Month: May 2015

I May, I Might, I Must

coreyaber3 Comments

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I May, I Might, I Must

If you will tell me why the fen
appears impassable, I then
will tell you why I think that I
can get across it if I try.

-Marianne Moore

I was up too early today with the dog, so I took the chance to read a little again. I haven’t read much literature recently–instead it’s mostly been research for work–so it was nice to focus on something short. Apart from the short poem above–which is a great motto for any designer–Marianne Moore was not relaxing reading, though, and I was distracted by a small sketch opportunity out the window. I thought the purple flowers hanging from my neighbors porch would look good on cream colored paper, and the shadows were interesting (though I didn’t do them justice). Still, it was nice to work with some structure again.

Thanks for reading.

Experimenting with a big sky

coreyaber

I have some 22×30 arches watercolor boards that I have been anxious to try out, but I haven’t been quite sure what to do on them at a large scale.

I am experimenting on 11×14 sheets with some big sky paintings to see of maybe that would do. I like Loriann Signori’s vertical pastels and oils, so I thought I’d try something in that format.

I didn’t quite get what I wanted here–the water came out green because I brought the orange down, and the sunlight isn’t popping out like I hoped–but I think I see what to do for next time. And there’s still more I can do here once it dries–some bright reflections on the water, etc. This might also be a chance to really mess around with it like Winslow Homer did.

Here it is in an early stage before I built up the top of the sky.

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And here it is with the light in the sky better emphasized.

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I think I will refine this over the weekend. For now, thanks for reading.

Still afraid to finish the face

coreyaber

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I am getting closer to the end, but I can’t bring myself to paint my wife’s face. No matter why I do I am sure it won’t look right. I think if I had set this up to be a looser painting it would be easier. As it is, it feels like I need to get her face right. I need to think I. Terms of light and shadow, not in terms of facial features. It’s not easy. Next time, whenever I come back to this.