Anywho, here is some progress from today. I have spent most of my time working on the face. We are creatures that depend largely on very subtle facial features. If something is just a little bit off, it is wrong. Most folks don't know why it is wrong, it just is.
My experience is that even if 95% is correct, others will routinely fail to recognize people they have known for their entire lives. This is one of the reasons I consciously avoid painting my wife, my dad, my mother etc. Because I go crazy trying to fill in all the information that I know is there, even if its not something that should be highlighted in a drawing or painting.
I have often relied on crutches to get over my obsession on these little details. (Not that its really a bad thing but I do need to make money so spending 90+ hours on a $100 drawing is just not cost effective.)
One example of such a crutch is Photoshop. I often work from photographs, but often purposely alter them so that there is NO WAY I can make them exact.
Another way to avoid detail OCD is what I am doing here. On this and on several other recent projects, I have started painting much looser. What this does for me is prevents me from using my little brushes (time wasters, the whole lot of them) and it encourages me to focus more on tonal gradients (the abstract shapes of value that assemble together to create form) and gesture (the implied movement of a given object.)
What this does for the viewers is it permits them to project their interpretation on the work and fill in the details. Win win :D
More to come tonight!
No comments:
Post a Comment