Thursday, November 05, 2009

Hurry Up And Wait

Close ups

Oil on 5x7 board.

These airport travelers were Karin Jurick's challenge for DSFDF. A wonderful blog which demonstrates how one reference photo painted by many artists winds up with great diversified and creative solutions.

The original photo was very dark as above. I lightened the image and saw a lot more detail, but then decided that would actually detract from the interest. The mind likes to play detective and try to decipher what is what...So a dark mysterious painting is an invitation saying,"Come on in...look around ...stay awhile".

I first used black gesso on the board which makes the colors pop from the start. But after I had all the painting completed, I decided the black gesso wasn't dark enough to do the job. I darkened the black even further by using a thinned layer of ultra. blue, alizarin crimson, and burnt umber.
I hope you like it!

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29 comments:

  1. Great Dean!
    I like the introduction of the overhead light.

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  2. great piece DEAN I like your rendition.

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  3. Superb! What a wonderful painting. Beautiful work with lights and shades!

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  4. Wonderful Dean, I do like the darkness in your rendition

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  5. WONDERFUL job, Dean - very dramatic lighting.

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  6. Thanks, Irit...Yes the light pattern was an important aspect.

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  7. Dominique and Meghan...Thanks for the kind comments!

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  8. Edward...Thank you, my friend! Much appreciated.

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  9. Very dramatic lighting Dean...and I like how that guy in the front looks to be in a big hurry!

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  10. isn't it funny (funny weird not funny ha-ha) that black doesn't seem black enough, but your combination is super black? It is such an interesting phenomenon.
    I love your painting and I am always so surprised at the size you work in. So compact! Would you make a decent watchmaker? (lol) (meaning..how dinky can yo go?--you get so much information in such a small area).

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  11. This painting definitely makes me want to look at it for an extended length of time. It is captivating.

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  12. Nice job, Dean. I had gone to look at all of the entries in this challenge yesterday and none of them outshone this one. Your composition is great. I like that you keep me guessing with the details. Sometimes Less is More.

    The painting I did recently with the black gesso was the first time I had include black in a work of mine in years. And, I noticed the phenomenon you speak of. My mixed blacks seem blacker than the black from the tube. Who knew?

    -Don

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  13. You handled this beautifully, Dean. I like your use of the black gesso in your paintings so very much!

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  14. Making your dark darker , or richer, seems to have worked. The strong contrast is great.

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  15. Wow, Dean!
    This is fabulous. You made all the right decisions, cropping, value, color.... Very nice! I need to get back to DSFDF. I miss the projects.

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  16. Dean, you rule! I keep coming back and looking at the beautiful job you did with this - it positively glows. I found it interesting that you put the thin layer of darker colors over the black. I have always used the mixture of alizarin crimson, ultra blue and burnt umber as my 'black' because it is not as 'flat' as regular black.

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  17. I knew yours would be worth waiting for Dean! But boy I am having trouble photographing this darkness! How do you do it???

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  18. Hi Dean, wonderful work, and thank you for your close ups
    From Uruguay
    Fernando

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  19. This is such a fine piece and very interesting. I love the vantage point and also find that "bird's eye view" of the figure fascinating.

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  20. As I commented on Dana's version, I wasn't going to do this challenge because I wasn't excited about the reference photo, but I AM excited about your painting.
    You absolutely nailed it. I love the way you handled the light. Now I've got to try it too.

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  21. What the.... how come I didn't see this until today? Always raising the bar for the rest of us DSFDF challengers...

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  22. Dean, I like this very much. What is DSFDF?

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  23. Love it! Glad you kept it nice and dark. It really gives the figures a lot of movement.

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  24. Love the contrast with the darks and lights, such a nice entry!

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  25. Dean, this is definitely one of my favorites. Great job...you really have a knack for the dramatic.

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  26. The drama of light and shade here says it all! Great shot!

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  27. OK, now I've done it. Four hours of hell. This was hard for me.

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  28. I love your version Dean. Loose and fresh...very cool!

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  29. Great job on this challenge, Dean! You have a special talent for making highlights glow next to shadow. Love your brush handling too!

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