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Small 30x30cm study. However, I failed, because after painting my flesh I put in a saturated green background, and it completely overwhelmed the flesh and made it terribly washed out and weak. This makes sense, a large bright green area will overpower a smaller more muted yellow-red area, even if that area has a few very saturated red highlights.
So I wiped out the background, made it much more dull grey, then grayed all the colors for the clothes as well. I then added the bright red of the flesh into the top of his shirt to help unify the whole and give a reason for the red reflections under the chin. This helped the painting a lot.
However, I did not accomplish my original goal, which was that this little painting should be a study for a much larger painting that will be called star gazing. That painting will have a very colorful saturated background and then the natural more muted toned face. So the problem will be how to make the neutral face the focal point despite all the colors in the background. ???
I will have to make another study, and I am not sure how I will proceed. I would like to take a lesson from asian prints where the backgrounds are all busy with patterns and the faces are plain and therefore the faces are still the focal point, due to their plainness. However I am not sure this will help in the style I paint in.
Being born places you at a greater risk of dying later in life.
http://www.artallison.com/I’m thinking that you still visualize the background as foliage. But the direction of the changes, and comments, and other mentioned art, is in the direction of patterned abstraction.
I’m also thinking that you want the background to be something greenish, to balance or complement the foreground in terms of hue. If so, free your mind from that. Sometimes background and foreground have similar color schemes, in a way that some portion of the color wheel is nearly missing from the total.
One possibility, which I suppose could be done using only transparent glazes, would be to change and darken the background, maybe even provide a gradient top to bottom. Here’s a digital modification (no change to foreground), merely to get you thinking in other directions. Not necessarily an improvement:
Sorry for the late reply, I have been on vacation with minimal internet access.
In the final painting the background will not be trees, but a colorful scene from outer space. The values will be consistent with space images, but the colors will be more science fiction. The problem is making these saturated colors recede as a background. And I think I will solve this by making the light areas of the face the lightest areas of the whole painting. I think these light face areas make an interesting shape. So the lightest light in the background will still be darker than the face, which I think will make the face come forward.
Ronsu – I will think more about cool-warm contrast in the flesh and clothing. Background will have both cool and warm colors. Yes I agree – it’s not about details, it’s about the shapes of the light and midtone and dark areas. Why is the light where it is? Good question. I am thinking natural sunlight on the left moving across his face. Yet the sky is outer space, so it doesn’t have the same light source, it has different rules. I just hope it works.
Pinguino – yes glazes. In fact I plan on making the background nothing but glazes over a black and white value layer. So all details in the value layer, then washes of glazes. The boy will be the opposite – thicker layers of paint over only a loose value layer and some dry scumbles. Unfortunately in general glazed areas come forward and scumbled areas recede, however since I am doing everything the opposite of normal I am hoping it will work, sort of like the way japanese prints work where the background is full of busy colors and patterns all over and the flesh is very solid and plain and therefore the flesh is actually the focal point because it gives your eyes a rest area.
This is a crude example of how I am thinking of proceeding.
Being born places you at a greater risk of dying later in life.
http://www.artallison.com/Stargazing imprimatura wash in vine black. Erased while wet with brushes, baby wipes and mostly fingers. All values are too dark to start with so when dry I will scumble all with white to lighten. 55x95cm
Being born places you at a greater risk of dying later in life.
http://www.artallison.com/Hey, Allison, I love this, and I think the outer space background was the perfect solution! One issue that I see though is the value of the turquoise/pale orange area above and at the right of his head. It seems a little too similar in value to the light areas of his face, and to my eye, fights for attention with his face. And also, although you’re correct when you say that light from that lighted area in space would not fall on his face, I think our eyes are so used to seeing a connection between light in the sky and light falling on objects/people on the ground, that we assume that connection, which in this case does not work as our assumptions tell us it should. Perhaps it could be made a little lower in value while retaining the color? It’s such a gorgeous image that even if you leave it as is, I think it’ll be a very successful painting, but I’m just giving you a first impression, looking it with a critical eye, as I hope others would do for me when I post in-process work. The color is just beautiful throughout – especially the skin tones. I too enjoy seeing the steps you take while creating your work – it’s fascinating to watch and makes me want to try the imprimatura method.
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