Monday, November 29, 2010

Finished.

Earlier today I finished the painting, with some reservations. I'm pleased that the persons I did this for enjoyed it, though. There are many things I am satisfied with as well as a few that I would have done a little differently, but sometimes you just have to commit and move forward, especially if there is a deadline looming ahead, self-imposed or otherwise. 



This painting looks better in person. I need to find a better camera, or learn to become a better photographer, or both.  Something a photograph can't seem to capture, though, is the translucency of the paint.

This painting was built up from a charcoal sketch that I fixed into place with brushings of glear gesso. I then added layer after layer of transparent acrylic glazes, some of them iridescent. The orange glow on the horizon, when seen in person, just pops, and the layers of glaze are much richer. It takes awhile for some of the darks within darks to register, and there is definitely a looseness to the brush strokes that I want to explore even further. 

I decided against using an image from Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! as the movie image, but I am not 100% satisfied with what I did choose, fantastic movie moment that it is. I gave a lot of thought over what image to use, and given the wherewithal, would have probably spent another week just mulling that over. In retrospect, I would have preferred to use something much more unidentifiable and incidental, instead of an iconic scene like this (Grace Kelly and Jimmy Stewart).

The wonderful thing is, I can always do it again.

2 comments:

Coby said...

I love it Bill, I can imagine what it looks like in the 'flesh' Glad you're back at it. It's fun to see your thought process at work, I miss you!

Billy Mallery said...

WOW!