This is a process & how-to post on making an idea better. I was unsatisfied with the original ‘Did I Leave The Stove On’ below.
What worked: Model Sarahann’s serious pose inspired the title. She looks worried. I did like the color & texture of the fabric flowers. They are secured to circular magnets with commercial glue. A thin steel plate is set under the glass & behind artwork allowing the viewer to adorn or expose the nude with the magnets.
What didn’t work: The frame lacked harmony with the artwork. Nothing pushed the title’s joke to the viewer. Skin-tone colors were flat browns and yellows. I painted this 2 years ago without any training. I’ve since spent lots of time doing watercolor studies using Charles Reid’s books.
I love watercolor washes, but for this project they lacked the urgency of a stove on fire. Working light to dark wasn’t doing it. I took a LinkedIn Learning ‘Color Blocking’ course by Mary Jane Begin. I’d only seen under-painting technique in oil painting books , but MJB used it with watercolors. I’ve made her course available at https://www.facebook.com/studioJCG/
MJB also challenged me to rethink composition. Funny, I work with this daily as a visual designer. This art thing was suppose to focus only on lifedrawing, but a model in a sparse studio becomes a lone element on an empty page. It’s boring. No story. So when creating art you have to ask what do I want to look at?
I want composed scene that tells a story.
Composition asks:
How does foreground and background elements work with or against each other?
How is the scene blocked?
How do the colors reflect off each element and add to the piece?
What do you get rid of?
MJB’s class made it very clear that naked people covered in magnets isn’t the end of my technique, but where it should begin.
Where to get a background? Mo-beel, not mobile.
When my son Vincent graduated from Coast Guard BT school in Virginia, I flew out & we drove back to Texas. We stayed overnight in Mobile, AL at the Malaga Inn. This historic hotel is filled with ornate rooms. Very comfortable, affordable & southern gothic. Mobile is re-inventing itself with craft beer & great restaurants.
New rule for my art: Use images from places I’ve been.
Give yourself reference material you have experienced, then the process of painting forces you to remember the time spent there. You’ve got this one life. Examine and enjoy it.
On to tonal studies:
When the image isn’t working, I work on the frame.
Gold is too distracting and doesn’t block the model in. I cover it with a glossy black spray-paint. I want the joke to come forth with a clicking oven knob & carve out the bottom center with a Dremel tool. I find both the Rust-Oleum Universal black gloss spray paint and oven replacement knob at Home Depot.