Work Still in progress

I worked on Joanie's painting some more. The green background paint was wetted and lifted. I don't like the edge the green painters tape made along the topside of the canopy. The paint bled a wee bit under the tape. Maybe i'm applying the tape incorrectly? Wow, i really like the how this photo looks because the dappled light was shining thru the window onto the painting. I wish i could make the painting look like this under regular circumstances.

Because the other print Joanie has is kinda bluish, I thought i'd try to stick with more of the same palette. So i painted the background blue. The painters tape edge is still present so i'll have to tackle that somehow. I think i'll try to lift the blue in somesort of random manner to emulate the impressionist light i got photographing the previous version.

I should be using a better camera than my cell phone to capture these work in progress photos so i can upload them to my istockphoto account. Kinda silly not to.

Today i'm feeling a bit blue. Shouldn't be. It was a pretty good weekend. Enjoyed taking my parents to Stagewest. And they loved it. Had a challenging run in the morning and stretched my hamstrings good thereafter. So shouldn't ask for more. Just feeling blah.

Felt like this for a couple weeks. Thismorning my photography looks really boring compared to others on Flickr. I thought it was because my new focus on booking shoots was plateauing six weeks into the new year, and that's just how the mind works, focus fades and i'd just have to bust thru it.

But this coffee has given my a new idea, even though this Blackswan book i'm reading says i should lay off the causal explanations for stuff. I've speculated before that lack of sleep makes me blue. So maybe that's all that's necessary. Get some sleep and life is good.

Work in progress, Joanie's Bodhi Tree

I snapped this work in progress with my cell phone this morning. I like the light that was coming through the window. It's an impressionist feeling to me. Inspiring. Makes me want to take it in a whole new direction.

Joanie's Bodhi Tree

The previous Bodhi Tree was initially supposed to be for my friend Joanie. It turns out she wants a painting much bigger than the 19x23ish inches it is. So i'm trying recreate another version that is much bigger. Here are the first two layers. Hopefully it will even be better than the first attempt.

Bodhi Tree continued

Lastnight I worked on the same sheet of paper that seemed ruined on Sunday. I tried to add colour blocks to represent the big areas of leaves on a tree. I wetted the paper and lifted the old paint and painted in the new yellow or blue. I thought this piece was beyond repair, but now i'm quite liking it again.

I think there is too much negative space around the tree in the sky area, but i plan to crop over that area with the matte from the frame i have in mind.

I'm not sure if it's done now? I think i'll have to walk by it and glimpse it, or put it upside down to see if it seems balanced.

The actual painting doesn't have as much pop or saturation as this photo. But it may look better in the photo and i'm going to upload it to istockphoto, so i didn't dial down the colour saturation to make a truer representation of the painting.

Bodhi Tree

I've been asked by Joanie to make a painting. Cool!

Unfortunately i've been having a hard time getting something to be happy about. I initially wanted to do something drippy and fill in all the negative white space thereafter. This is crazy intensive for a big piece. But i spent some time trying it. When i got to the sky space around the tree, i really liked the little dots created from lifting the wet paint with a dry brush. The sky was a similar look as another painting Joanie liked.

So i thought i'd try to extend this wet and lifting technique into the dripped tree area. Perhaps i did it too much? But it wasn't turning out. Unfortunately painting doesn't have an undo button, so i just had to keep going forward. I even got a pallet knife involved with some scraping.

I think this piece of paper is beyond ever reaching a satisfactory state and i'll have to start with a blank sheet again.