This is a piece I've been working on for the water, clouds and ether classes (three birds, one stone), composed to include all three of those elements. The image is based on the very weird, mysterious and multiple biblical references to nephilim coming down to Earth and mating with humans (see bizarre excerpt from Genesis below).
You'll see the photo includes millet that I sprinkled in the blue margin, in an effort to gauge whether or not a starry night would look too busy. I think I like it and plan to proceed with an astral margin in gold and silver ink.
Am open to any and all suggestions. Wondering in particular if
1) I should bring out the clouds with heavier/darker outlining?
2) For the ruling: the black outlines were lost when I painted in the gold border. Should I bring the black outlines out again, or just leave it as-is?
Again, all thoughts welcome!
PS - That Genesis excerpt that I mentioned:
When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the Lord said, "My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.
— Genesis 6:1–4, New Revised Standard Version
It's such a gorgeous piece Nadia!! I'd love to see how it evolves, and if you made the stars or not (I really hope so, it looks like it will be lovely on your dark blue margins) 🌟
All paint in general shares commonalities - once you get a certain level of experience, which you are getting, you will see that water-based paint shares some characteristics with oil-based paint. So you can transfer this knowledge and expand your repertoire (if you so wish). It's half in the preparation, half in the care taken during the painting process.
You can separate or mix colours as you wish, and even as you paint... do you remember my 'pyramid' metaphor? 1st layer colour fill is 'fast and wet', 2nd layer tapai middle rendering is 'half slow and half dry' and 3rd layer pardaxt fine rendering is 'slow and dry'. But as you paint more you'll realise that these last two are interchangeable. And even the colour washes - you can actually paint over rendering if you're careful and need to... miniature painting is taught in a strict fashion because there are some ground rules to do with practicalities, and then after that, you can play around a bit ('know the rules well in order to break them better') so there is another world unfolding before your eyes, exciting!
I love transferable knowledge and it seems like you are getting it! I don't believe that you have to forget everything you knew before and that you have to throw all your prior knowledge out of the window; that is a cool and mysterious thing to say (eg from a 'master' to an apprentice) but actually especially for adults I think it's best to build on what you already know, which is not nothing, of course. You did learn something in school even if it's what not to do/what you don't want to do... I'm happy you are discovering new things all the time as you paint more and more!
Yes, thank you Nadia! I have indeed zoomed in on the clouds - the weakest part of the piece. Stay tuned, they’re looking quite a bit different (I “erased” them entirely and changed the color, etc.) Merci for the input!
This looks beautiful! so pleased to see how it turned out. and the whole story of the nephilim is so interesting! i would definitely do some work to outline the clouds a bit more.
WONDERFUL!!
I didn't read your whole post at first, just looked at the image, and spent ages wondering what the 3D elements were... then I read the post (haha) - what a good idea to try out millet (or maybe couscous if you run out of millet!) to see what stars would look like. I say go for it (you're going for it anyway)!
I'm interested in the eventual title of the piece, as has such an interesting background!
Yes, because all the elements of the image should technically have the same value/equal value, and they will look strange if not. Just keep the lines very fine.
Yes - this will make it look finished. If you're brave, you could add multiple colours to the ruled border like green, red and blue lines - but it works equally well with just gold. Or you could add a pattern within the border itself (this is going into illumination territory).
I didn't expect the dark astral border when we were Zooming... it is truly sparklingly magnificent and it really makes the piece. See, the margins are so important, sometimes equally so or even sometimes more so... and yours is obviously after a lot of thought and makes so much sense with your piece. As if the angels from the margin heaven are looking down to the teastain earth and all eyes are looking in the same direction which is the water in the river... which flows out of the frame back into the stars. We are all made of stars.
Your border brings this piece up to the almost finished level of your other piece, ie makes so much sense and easy to 'read' the image - I like the cyclical flow of your 2 works and how a kind of tentative style is emerging, almost... I know I said the other piece was kind of immediately 'easier to love' because was wonderful at first glance... well, you've now achieved that same thing here. This painting is now easy to love too. I love it! I look forward to seeing its progress to completion!
Also interested in other people's comments!