Wednesday, February 16, 2011

"Two Friends - Melded Shadow"

Another (the limit is 3) in the series for Romania, for the February Virtual Paintout. I loved the flippy skirt, the "purses", the beautiful hair styles, the shadow, the movement in this scene on Strada Talazului, in Costinesti. If you'd want to see this on Google go here. It may take a few seconds to bring up the Google map, so be patient. You can see how I adapted the actual scene to this composition.
This is 10 3/8" x 14 1/4".
Technique Tip: This is all about shadows and shading. Shadows are cast by some sort of light source. These have hard edges when one paints or draws. Shading is the "shadow/dark" on a form, be it a leg, a pear, a nose, a body that gives form to the object. These are blended.
That is a major consideration when rendering.
On this piece, there are quite a few shadows. First the major one CAST by the girls. Also more cast shadows are CAST by the flippy skirt across the legs-these have hard edges.
The legs themselves to have form and shape have BLENDED shadows so they look rounded-no hard edges within the shape from dark to light. There are quite a few more instances in this, but this gives you the idea.
"A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world." ~Leo Buscaglia
Beginning stage as I started to lay in the flesh tones. I used salt to get the texture in the roadway. Grassy/dirt area running alongside roadway, I used wet color in wet to make the blends and free patterns.

2 comments:

  1. Don't you love the perspective that Google street view can offer. It isn't one that you would ordinarily choose. I like your choice of the backs of the girls, makes a great composition. Colors are beautiful. Nice painting.

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