Where it all began...reference photo for my castle painting

Well, here it is, the reference I put together for my painting. I won't be showing the painting again until it's finished...which should be sometime next week :D I put the last painting update here too, so you can compare the two...there's been a lot of little changes since then, but close enough for comparison. A lot of other artists think painting from photographs is not good...and if one were to exactly copy a photograph they would be right. Areas that look pitch black in a photograph are not like that in real life. Colors don't necessarily work well in a painting (if you want a harmonious look) and sometimes you have to really play up contrasts and edit what doesn't work. And when you photoshop images together, well, they _look_ photoshopped and you most certainly do not want that effect in a painting. So...not only was I tackling a lot of firsts in this painting (first full motorcycle, first full building, first realistic landscape) I had to make the figure on the bike (me!) blend into the scenery. Plus, if you look close you will see that the photo of me on my bike was a horrendous reference picture. So...things I had to change were numerous. I lightened the castle so it wouldn't be so ominous. I left out the people at the castle door. I went with a light adobe color rather than mud yellow for the castle blocks. I edited out the huge wall patch on the tallest building wall. I got rid of the big black hole to the left of the coach house. And I integrated the bike into the scene (at least I feel so). There's so many little things that needed adjustments too...certain colors are sprinkled through out the painting so things will tie together...you may not see the slight hint of road color in the bike, but it's there. And there's hints of green in every single element in the painting. Anyways, to date I have blocked in all the white on the balconies but need to wait for it to dry to do the trim. (which is going to be a killer lol) I put in all the roofs on the tallest building and I've started the sky on the left...plus I went around the whole painting to tie things together. So...a few more roofs, finish the balconies, fix the windows and finish the sky...and that will be it....I can't wait!!!

Sue
http://www.1000markets.com/shops/ninedragons

Castle painting update - blocking in castle (excerpt from 1000 Markets blog)

Although I have lots to still work on in the front areas, I'm really, _really_ happy to be finally blocking in the main castle. At this point I'm keeping all details to an absolute minimum. As I go back there will be less and less detail, as it's easier to add more details later when I can judge how they fit into the whole as far as receding goes. The castle reference I'm using is pretty dark and dreary so I'm deciding my color palette as I go and keeping my values lighter. It is a lot harder to lighten things than to darken them, although anything can be changed once the paint is dry. I can also use some glazing techniques in the finish stages, if I keep it light, as each layer of glaze darkens the painting. As I go back I will start adding cooler blues and violets to the earth colors, as the eye sees warm colors as being closer. When I get to the final stages of the background I will actually bring some of the sky over the rooftops to fade them even further into the background. Another trick for achieving distance in a painting is to use tone gradation rather than hard lines for edges. For a painting to look realist a painter needs to mimic the human eye process. We see things clear and sharp when they are close but at a distance things start to melt into each other. There is also an atmospheric effect that comes into play. Some soft edges are still used in the foreground but this is an illusional trick to get your eye to 'slide' over some areas and focus on the sharper images the artist wants as focal areas. I cannot believe it is already the middle of the month and I really need to get some serious amounts of canvas covered in the next 2 weeks. Once I am done using the paintstiks (oil paint in a stick form) then I will move to the tube paints... they can take up to two weeks to dry this time of year, so I need to have as much worked out as possible so I only need to add glazes and highlights.

Sue
http://www.1000markets.com/shops/ninedragons

Castle painting update (excerpt from 1000 Markets blog)

At this stage I've finally got the whole figure and Harley blocked in, close to the end values I'll want. The building I believe to be the coach house is also blocked in, along with the road and walled edge. There is going to be more value change on the road but it has to wait until the paint is dry. Technically this would be called an underpainting, but it's a little more developed than most underpaintings because there are so many different things for the eye to look at that I have to constantly adjust to make sure the eye will go where I want it to in the end. Usually most of the detail goes in the foreground, but even though the bike is closest, I'm abstracting it somewhat to keep the eye on the figure and middle ground. So you'll see stronger colors and contrast on and around the figure. Backgrounds are usually cooled down and softened so they'll fade into the distance. One issue I'm running into with the castle is the various color changes. It looks like the coach house and front entrance wall are the most recent additions and from a different quarry than the road cobblestones. The castle itself looks to have gotten quite a few additions over the centuries, some walls are very weathered and others have been completely mortared over. I've decided to essentially paint what is there and decide as I go how it gels as a painting. Since this painting is for a show that is supposed to deconstruct fairy tales it might just work if it's not the Disney version of a castle :) It's also funny/ironic that when you go to paint something as involved as this you tend to think some parts will be a killer and others a piece of cake. But so far the things I thought would be hard have just flowed out of me like I've done them a million times. It's the easy parts that are killing me lol The face is less than an inch long and it's very difficult to block in the features...my reference is a snapshot taken of me coming out of a tunnel near Jemez, New Mexico and it's maybe 1/2 the size of the figure and bike I'm painting. I keep telling myself that I can make a lot of refinements when I put the final touches on the painting at the end. So far I have about 13 hours into the painting portion and only have about a sixth of the canvas covered...hope you like a long story!

Sue
http://www.1000markets.com/shops/ninedragons