I started one of my “Naked Gondolier” series paintings this past Sunday. I am doing it in my spare time, whatever that actually means. Anyway, I used the drawing I did of “Mario” that I showed you recently in a previous blog entry as the step-off point. I like the idea of the light in a figure emerging from darkness.
However, I also wanted to imply the gondola, as well as a bridge. I mean, what else spells out Venice (Venezia) in bella Italia? I am not looking to create details, but I do want to elicit an emotional response to the romance of this city. So, I began my disegno, starting with line and a vague idea of three tonal values. I photographed my beginning and then, in Photoshop, started playing with various lighting effects.
Not happy with any one thing, I decided to just start painting. Sometimes these things have a way of speaking for themselves, you know. Yesterday, I asked the Maestro John Angel if he could give me some pointers. I felt lost because I liked the light under the bridge, but it might not work in this particular painting. I was not sure that I wanted the reflection of the bridge to alter the shape of the dark water on the left. And the list went on. I could see why artists do works in series – it becomes possible then to choose one element for each artwork and play with it. Too many notes being played at once only makes noise, not music.
Allora, I concluded my confession to the Maestro with a, “I think that I am trying to do too much with too little.” Tilting his head slightly and with a pensive hesitation, he responded, “You took the words right out of my mouth. But also, I think you are afraid to lose too much.”
Wow. He just summed up my life.
So, I will add the darks and get back to you.
Thanks for reading.
4 comments:
Dear Kelly,
Happy Thanksgiving!
I was wondering: sometimes when I'm on the Internet and I click on a picture, I usually get a larger version of the picture, but when I click on the pictures in your blog, I get just the picture, but it's the exact same size. I honestly don't know enough to know why that is.
Dear Peter,
Thank you for visiting my site and for writing. To make a small image "clickable" one must program the small image as a link to the larger image. I do not know how to do this in the blog situation since this blog does not come from my own Web site server. For me to do it, I suspect I could place the larger image on my own Web site's server and then create a blog link to that address, but I have not had the time or the space to do so yet. I hope that helps you know why this is. Buongiorno!
Check out this blog entry on 6 April 2008 if you would like to see the finished oil painting done from this figure sketch:
http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.com/2008/04/original-oil-painting-mario-naked.html
Thank you!
Oh, I just realized how to answer your question, Peter. I have been making my images small enough so that they look good in this blog. But if I were to keep them larger before uploading them, the blogger site would apparently reduce the image as needed. Then when the viewer clicks on the image, you would see the original file. In my case, the original file is the same size you see in the blog. Perhaps I have been making too much work for myself. Although, now that I have gotten the e-mail subscription option figured out, I am afraid to send large files to people's e-mail boxes. I hope that helps!
ciao, ciao
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