The fabulous
Illuxcon Scholarship Competition inspired me to take a finished piece of mine and clean it up significantly. This is an oil painting I brought to a finish for my undergraduate senior art project, but there were some things that I was not satisfied with.
1. The light shining onto the girl's neck looked too much like a skin disease. I needed to either soften it considerably or take it out.
2. The rendering on this cloth bothered me. I was proud at first that I was able to create these out of thin air for I had not used reference photos in this particular spot. I later discovered that it certainly shows. The regularity of the parallel folds are a dead giveaway that I was winging it. Also, the folds don't flow in the direction that I think would optimize the overall visual flow of the piece.
3. I moved the arm out from the body whereas my reference has the model with the arm closer to the
body. I created a little bit of awkwardness from not allowing more of the upper arm to be visible. Also, the hand is...meh. The cords disappearing into the girl's finger crevices is odd.
4. Sometimes your reference photos don't translate well in painted form. Such is the case with this piece of clothe.
5. This part of the painting makes me happy. I was successful here.
Overall, contrast is much better.
1. Changing the fold in this way allows for a more circular visual flow around the piece.
2. The way this fold runs straight out is an issue. In the next step, I curve it like the fold in back of it.
3. I added way too much linseed oil to try to combat my oil paints from drying so quickly on top of the varnished painting. As a result, the paint started "alligatoring"--getting this crumbly texture and lifting off when it was suppose to stay put.
4. Still happy with this section. I was able to do some glazing to improve the contrast. My first success at glazing!
Between the paint falling apart on me and the major changes I needed to make, I decided to go digital. It was beautiful.
It took a matter of days to fix weeks of tortuous oil paint issues. Don't get me wrong, I love oil paints and still plan on improving my skills with them, but there's something divine about the remarkably fast drying time and equally flexible blending time of digital paint. Part 2 will be revealed at the end of this week!
