Wednesday, November 4, 2009

REWORKING OLDER THINGS

Well, I haven't been inspired to paint - I've been inspired to walk and take photos of the gorgeous trees but I know I can't paint them - so...



I pulled out some old and not-so-old stuff that didn't make me happy and I thought I'd take some time and rework them a bit to see if I can improve them.





The yupo portrait of my grandmother was already sealed with acrylic spray so I had to use alcohol and do some scrubbing to get her face off - then tried again. Now I think she looks younger but I wasn't happy with the blotchiness before so...done...I think!





The geisha hands is an older one, on gold gessoed watercolor paper. I wasn't that happy with the hands and since I should be practicing hands more, I thought I'd try to make that better. Using my own hands (looking at them in somewhat of that position as I paint), I am working towards getting them closer to looking human (even if her fingers are much much longer than mine and her skin is much much younger - when did my hands begin to look so old???!?). This is still a work-in-progress as I try to shape and model the hands more - and do something about those nails (I had them bright red but that was too much and blended in with the umbrella so wiped them off again and got this pinkish look...maybe I'll try to get the color back to the gold gesso...or give that one some more thought). I also should try to find that original photo I was using because I seem to have lost it somewhere in my messy art room.







I have begun a drawing of another macro hydrangea but it's not looking good - must work on the composition more.


I've been doing a few little ATCs while sitting watching TV in the evenings, too, but not much to share - I seem to be uninspired there, too.

4 comments:

Chris Beck said...

I think the switch from daylight savings time throws everybody off. I've been in a lull too. Here's hoping we both wake up full of inspiration tomorrow!!

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Thanks for lots of interesting posts to enjoy since my return from a couple of weeks away. Strange about reworking older pieces, it seems to be the vogue at present with some other blogs I visit.

Teresa Palomar Lois said...

You know Rhonda, if you don't have a painting day just enjoy doing something else, tomorrow you'll come back twice as motivated!

That white obi looks as delicious as always, can't wait to see what you manage to do with those hands

RH Carpenter said...

Chris, I guess I can blame that as much as anything else! haha I've been getting up at 6 am recently and crashing at 10 pm or earlier - must be the dark dark dark all the time.
Joan, so glad you had a wonderful trip and are sharing your photos and watercolor sketches.
Teresa, you always give me an out when I'm feeling lazy! ha ha I'm working on the hands a little bit at a time. I need a better photo of my hands to use as models, I think.