Hello from somewhere in the middle of the Smoky Mountains! I'm moving across the country and taking the scenic route by car, and I've picked up my brushes during our week-stay in a remote cabin in the woods! I have just completed a fair amount of fine rendering for the rocks on this painting, and now I feel a bit stuck. I think the next step would be get some outlining in, but I am not sure about what color to use to outline the rocks (black seems too harsh). Also, the painting doesn't feel very coherent. My strict north-south brush strokes on the rocks (diverging from the usual approach, I know) make it look like a different painting from the figure, the background and the clouds. That may be beyond repair at this point, but just wondering if anyone has any pointers/advice/thoughts! I'll recap my questions:
- Is the fine rendering sufficient? Should I do more?
- Should I outline the rocks? If so, what color? The rocks currently contain gray, a turquoise tint, payne's gray, and burnt sienna.
- Should I further outline the figure? If so, what color? I was thinking gold, but not sure.
- Any way to make the rocks seem more coherent w/ the rest of the painting?
- Any other thoughts/observations totally welcome! Hope you all are well.
I know I'm super-late to this blog thread, but this is such a great painting and all the comments are worth publishing, too!. I will re-read again soon, such a wealth of information. And I will add my two cents of course. I just wanted to express my enthusiasm, Nadia! I came to look for your recent post about a breathing technique with a name I didn't know, and wound up enjoying everthing HERE!. (I'll go find the breathing post now) :)
The dream-like nature of waking life is especially apparent in the small hours of the night when you happen to be awake... I love those times and look forward to them. Again, regardless of whether or not you have kids... it is making lemonade with insomnia. Sometimes you can't see the mountains while climbing them. Good to zoom out and take stock of how far up you've climbed... and you've really climbed so far, I am so proud and amazed! Really creative as well. I absolutely love the border. Good things come to those who wait, as the Guinness ad says!
I love those carpet page embellishments too as you said. They are called sharafeh, merlons and probably some other names. You're good at faces, I remember - it's your previous training that helps you in this. I really can't wait to see it finished! (But don't rush, I didn't mean it like that!) And printed! And on my wall and it will remind me of your journey through the smoky mountains and changing your life a little bit along the way. Honoured to have been a small part of your artistic journey and this is a really special painting, I feel it. I'm sure you do too!
Nadia, please definitely make this into a print and I will buy it! I'm hoping that some of the Carpet Pages artists will share insights on how to make prints - as I think this is a general area of interest and I've never done one and no plans to - and I will pass any nuggets onto you that I glean. It definitely deserves to be printed. Also, it's way better than Degas. Really! I connect with it much more than that Degas, although of course I appreciate Degas in a different way. Yours wins first of all as it's paint, it was liquid, it's real ;-) (not dry pastel!) So anyway you have your first print order now because I love the journey of this painting, plus following the journey of your own story, so it is already meaningful to me on that level besides being - at first glance - a really beautiful miniature painting! So proud! (If I’m allowed!)
The Smoky Mountains… nice name and seems like this has wound its way into your work as you wind across the country. What a lovely memory. How nice, too, to be able to simply pick up your brushes and paint on the road. Miniature painting is a very portable art form in that sense, isn’t it, unlike large canvases or big wooden altarpieces…
My advice in long form: just don’t do anything now. Leave it, put it in an envelope to keep it safe and so that you don’t see it, don’t look at it for a while, move house, settle in and then finish it. My guess is that actually it needs VERY little work to be truly finished. I think it’s about 90% done. I always say that 90% of a miniature is outlined, which means that not everything is. Some things are just left as they are. Those rocks are so fantastic and so unusual that - I don’t actually think they need outlining at all. At least not in black. Indigo was a good idea from Nadia, or yes sepia, but actually if you haven’t started then I would just leave it, as it looks beautiful as it is. Smoky mountains! The whole idea of your painting as it seems to me is like a dream, like the smoke clouds (which you’re right to outline as that is convention and it ‘reads’ properly).. but now at this level the smoky rocks match the clouds. And no, I don’t even think the rocks need any more rendering work at all as they are smoky dream rocks in a way. I really love them! And the faces half seen within them! Yesterday I was just telling some students about pushing back and bringing forward some elements - even within the world of the painting where everything is the same… it’s just a subtle movement but you’ve definitely achieved it here and it’s not easy to do. Exactly - your unusual rendering is what makes the piece yours, and what makes it unique and fantastic so who cares if it is not done ‘correctly’ - it’s such a big part of the image and so powerful that it is as if you’ve invented another landscape form of your own. Which you have, so just keep it and stand by it. You could render a small part with Payne’s grey yes. You could render another small part with orange a tiny bit yes, that’s an excellent idea for coherence from Alison. The other suggestions are all helpful and great. So in conclusion maybe outline a third of the rocks, here and there, with extremely thin lines only seen up close, but not every single one. I wouldn’t necessarily outline the figure in gold, however. (But do what you like! It’s already a fine painting and I want it on my wall!) The gold may compete somehow with the rocks I feel and I also think this time stick to convention of black outlines. Very slowly. A black outline of the hand holding the clouds would make it feel finished.
Definitely do the ruling and THIS can be in gold or incorporate gold perhaps.
What’s the dusty bit at the top left?
You probably know this but it would be good if he had a face. You’ve done an excellent job on the garments.
My advice in short: it’s a complex, many-layered piece of work that deserves a lot more time just spent looking and also pondering without looking and also the time to forget about it entirely so that you see it with new eyes. And then to finish it won’t take much, as it’s nearly done. Make a print, I’m looking forward to it!
Oh I do see the relationship to the Degas! I love those pastels as well. I had not thought of that but it is something so useful to think about and study for the color combinations. Thank you for the insight and agian, brilliant painting!!!!
Grazie, grazie! Yes, I had incorporated sepia into the rocks (accidentally called it burnt siena above) to do just that, but I agree, I could push it further. Also thinking of making a kind of gray out of the sepia + turqoise tint and use that as an outline color for the rocks.
Also just had a thought - perhaps I should do the ruling (the colors for that are more clear to me) and see if it helps clarify my choice of a rock color outline.
Also-also: I can see how my love of pastels by Degas in my formative years actually informed this painting. Those rocks remind me of parts of the Degas pastel below, for which I did a master study back in high school!
Wow!! The image is wonderful! I love those faces appearing in the rocks! And I so not know what you think but maybe if a little more warm tiny strokes in the rocks might work to integrate them a little more? A little of the orange from the garment? I love, love, love the idea of outlining your figure in gold!!! Having said that though, it is just stunning! Great subject and wonderful rethinking of the imagery! Brava!!!!!!!!!
Ooh those rocks are gorgeou! And I think the style fits very well. Payne’s grey or indigo for the outline?