New Drawing
(Sunflower Man), Graphite 10.5" x 7"
How to Paint a Landscape in Oil
This is a landscape painted with oil on paper. It was painted from a photograph and the subject is a pond in Central Park. The visual theme is "distance" and all of my choices were made in order to communicate and stress the illusion of space. The painting was made in four layers, with a few days between each one to allow the paint to dry. I am going to describe the process of each layer. STEP 1 The first step is to block in the large shapes. This is a means of mapping out the composition, choosing which objects will be included and which omitted. The exact tones used at this stage are not absolutely critical but are an approximation of the target colors. Since they will serve as a substrate for subsequent layers, I mixed them lighter and duller than my target colors. That way they won't dominate subsequent layers by showing through and altering the color of those layers—at least no more than I want them to. STEP 2 The next layer of paint is
I'm late leaving my thoughts--maybe as usual. ;) I saw this drawing and immediately named him "sunflower man" in my head, because he looks like he'll always face the light. Love the perspective across the hands and arms. It's enough to make a viewer notice the slightly top-heavy quality of the figure and know that his outsize head is intentional, rather than accidental.
ReplyDeleteWhat is he so focused on? His posture shows awe and a sense of offering... the obvious answer would be a God just off the page. He is, of course, very different from most supplicants because he is unashamedly naked and also very clean-cut, not with a look of physical suffering or abasement. Still, there's definitely an appeal to a higher power.
-JS