"Catalina Pacific Concrete - Ruins Study 4"
watercolor on paper, 2014
7¾" x 5¾" (19.685cm x14.605cm)
For sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE
With each study I do I play off a previous one to improve some point, test an idea or do some kind of variation. See previous two posts to see how they relate to each other.
This study has a hint more red and yellow to it than the previous monochromatic one. A whisper of burnt sienna and naples yellow in the mix, but only in and just enough to separate the horizontal broken concrete slab and what it rests on from the standing structure. Value plays a role too. I left it slightly lighter even though it is all in shadow (the sky has yellow only).
Together they impart a warm reflected light and essentially give me a foreground (the slab), a middle ground (standing structure) and background (the sky) and increases the depth in what would otherwise be a shallow depth of field.
The subtle color variations also give it a richness; from slightly yellower sky to the darker sepia brown to the red-orange of the foreground to the very important razor thin traces of the stark white paper, referred to as rim lighting when backlit.273
For sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE
With each study I do I play off a previous one to improve some point, test an idea or do some kind of variation. See previous two posts to see how they relate to each other.
This study has a hint more red and yellow to it than the previous monochromatic one. A whisper of burnt sienna and naples yellow in the mix, but only in and just enough to separate the horizontal broken concrete slab and what it rests on from the standing structure. Value plays a role too. I left it slightly lighter even though it is all in shadow (the sky has yellow only).
Together they impart a warm reflected light and essentially give me a foreground (the slab), a middle ground (standing structure) and background (the sky) and increases the depth in what would otherwise be a shallow depth of field.
The subtle color variations also give it a richness; from slightly yellower sky to the darker sepia brown to the red-orange of the foreground to the very important razor thin traces of the stark white paper, referred to as rim lighting when backlit.273
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I think this is my favourite of your concrete ruins studies David. I love the sepia tones and I find my eye particularly drawn to the open horizontal crack - amazingly well done!
ReplyDeleteThanks Wendy. I try not to allow myself to prefer one over the other early on in the studies phase so I can remain open minded but I am partial to this one too for the same reasons you mention.
DeleteThe crack and the beautiful shapes of the fractured edges is where I put the focus.
I am happy you respond to it the same way.
Beauty does not always have to be of the (typically) beautiful or obvious subject.
Keep painting...