The Pain in Painting

Yesterday and today have been the last two days on 'Drawing for Painting', and I have had great pains while doing so.

My mind is very much left-wing (i.e. rational) and I tend to reason why and where I should paint what. I start by looking at the white canvas and thinking 'bugger, what is this gonna be.' Luckily, my teacher on the subject Stephen Hunter has provided me with a brilliant solution to this problem; paint the white canvas with an even color first.

To share my doubts with you, dear World Wide Web, I have put my source (picture from Malaga) and result (painting of Architecture & Atmosphere) side-by-side below:


Photo of a porch and interpretation in a painting

The rational wants me to paint realistic, i.e. in perspective and in the right colors. Out of it comes 'bits and pieces' that do not form a very interesting composition. Rather, it is a flamboyance of colors. The comment I have received is that I should cut the whole in pieces and put these on display for my presentation, something like this...


Painting in pieces

Next is painting of a live model...

To compare the work of my fellow students and my own work I have catalogued the results from our live model session below... you may guess which one is mine (don't scroll all the way down).


Overview of all class members' work on one live drawing session

If you guessed the last painting, you were wrong. Or, no I did paint that one, but on an earlier occasion. I tend to stress the importance of color and light in a composition and underestimate the importance of putting the model in the context. The right answer, really, is the first painting. As you can see, my model has been set aside all the way to the back, leaving little but a small figure. Again I spend most of the time on the light facet, and I realize that it is because the drawing of the human being I feel very uncomfortable with. All the measurements and tonations that should match before we believe it to be a human being. Gives me the creeps...

In conclusion, Stephen recognizes my underdeveloped skills in live drawing and appreciates my more successful putting down of textures. Like the red carpet of the bed in the last drawing, or the hair of the first live drawing I did a week ago. Instead of hunting human beings I will concentrate on patterns and textures to build compositions from. And color for light of course...

Let there be light!