Saturday, February 22, 2014

The Picker-Banjo-Figurative

 Close ups

 Notan
Oil on 7x5 canvas panel.

This is my contribution to this week's WDE at Wet Canvas. Ros did the honor of hosting this week and provided a bunch of great photos!

 Musicians seem to be good subjects. Studious, concentrating, the goal of producing audio art! That's the attitude I usually look for.


The challenge was to do a value sketch (notan)in three tones – black, grey and white.
Simplify - do a very simple line shape sketch.
Squint - Reduce the shapes to as few as possible.
Small - Work small and fast – if your sketch is too complex do another more simplified.

I tried the notan approach and I can see how it would be very beneficial. Like many others I've always been in a hurry to start slappin' paint on. This forces you to slow down and plan. I didn't follow my notan very closely, but, hey...I'm new to it!

I did the sketch on the panel with a Tombow Pen. It did some nice blurring and backwashing when I applied thin acrylics to tone the support ( it's not waterproof like I thought it was). So I left some of it visible in the finished work.
This is about 90% painting knife.

C&C welcome. Thanks for looking and commenting!

15 comments:

  1. Its beauty is in its simplicity.Bravo!

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    1. Thank you, Arti. Simplicity is what I was after.

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  2. Like those complimentary colors you have used for the figure and the background. Great painting and proof artists can change their minds from the notan plan!

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    1. Thanks, Kaethe! I really feel sorta guilty that I didn't do a few more sketches beforehand.

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  3. I think this is an awesome piece, Dean. I love the point-of-view on this man.

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    1. Thank you, Sherry!
      The view of this guy is basically what another band member would see.

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  4. This musician is painted beautifully, Dean!!!! Wonderful work!!!!

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    1. Thanks for those kind words, Hilda! I just came from looking at your blog....great portraits!!

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  5. Although simple, you've totally captured the essence of the banjo picker. Bravo.

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  6. Hi, Lokelani! Thanks for stopping by and your kind comment.

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  7. Hi there Dean!... Another well painted... colourful and conceived figurative study!

    Your diagonal... GPS-like "elbow-to-gaze" compositional map drags the eye right across the essential elements of the painting. A very effective strategy... which is one of the hallmarks of your painting style and process!

    Another well-earned... Bravo my Friend!

    Good Painting!
    Warmest regards,
    Bruce

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    1. Hi, Bruce! I really thank you for your insight and thoughts on this piece. This is the sort of comment I love to get.......Even if it all weren't positive.

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  8. I think you stayed pretty true to the notan. Your drawing skills are pretty FINE! I love what you did.
    I enlarged the painting to see the texture from your knife and glad I did. I especially like the the way you did the shirt with warm and cool colors

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Julie!! Your palette knife work raises the bar for me. I can only wish!

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  9. Both the painting and study are really successful here. The direct comparison makes it all look so easy! nice work!

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