Wednesday, January 27, 2010

San Francisco Cable Car Round Two

After having painted a study (see previous post), I became more confident, and I think in this second iteration that it shows. Until the painting was about 85% complete, there was little clue as to what it was going to look like. My study #1 told me it was going to look just fine but that I needed to paint with more authority and that I wanted to punch up the vibrancy of color. Even though the populated cable car has a lot going on in it, I needed to keep the colors somewhat bright for every tiny, little detail. I was able stay focused and relaxed at this endeavor, because I knew that if I kept my value pattern the same (as in the first study), the painting was going to look just fine. Whenever you paint from life or a photo reference, you really do not want to paint in too many details. Good paintings for me are all about editing and inventing to maximize visual excitement. Notice on the front roof of the cable car, I have left out some shadow. That is a good example of how an artist veers away from reality in order to maximize visual punch. You can also see how I treated the tree differently from the first study. Notice the snap in the way the people were painted. That's the confidence I gained from doing numero uno study. In other words, I had developed a painting road map. Is this the ultimate? Could I do better? Hell yes! But for now, I will not throw it in the nearest dumpster but will put it aside to go on to other projects.

2 comments:

Autumn Leaves said...

Yeesh, David. I love them both. I'm hearing clangs and Rice-A-Roni commercials. I am amazed at your ability to analyze your work and plan forward. Gorgeous pieces!

David Lobenberg said...

Thanks, Autumn. Rice-A- Roni is MMM MMM Good or is that those soup guys?