Monday, 24 January 2011

Zooming Out


Jannis
I've done a lot of head and shoulder portrait work recently, so I thought for a change that I would zoom out a bit. Here I've tried to capture Jannis' beautiful holiday photo, which had marvelous sunlight and strong shadows to it. My wife thinks it's a little pale and she is probably right, but a lot of watercolour work does seem to turn out that way. Here I just wanted to catch the light. I also needed to work on the female figure a little too - I've done my best to capture her lovely shape.

Source photo here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/17968702@N06/4742267791/

10 comments:

  1. I like this painting. I want to smile along with Jannis.
    Yes, its a little light, but I think that just adds to the feeling of summer and bright light.

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  2. Yes, I agree with Pat.... that the light all around gives a lighthearted, holiday feeling to the portrait. I think you've done a fabulous job of achieving the figure and it's one of the first things that catches the eye.

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  3. Thanks Pat and Alice, yes, if I'd done it darker it wouldn't have looked right.
    Sorry I forgot to add the link to the source photo - it's there now.

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  4. I've always struggled with dark tones because I like watercolours to be pale and watery, so this one touches the spot for me Frank. Kudos.

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  5. This is a nice sunny painting, just right to bring some warmth for the winter months.

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  6. I think you have done an amazing job of this! It's fantastic!
    I don't think the figure is too pale at all - But, I think that if you were to put some darker tones around the white of her shorts on the right and around the light side of her left arm, the figure would be brought forward and stand out a little more :0)

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  7. Thanks John and Sue for your comments.
    Sandra, you are right about adding darker tones around the white shorts to help make them stand out - Jannis' thighs prove that point, but my aim here was just to lightly suggest the background for similar effect.

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  8. Frank, you left me a question recently. The answer is here:

    http://artofanomad.blogspot.com/2011/01/abandoned.html

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