Dry Land - surrealistic desert landscape

vyala · #1 09-15-2006, 05:39 PM

MY IMAGE(S):

GENERAL INFORMATION:
Title: Dry Land - surrealistic desert landscape
Year Created: 2006
Medium: Other
Surface: Fibre
Dimension: 40 x 21
Allow digital alterations?: Yes!

MY COMMENTS:
Surrealistic desert landscape painted on silk, stitched. My intention was to catch the colours of the desert and make the piece glow.

MY QUESTIONS FOR THE GROUP:
Any weaknesses in this piece? Comments are really welcome and appreciated.

nikkico · #2 09-16-2006, 10:45 AM

Vyala, you've done it again...I love this series of geological/earthscapes! The designs are unexpected for that medium.. I'm thinking they are like Yin and Yang; Earth and Silk. Based on very first impression of this one: the strength of the landscape design along the sides is making the central area of cracked earth appear light and weak; it is not as confident, so there's a slight imbalance. Based on second impression onwards - strengthening, darken, deepen only a few cracks in the foreground, what do you think? Are you planning for an exhibit of this series?

vyala · #3 09-16-2006, 12:12 PM

Hi Nikki,

thanks a lot for your input. I have never thought about the aspect of Yin and Yang in this piece - I have only thought in "colours".
But the more I look at this piece I think you are right - the cracks are too "loud" in the far distance and should be softened down. Before I do this on the piece directly I tried it on photoshop - what do you think about the change?

Btw - had to laugh about your comment regarding "the designs are unexpected for that medium" - wonderful!!! - this exactly is my intention and one of the reasons why I paint on silk not on canvas!

Cheerfully,

LynnDigby · #4 09-19-2006, 02:56 PM

better. intriguing medium.

vyala · #5 09-20-2006, 12:10 PM

This is the best I could come up with now. I could not change the cracks as much as I wanted because this is simply not possible on silk - otherwise it would look repaired. But I managed to reduce the very dark cracks, lighten them up and add some more light on the right side of that "wadi"

The changes do not translate very well on the computer because they are so subtle - left pic is "after" - right pic is "before":

Cheerfully,

nikkico · #6 09-23-2006, 09:44 AM

Hi Petra, sounds like you've finished this, but here I am anyway as promised, just a little late! The cliffs along each side (and some of your other designs too) remind me of Georgia O'Keefe's paintings. In this landscape the cracks are painted consistantly everywhere, flattening out your design. Assuming that you want it to recede, and not have it as a straight 2D design as most silk painters would, in my opinion deepening a few of the cracks in the soil, bringing more weight and zip into the foreground would put the rest in the distance and also lend a hand to the entry point. My example is darker and sharper than you might do it but shows you the area I'm talking about.

Name: dryland_silk_03sm.jpg
Views: 31
Size: 18.1 KB

Name: dryland_silk_03sm.jpg
Views: 31
Size: 18.1 KB

vyala · #7 09-24-2006, 05:55 AM

Hi Nikki,
thank you very much for checking in again. I have done that kind of changes already but I did not post it on wetcanvas. The changed scan is on my website. You were completely right - although the changes again do not translate so well via the monitor - in reality it looks not flat any more - especially when it is properly lighted. Silk painting is extremely sensitive towards light - colours only read to their full extent in artificial light not in daylight. The difference is just amazing.

http://www.angelfire.com/art2/vyala_...s/dryland.html

Thanks again,
cheerfully,

nikkico · #8 09-24-2006, 06:09 AM

Oh wow, the depth has improved so much with those changes. The colors glow and are far richer on your website! Admirable work, Petra, all of it.

vyala · #9 09-24-2006, 08:19 AM

Nikki - are you aware that you are risking a spanking if you say things like that in this forum?
But thank you warmly for your compliment!
Cheerfully,

nikkico · #10 09-24-2006, 09:34 AM

UHOH what have I done now? Oh, saying your website is clearer? (it is). I've made a few blunders before, Petra...a little pain never hurt anybody!

boundstaffpress · #11 09-25-2006, 12:58 PM

Maybe I'm alone in this. It usually bothers me if there are converging lines in a drawing a nothing to look at where they converge. I did a little digi-work to show this. My opinion is that it would look better if the road turned to draw the eye back into the landscape instead of just pointing at nothing.

nikkico · #12 09-25-2006, 01:14 PM

You're not alone, boundstaffpress. I see what a change that makes. Pretty amazing difference really, the more I go back and look. It changes the 'story' from silent, present-tense, almost desolate by comparison - something not noticed until you added that small curve in the path - (which is fine, I still like this piece a lot, Petra) to now with a few questions, or quite symbolic of hope. Definite change from standing to walking. Quite a change in the whole intention of the work... I can't wait to hear what Petra has to say!

vyala · #13 09-25-2006, 04:37 PM

Justin and Nikki - this is a very interesting change and indeed does change the intention of this piece. Amazing what impact a tiny change can have. Thank you very much for this idea.

I am not going to change this piece any more because I not only wanted to reflect the colours of the desert but also its loneliness. It was my intention to keep that little open gap in the middle - I carefully paid attention that the paint would not flow into each other - also that the stitching does not meet to indicate the endlessness of the horizon. A feeling you always get while being in the desert. A creepy feeling of being so small and unimportant like any of these grains of sand.

Yet I knew there is another piece coming out of this one - not a desert but something different where I wanted to use those curving landscapes in multiple levels as indicated in your (Justin's) suggestion. What a funny coincidence!

Thank you both for your comments. This is so exciting for me - like working together in a project. I appreciate this very much!

Happy painting,

veedubya · #14 09-28-2006, 08:43 AM

Amazing. I was reading this thread and waiting for someone to mention those lines meeting so precisely. I took the pledge on digitally altering work by other artists, but I just did a little tweak to show that that could be altered without dramatic change. In teaching perspective, that's a common thing to put the vanishing point exactly on the horizon, when it should be just a smidge above the horizon in a situation like this IMHO. I admire your work, vyala. The idea of working on silk is daunting! You get lovely effects but not being abole to throughly change something requires alot of preplanning!

vyala · #15 09-28-2006, 09:35 AM

Haha Virginia, that is exactly what I did but you won't see it on the monitor in that size I can upload to wetcanvas - I have added an enlargement. The gap is only 2 millimeters wide in reality (that's not very big as part of 21"!!)and you can see that horizon line only when you get very close - fuzzy isn't it?

Btw I have to make a confession: in fact it took me 3! starts until I got this piece how I wanted it to be. Twice I desperately tried to change what I did wrong - in the end I had to give up what I hated because it was such a ....... waste of material and time despite all that planning ahead. I have got a lot of tricks in my bag how to save or simply change something. In this case I was lost. Maybe one day I can use the mischiefs for something else. For now they are in the bin....

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