Saturday, October 22, 2005

"Fresh" redone

Courtney posted an entry awhile ago regarding redoing finished pieces. Usually I try to stay away from attempting to redo something I've already worked on from start to finish. I have found that I end up even more frustrated and unhappy than when I began.
However, I decided to try it with my Illustration Friday entry for "fresh." It took three different sketches for me to finally pin down what it was I wanted to do, and after all of that, I still ended up dissatisfied. My opinion was that the girl in my final piece looked heavy, like a statue stuck to the ground. I wanted to show how the fresh fall breeze made her feel! Invigorated! Alive! ReFRESHed! Stuck to the ground was not what I was going for.
Luckily this little lady crept out into my sketchbook, so I decided to give her her due, and attempt to create a finished painting with her. I am extremely pleased with the results. In fact, I'm down right thrilled to be adding her to my portfolio. It took me a total of five hours to complete her, not counting the time it took to actually put her into my sketchbook. When I was rinsing out my paint brushes later, I glanced at the clock and said to myself: "It is not 2:30!" Well, it was. This painting put me in a time warp, and I lost five hours to her. I think it was well worth it!

6 comments:

  1. great job, she look much lighter and fresh. great colors too :)

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  2. This is SO good!! It looks proffessional. I really like the colors and the movement of both characters hair. Your girl is so good - I thought you couldn't draw people? Looks like you can!! Watercolors?

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  3. Thanks so much for your compliments, guys! It means the world to me that you take time out of your day to stop by. :) Frizz, you know the really weird thing? I had just written in my artist's journal (about two week's ago) about how much I hated struggling to accomplish something that seemed so far out of my depth; referring to drawing/painting people. I made a note of promise to myself- stick with what you're comfortable with, and don't worry about what you can't do! Well, ever since then, all my doodles and ideas have all come in people form! It's like some secret box was unlocked and now all this cool stuff is coming out! I'm so excited! I think what is helping, is that I'm not thinking of these characters as "people" but as "essences" and emotions. I try and figure out what I want people to see and feel about the scene, and the lines kind of fit themselves to what I need!

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  4. Oh, and to answer your last question: Acryclics! On the sky and grass, I added a lot of water to the mix to lighten up the pigment.

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  5. I think I'll have to start trying some people - just don't laugh when you see 'em!! This may be my favorite piece so far!!

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  6. when i saw this, i was like, "didn't i see this girl with a hood once before?" - so i looked back at earlier posts, and it IS her! ;-)

    again, as in your frog "float" illo, your final changes have really made all the difference! i think this is a warmer, more fun piece than the original. great job!

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Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment!