I knew this time I had to work with 1) Vertical + 2) Value + 3) Permanent Alizarin Crimson and it was difficult to get this to work - kept fiddling and it's still not right. Sandy says the mermaid in the bottom part is too much a right angle and it stops or cuts the flow there. Cropping it at a severe angle might help but I may just have to start over on this - or consider it a learning experience and move on. I should have thought out the composition more and spent less time painting and trying to get it to work :(
Oh, well...I still have to finish that little landscape painting, too. And after 4 hours working on this mermaid painting, I'm mentally exhausted and need a nap!
Sandy commented that I cut off too much on the left side on the previous showing of the painting - and she's right (I was trying to tilt it to crop it and did too much, I think).
So here's the original - see the white line through the left side? Well, I'm not going to tell you what I did when I got home but needless to say I have to redo this one or toss it now...I shouldn't make decisions when I'm tired and hungry. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow...
8 comments:
Hi Rhonda,
Ant chance you could post the whole painting? The left edge, at least, was cropped off.
Thanks.
Ooops, I was trying to tilt it and take the pic and must have cropped it more than I thought. Will take another pic and share it...
I love those right angle mermaids! The only confusing part of the composition to me is that same-colored shape between the two of them as the bottom mermaid, what is that? I must be missing something when I look at it, but it is not coming to me. This looks to have been fun to work on, but I know you were tired and hungry so it will be interesting to see what happens when all is right in your world.
Susan
Susan, I think that is the rope of seaweed going between them that you see. This just isn't a successful painting and I think I can do better next time in composition because the 2 mermaids just seem misplaced. I always appreciate you taking a look and your comments!
I have to give you credit for being truly creative here. The mermaid idea is perfect! What I find confusing, and maybe that's what Susan is looking at too, is the red/purple triangle shape made by the upper mermaid's hair. I think you would have been better off having it flow similar to the darker haired mermaid. Hindsight is 20/20 - especially when it isn't my painting. :-)
You're 100% right, Michelle (and you, too Susan, if that was what you were looking at that didn't read right) - that block of hair is wrong wrong wrong. I needed to plan this out before I ever put pencil to paper - and I needed to do a value study as part of the plan. So goals for 2008 = more planning and value studies before painting - it can only help!
Thanks Michelle, I don't know why I wasn't more specific about describing the shape of the object when I said it was confusing me, but then I did say I was confused! Happens a lot lately. But, Rhonda, that was the part that wasn't reading right to me. Isn't it something that we can't see those things ourselves when working on a painting? It happens to me all the time.
I'll be interested in seeing how you fix this or if you redo it some time. Sometimes I just say "lesson learned" and go on to something else. Not very disciplined, huh?
After giving this a day without my even looking at it, I think I'm ready to try again to resolve the problems I created by not planning my work better this time :) Yep, Sandy, I'm an otter - rushing right in with a vague idea and then deciding to just go off and play in the water when things don't work out :)
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