I've painted a few statues in the past and really loved doing them. This one is no different. I started with just a bit of paint to put on a base color of this statue. Then I just painted all the shadows. I allowed those to give form and shape to the statue. After several layers of shadows and a little rounding of the edges, this statue looks like it is 3 dimensional.
I also put on a very dramatic background. Mixing reds and blues around this statue that has lots of yellow and green in it make the image jump off the page. Contrasting colors will always make images pop from your paper.
Like I said I had a great time with this. If you want to see how I did it, take a look at the following video. It's sped up because the whole painting took me about an hour to do, and I didn't want anyone to have to sit through an hour of me talking. Check it out, its pretty good.
Here is my latest painting. It is another statue. This one of an angel. She has obviously been outside for a long time and has moss growing on her in places. I've added just enough details to her body and wings to give her form, but the overall impression I wanted someone to take away is that of her have sat outside for a long time.
I started painting her with a base color of payne's grey for her body, then slowly added in some van dyke brown in some shadowy areas, or anywhere that I wanted to make her a bit warmer. (as the payne's grey can get a little cold sometime) I just gave indications of some shadow lines on her body and her wings. They give just enough detail. I kept her face as clean and as bright as I could. I wanted it to be a bit lighter than everything else on the paintings. This was to make her face the focal point of this painting. I'll be t you did it subconsciously. You looked at the entire painting, but your eyes kept coming back to her face.
I'm happy with this painting. I might go back and make the background even a little darker, which would make her a little lighter by contrast, and therefore jump off the page a little more. But if I never get around to doing that, I'm happy with what I have here.
If you have not seen my video of this painting, I've got a link below. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy it.
It was cold in the studio when I painted this. I've got bookmarks on several pictures across the web that I might want to paint one day. I was thinking that if I painted a warm picture, that I might warm up myself.
The picture I took this from seemed like it was taken on a warm summers evening. I convinced myself, after looking at this picture again, that painting it would definitely warm me up.
I used yellow ochre, van dyke brown and transparent orange oxide for the majority of this painting. Those 3 colors certainly put a warm spin on this. In order to cool it down a bit, I used a bit of payne's grey. In some places I used it straight, without mixing, but mostly mixed it with the van dyke brown to warm it a little, almost like a sepia.
I used a lot of layers to build up the depth and detail on this painting. I probably should have done a few more layers.
I did put a little spatter on this painting. I used the same colors that I used to paint her body. In hind sight, I should have done a little more of the spatter too.
I hope you like it. If you have an interest in watching me paint it, I've provided a video below.
Some quick weekend sketching fun. Ill be honest ins saying most of what I did was pick through garage sales, and watch the kids, but I did find a little time to paint. Not much mind you, but a little. This first picture is of a stone statue that sits on my front porch. I'm trying to paint more quickly and more intuitively, rather than trying to exactly replicate what I see. So here it the cat in all its glory, just sitting there staring at traffic as it goes past.
This picture is one I'd previously drawn. It was just sitting there in my sketch pad begging for me to do something with ti. So here it is.
Finally, the thing everyone wants. A picture of an old cat tree. LOL. Well, I know one member of the family that couldn't get by without it. (mostly because the dog can't climb.)
A light hearted posting today. Enjoy, and thank you.
Ok. Its finished. I know I didn't add a lot more too it. I'd have finished it yesterday, but i ran out of time. I like this painting, and I hope everyone who sees it does too.
For anyone who is interested in seeing the other paintings in this months challenge, here is a link.
For anyone interested in seeing the original picture I used as inspiration, here is that link.
So, I got involved in a challenge this month. The theme of the challenge is "Heavy Metal." I have a chance to pick from about 200 pictures, each with something else metal in it. I've painted a few statues before, and rather like painting the aged metal or granite. I don't care for the background of the original picture, so I decided to take artistic license and change it up a bit. I want it to look like it is dark around the statue, but the statue itself it lit up. So, I put in, or am putting in a darker blue/grey background. We'll see how it turns out when I am totally done with it.
