One particular masterpiece caught my eye. Of course, it is particularly complicated! Since 2012, the idea of using this painting as a backdrop has been circling around in my head. Every now and then I would think of it. About 4 or 5 months ago, a compositional idea came to mind.
As I reviewed my reference a couple of weeks ago, one particular shot of two people looking at the painting seemed to fit in to my concept.
Challenge #1 - The Drawing
Days were spent deciding on the composition (I looked at thousands of my lion reference photos) and drawing the masterpiece's subjects on the gessoed board was difficult. My painting is not very large so drawing the detail to aid me with the painting took a lot of time. I changed out one of the heads of the couple looking at the painting. The next day I realized the idea I had to start with was better so I redrew the head closer to what I originally had.
Challenge #2 - The Wall
I have never painted a wood wall before. In my previous paintings of paintings which were hanging in a museum, the gallery walls were painted. After wondering why I was doing this, I mixed numerous color batches staying with warm wood tones. Yellow ochre, burnt umber, raw sienna, and burnt sienna were used as base colors and I started with the upper left of the painting.
The light cast above the painting on the wall was cooler and there I used some burnt sienna mixed with ultramarine blue, lightened with titanium white.
Once the upper part of the wall was finished, I painted the wall's trim and worked my way down to the floor.
No comments:
Post a Comment