I'll go on record. I don't regret at all that I obliterated the "real" desert sky color here. I like it much better having taken the image somewhere else. I DO wish that I'd thought of it sooner, so that I could have done a more delicate red wash of a sunset sky - but because I was going over a cerulean and ultramarine wash, I had to get past that. So, it's pretty heavy looking. Surreal. Maybe that's why I like it. It's certainly unexpected. I find myself thinking already of variations this may inspire - just not now, too many irons in the fire this month.
Interesting possibilities for this one in future, I think. This one was a test and I like parts of it - but am not crazy about the sky. My thought was that the green-blue you have in the rocks would have made an interesting and different sky, too :) I always think of this type of painting as posterizing painting - the person takes a photo and plays with it in PhotoShop and even chooses the "watercolor" button at the end to get this look on the photo - then paints it like that. I think Gary Spetz does this with all his photos and paintings now?
ReplyDeleteA greeny-yellowy sky, like the creepy sky that goes with thunderstorms and tornado warnings, at least here in Michigan (although, probably not in Utah): yes, that would have been unexpected and interesting. I'm pretty sure I'll have to work through this one again, maybe several small versions with color studies. Meanwhile, I'm going to consider this "stylized"instead of "posterized". Not sure why, but I like that word better! And I DO want to take full credit, no computer was used except to store and print the source photo: I drew all those blasted rocky shapes manually. And no, that was NOT the fun part (-;
DeleteGood for you, drawing out the bits, no matter how tedious :). In fact, it never crossed my mind that you didn't draw this all out because I know you have a good sense of shapes and values. Thanks for making it clear you didn't use the posterize and watercolor buttons on Photoshop. Stylized is a good word :)
ReplyDeleteThe sky seems to come forward now, which does give it a surreal, second-take quality.
ReplyDeleteI'm inspired by your thoughtful approach.