iStockphoto Stats

A quick analysis of downloads from my iStockphoto portfolio in the last month reveals that:

36% were businesspeople
21% were paintings
15% was food
15% were travel pics
9% were girls
3% were miscellaneous photos.

As a percent of dollars:

29% were businesspeople
45% were paintings
7 % was food
11% was travel
4% were girls
4% was miscellaneous.

Wow! Really should proportion time spent on each similarly.

Mixed Media

This is an overlap of the picture i took of Venessa and the work-in-progress painting. Quite like the result.

updated Bohemian Forest Woman

detail of work in progress

Even though i've had lots of great response to the photo of the painting posted two days ago, I wasn't quite satisfied. Jackie always yells "no, leave it alone" when she sees work in progress she likes, but i keep working it. Well we can always make a nice print from the photo of how that painting was.

Firstly i bought some masking fluid. I've never used that before. I applied it over the figure. Then i wetted the rest of the painting and put down plastic wrap with vertical wrinkles. Was hoping the results would look much better. The paper buckled horizontally when wet and the vertical pattern of the wrap didn't impact like i imagined.

So i'm going to try the realistic style again and see if i can paint some trees that make me happy. If not, they'll get massacred again.

These photos of the work in progress show the masking fluid over the figure. So i'm hoping that the figure will look like it did two days ago when i'm finally satisfied with the trees and peel off the mask. Stay tuned.

Bohemian Forest Woman

This painting is derived from a photoshoot with wicked Venessa. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I'd rather the trees be thinner and more delicate looking.

I tried to be much more methodical with colours and less splashy with the paint and brush. It's less abstract that way. I can imagine wetting it again and laying plastic wrap with vertical folds might add nice texture. But then Venessa might be diminished. That might be a good thing to work her into the background? Or i could put a mask on her and then put the wrap on the wetted background. I don't know?

I have a nice photo of this stage, so perhaps i shouldn't worry about it and go ahead and push it even more?

The Photo's Impression

I finished this painting last night. It's been a work in process for a few weeks now. It was getting muddier and muddier as each new layer was applied, and further from having any dynamic range. It was looking very dark grey and monotone.

So i thought "what the hell" and washed as much as would come off in the kitchen sink. I was left with a slightly lighter green colour block devoid of any shapes or patterns. Then i roughly sketched a scene from a group of seven painting with watercolour pencils onto the wet paper. I quite like the result.

The photo (above) i took of the painting seems to have a much greater tonal range from the light areas to the dark darks than how the painting looks in real life. And more colorful too. If i sold this painting online, the photo would definitely have to be darkened and desaturated to more closely resemble how i see the real painting. Otherwise i think the photo would be a misrepresentation of the painting. Maybe i just remember it under bad light? I've altered the photo to resemble how i remember the painting (below).

Then there is the issue of how i'd really like it to be. So i went to town in Photoshop and adjusted the tonal curves and saturation quite a bit. The image below is the one i prefer. I might have a large print made from this variation and see how it compares to the original painting. I wonder if Photoshop needs to be how i finish all my work and only sell prints. The original painting perhaps trashed as inferior?

June 16th Update:

Istockphoto rejected the version that i considered "final" (above) for being too dark. So i lightened it up, and resubmitted it (below).