Friday, January 23, 2009

Moley Doodle #16 + Sweetpea with Some Background


I like the ribbons but not much else about this. It's pale because it's done with the gel pens.

And here's where I am on the Sweetpeas - I just can't seem to like this once I put in a background. Maybe I should go back to leaving the bg white...











Here are the stages I've gone through and the different outcomes:

So - which one is the best? Without bg, with a lighter green bg and darker flowers, with darker bg and lighter flowers? I really can't tell at this point - I'm wondering why I can't seem to get this - it's not that hard - a simple little pretty flower and something behind it to set it off - not hard, right?



5 comments:

carol said...

You could try importing into photoshop and changing background colours. Possibly try a bit of my favourite cobalt blue. Though sometimes white does seem right.

Sandy Maudlin said...

Defintely LIKE the sweet peas with the background that grades from light ot dark, top to bottom. Nice depth and movement and seems much more of a unified painting. How about a close up/more personal painting of them with less area for that dreaded b word???

RH Carpenter said...

Well, I may really have to do things this way, Carol, with a photo manipulation program - it's getting too frustrating to keep trying and still not getting it right. Sandy, I agree the second is nice - but it's the one we put darks in at class because it needed them - so it still didn't look right. Maybe this is why Georgia O'Keeffe did such macros = no worries about what's behind the flower if you can't see it! haha

Angela said...

You know, I like the lighter bg, and actually think it could be lighter yet.

Maybe you should just let it be high key?

(But take my opinion with a grain of salt --- I've noticed that artists always tell me I need more values, more darks --- but when I've done it and showed before and afters to just 'regular folk' they almost always like the brighter, lighter painting better --- and of course artists, knowing what to 'look for' like the after better)

RH Carpenter said...

Angela, I should have left it without any bg - or just a pale wash of yellow/green - that's what I am thinking now...do we always need darks? Am I just wimping out? ha ha