Thursday 4 July 2013

PADDLING THE INLET Postcard and COMPOSITION CHALLENGE


PADDLING THE INLET
ORIGINAL BY SEA DEAN
6" x 4" OSWOA Postcard
On Auction at Daily Paintworks

To view my Gallery or purchase this painting please visit Daily Paintworks. Larger originals in the same series or prints may be available by contacting me. 


Every day I battle over this ... When I photograph a painting it has depth but the colours pick up more ambient light, so if I photograph in the afternoon they will be more yellow or pink and in the morning they are more blue-grey. When I scan the colours are more true and bright but the image doesn´t show the depth of impasto and the whole effect is pasty and thin. I often don´t have time to do both until much later, unless the rendition is too inaccurate to blog. Another factor is that when I post on Daily Paintworks, the customers usually only see a small thumbnail before they decide whether to click for more detail, this thumbnail gives another view which isn´t always appealing even if the photo or scan looks good closeup. 

Sometimes scans and photos are similar depending on the colours and type of pigment used. At other times they are radically different. Above I have a morning photo and a scan, which do you prefer and why, or what have you found helpful in this regard?

THE COMPOSITION CHALLENGE

Every week Daily Paintworks offers a new challenge to Artists whether they are a member or the site or not. I don´t do all of them, but it´s a good exercise to try something different. This challenge caught my attention and the organizer, Kara K. Bigda had some good simple composition advice. See below. I think I got most of them and I like the result.

The idea: This week’s challenge is to create a dynamic composition - really think outside the box - and pay particular attention to your design. I’ve listed a few of my favorite “rules to a good composition” that I use to help guide my students (and me!) to dynamic arrangements of space that will draw people into the painting. Feel free to use some of them, all of them, none of them . . . whatever helps you:

- create depth through foreground, mid-ground and background; overlap shapes
- use diagonals (oh so much more interesting than horizontals!)
- use "run-off" (have objects run off the page on all four sides – but be sure to avoid having them just "touch" the edges)
- employ the rule of thirds (divide your paper into thirds rather than halves – horizon lines and focal points should all fall on these lines - stay away from centering - create INFORMAL BALANCE
- create “shards” of negative space (maintain interest through contrasting sizes and shapes of negative shapes)
- keep 80-90 percent of your space positive (enlarge your image to fit your space, no one wants to look at a page of empty space)
- use contrast (create apparent differences in size, shape and value)
- stagger objects (avoid lining objects up)

Cat 13162 Paddling the Inlet

No comments:

Post a Comment

I love to hear your views and connect on a personal level so feel free to say hi.

All work by Sea Dean protected by International Copyright - No printing, copying, electronic transfer or any form of duplication allowed without written permission from the Artist.