Sunday, February 21, 2010

MAKING MYSELF PAINT - CROWS, OF COURSE


I made myself get over these blahs this weekend, and go back to the Crow 2 Crow painting and finish it.
I think it's finished.
Comments always welcome.
Question: Is the top section just too light and airy compared to the rest? Does it work - or not?
I won't go darker in the crows - I like the colors, except, ooops, just saw that the crow at top has no legs!!! Well, I'll have to fix that...

I also started on the geometric shapes for the black crow painting - for now, I'm calling it Watching - but that's not a great title. I'm thinking of "Their Commitment to Black" from something Susan Roper said she liked about crows once in a post :)

It's a work in progress, of course, with more to be done. And the crows have misket on them so when that's lifted off, it will change things and I'll be placing more yellows in the broken circles, too.




8 comments:

debwardart said...

How about taking a few little branches up into the top area past the horizontal line to tie it together? (I didn't notice missing legs until you said something!) Really like the geometric shapes in the new one.

Watercolors by Susan Roper said...

Poor footless crow! I had to LOL when you mentioned my comment about crows, someone actually is quoting me! Regarding the lighter color in the top painting, I am wondering if it isn't too much in only one place, like I'd like to see that same color/texture elsewhere or maybe add midtones to it so it doesn't draw the eye there. I do love those blue crows though!

The colors and geometric shapes in the second one are great and very appealing to me for some reason. I think I like the black crows against those great colors. I'm lovin' this series of yours, even though it's for the birds.

Anonymous said...

Rhonda,

You keep this up and I will have to nickname you "Hitch" LOL.
I like that your working in geometric shapes and different elements into these paintings.

Glad to see your painting and not allowing the weather to snow you under.Sometimes the easy way to chase away those bad weather blues is to paint,The quickest route to any issue to get resolved is to travel in a straight line. Or as they say as the crow flies.

Nice to see you flying like a crow to painting.

Sincerely
Paul

Cathy Gatland said...

I do love your crows, and Their Commitment to Black seems a very appropriate title. I agree with Deb about maybe taking some branches up into the light section. I need to follow your good example and get over the blahs!

Christiane Kingsley said...

Rhonda,
I love the color of the crows in the first painting. The lower background is very rich. I would be tempted to drop a bit of that nice plum color in the upper part.
Now, when I hear crows in my neighborhood I think of you and of your paintings :-)

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks, Deb, Susan, Paul (Hitch?), Cathy and Christiane! I think it needs more to tie it together right now like tree branches breaking through into the top area, colors moving up, too, things playing well together that seem to be separated right now. I'm going to tackle it again and try to get a better finish to it before continuing with the Commitment to Black painting.

Pam Johnson Brickell said...

I love the elements of this painting, Rhonda. The first thing that hit me and I don't know if it's do-able, is lifting some of the color behind the top crow's breast so the lightness of the top rectangle merges into the rest of the painting. Sometimes you can lift and sometimes... I work with Holbein wc's and they are easy to lift. I use a forceful spray bottle on 'stream' to power wash dark areas - over the sink works well :)

I like the idea of extending the tree branches. Maybe they could resemble new growth and be a redish plum color like I see on my red maple??

Can't wait to see what you do. I didn't notice the footless flyer either. Oh now, he has noooooo feet :)

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks, Pam. I did add a bit of leg to the top crow, bring some branches up and run some more calligraphic work into that top space. I think I will crop it a bit more, too. I'll look at the breast - not sure I'll touch it again as I'm at the "sick of this" stage now. I must not have the discipline to work through problems - most of the time because I know something has a problem but am not sure what it is because I don't give it enough time and space to look at it again with fresh eyes - which makes blogging great because I get all the fresh eyes on it at one time!