the principal blanket-tones and suggest the checked pattern within the light. I am able to creat a few folds in the terrain while I’m at it. (Note: The creases that exist in the fabric have been accentuated somewhat to echo the creases and wrinkles in Melvin's flabby face and body.) I’ve darkened the shadow beneath his paw as well. |
_front_blanket_detail.JPG){kind=spacer} |
| I also dropped down some folds of the blanket where they drop off the cushions. This is not suggested in the reference photo, but I want to give the cushion edge more dimension. This is done with a dry mix of titanium/zinc white and a neutral tone (such as my favorite, Paynes gray). With a stiff bristle filbert brush, scrub down, using very little paint. Then behind the new fold to our left in the painting. Scrub in some pure dark using the same technique. (Note: To make something brighter you don’t always have to lighten the object itself. Darken the area adjacent to the object, and you brighten the object in the process; sometimes this technique is a more subtle effect.)
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| I notice the surface of the canvas is starting to get ugly from the upper layers of paint sinking in and becoming matte, while fatter layers are gleaming. I lightly brush on some retouch varnish in the matte areas to bring the colors back, and thus avoid the risk of correcting tones that don’t need it. |
_couch_back.JPG) |
| I begin to wonder if the couch-back hasn’t become too featureless, flirting with flat. I decide to build up some tones. First, I add a border-tone, or core-shadow, across the back where the curve meets the light. This is simply a scumble of the ever-versatile paynes gray thinned down some for transparency’s sake. The curve of the couch becomes a little more dimensional. I also add more dark in a triangular area to the right of the crease that bisects the back, and the corner behind Melvin’s neck. I then tone down the lower highlight on that same long pleat. |
| The upper most highlight on the couch back in the photo reference appears wrong to my eye. I felt that I needed something up there nonetheless. I added some glazed highlights, the darker under-tones still show through, but without creating that solar flare effect in the photo.
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_2nd_couch_back.JPG) |
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