This is a painting I am doing for next year's Tour Of California. I like the sky, Capitol bldg., foliage, cast shadows from the riders, and the road.. I like the way the bicycle riders are coming along, but they are going to be the last element in this painting to be completed. It is this element where I seek advice. I am going to darken the faces, arms, and legs somewhat,but what else should I do to pop out the riders more is my question. Suggestions on that point and anything else? This painter seeks help.
I have been awarded/tagged by three of my fellow artist bloggers:
Theresa Rankin,
Milind Mulick, and
Barbara Muir . All three are great artists, and I'm honored to share the blogospheric art community with them! These things make the rounds on a fairly regular basis, but what I liked about this one is not only the call to pass on the honor to 7 other bloggers but to list 7 things about the recipient's life, so here goes----
1. I cannot believe that in Feb. of next yr., I'll be 62! What's up with that!!
2. In 1966 (can you grasp that long of a time span?), I was flunking out of UCLA, because I was stupid enough to be a science major. Where in the f--k were my high school counselors!? Dejected, depressed, and disgraced, I spent my semester trying to understand integral calculus and quantum mechanical physics! I also played pool with my fellow science major room mate at the student union (the bastard understood all this stuff and could afford the time to play pool). I also built up a portfolio of drawings to validate myself as a worthy member of human race. This is one of my drawings that I did of the ceiling of the main library as I was vainly studying. At the end of the semester, I went over to The College of Humanities and Fine Arts, showed them my portfolio and asked if I could change my major and stay at UCLA. This was my idea alone and without the aid if any stupid counselors. They gave me an academic test, told me to take a summer class at my local community college, and said sure, you can come back in the Fall and be an Arts major!!! The rest is history.
3. I'm an adjunct art prof. at Sacramento City College and a full time artist.
4. Did I say that next year I'll be 62?! What's up with that!
5. Ta hell with it, that's enough info. except that I'm a Caucasian registered to vote,my wife, Cheryl is a great high school English teacher and dynamite knitter, and we both voted for B. Obama!!!!
Seven of my fav. bloggers:
1.
Terry Miura
2.
Milind Mulick
3.
Bonnie Luria
4.
Cooper Dragonette
5.
Jennifer McChristian
6.
Rob Ijema
7.
Carol Marine
8.And ALL the rest on my blog roll!!!
This is a painting I am doing for next year's Tour Of California. I like the sky, Capitol bldg., foliage, cast shadows from the riders, and the road.. I like the way the bicycle riders are coming along, but they are going to be the last element in this painting to be completed. It is this element where I seek advice. I am going to darken the faces, arms, and legs somewhat,but what else should I do to pop out the riders more is my question. Suggestions on that point and anything else? This painter seeks help.
I have been awarded/tagged by three of my fellow artist bloggers: Theresa Rankin, Milind Mulick, and Barbara Muir . All three are great artists, and I'm honored to share the blogospheric art community with them! These things make the rounds on a fairly regular basis, but what I liked about this one is not only the call to pass on the honor to 7 other bloggers but to list 7 things about the recipient's life, so here goes----
1. I cannot believe that in Feb. of next yr., I'll be 62! What's up with that!!
2. In 1966 (can you grasp that long of a time span?), I was flunking out of UCLA, because I was stupid enough to be a science major. Where in the f--k were my high school counselors!? Dejected, depressed, and disgraced, I spent my semester trying to understand integral calculus and quantum mechanical physics! I also played pool with my fellow science major room mate at the student union (the bastard understood all this stuff and could afford the time to play pool). I also built up a portfolio of drawings to validate myself as a worthy member of human race. This is one of my drawings that I did of the ceiling of the main library as I was vainly studying. At the end of the semester, I went over to The College of Humanities and Fine Arts, showed them my portfolio and asked if I could change my major and stay at UCLA. This was my idea alone and without the aid if any stupid counselors. They gave me an academic test, told me to take a summer class at my local community college, and said sure, you can come back in the Fall and be an Arts major!!! The rest is history.
3. I'm an adjunct art prof. at Sacramento City College and a full time artist.
4. Did I say that next year I'll be 62?! What's up with that!
5. Ta hell with it, that's enough info. except that I'm a Caucasian registered to vote,my wife, Cheryl is a great high school English teacher and dynamite knitter, and we both voted for B. Obama!!!!
Seven of my fav. bloggers:
1. Terry Miura
2. Milind Mulick
3. Bonnie Luria
4. Cooper Dragonette
5. Jennifer McChristian
6. Rob Ijema
7. Carol Marine
8.And ALL the rest on my blog roll!!!
17 comments:
I dropped by from over at Bill's was curious, I like your bikers just fine how they are. They are in motion, we wouldn't see their faces that well. It looks finished to me.
David! Thanks for including me in your list--I'm flattered.
I am a huge cycling fan and really like this piece as is. I might emphasize the shadows as I think they make for a pretty interesting element.
Yup, like the bikers as they are placed. You'll have to sort out how far to take them though... It must be a difficult task to do, I presume you might even be required to get recognizable faces in there. Presume it's not the sort of thing you'd probably do for yourself, (I wouldn't anyway!) maybe like having a smaller commission from the Medicis or the King or the Pope in days gone by...
David- your bikers are movin' right across the page. You're handling the scene just right.
It's damn hard enough to do multiple figures in activity.
Funny how many years after thinking life took disastrous turns, you're doing now what you do so well. Doubt I'd be as engaged on the Lobenberg science blog.
Being tagged here! Whew this is heady company I'm in and am thrilled. Thanks and now I have to swallow a barrel of ginko to resurrect details of my life.
" I'll get right back to ya, on that " Wink.
thanks for the mention david,i see i'm in good company!
as for letting the riders pop...you should have asked me sooner,haha
i would have soft focussed the background with less saturated colors...having said that,the painting works just fine,the eye pics out the riders straight away!
Thanks Lori. I probably will not radically change the bikers too much, but I may make changes with the background foliage. They seem to compete for attention.
Cooper: I think that the shadows may need a little bit of darkening. Thanks for the feedback.
Clive: my client, The Sacramento Convention @ Visitors Bureau, likes the faces, but have suggested that the bikers need to stand out more.
Bonnie: I dunno. I think I might have been able to infuse a touch of humor into my science blog.
Rob: Yep...spot on...too much color/value areas in the foliage. Needs to be simplified, and I think just the way you have suggested. Stay tuned.
Hi David,
I like the painting right now, it has a wonderful
feeling of excitement. And you know what to do
if you want to change it. You are the expert. It's all light and shadow, and you are very, very good at that my friend. Very good.
Take care,
Barbara
Hi David, It's a complex composition and as such probably calls for a simplification, if anything. It'd be a blast to have the focus on the first 3 riders but motion blur the others and desaturate as the group recedes.
A challenge but it'd be cool I think.
A fine painting as it is though.
Thanks Barbara M. You know how to boost another artist's confidence. I have made some simplifications to the background, and I'm working next on the riders. Wish me luck and wave me goodbye!
A fine suggestion David B. Tomorrow I rework the riders, so I'll be thinking about that. Thanks!
David- I didn't tag you back - looks like you've had enough good PR.
But you're mentioned on my new post.
Thanks again.
I bet you're actually engaged painting...
Hi David,
I made a comment on your cyclists painting in the more recent post above. So here I'll comment re the "ceiling of the main library" drawing. Firstly, regarding your science studies at UCLA, I had a feeling you were in the 'polymath tradition'. I'll bet you understood 'the principles' of Quantum Physics far better than the 'parrots'. Your drawing of the dome of that library building is superb IMO. You're in good company with beginnings like that. JMW Turner for one. I've seen an early architectural study of a cathedral by Turner that's intricately drawn, rendered to the finest detail. His late watercolours and oils extend the gamut of his oeuvre and remind again that art is a journey.
There's another curious connection between your drawing of the vaulted library ceiling and Galileo. You probably know the story. It matters not to me whether this story is folklore with a little (ahem) 'spice'! Anyway, so it goes, that while listening to a sermon, he was gazing up at the cathedral ceiling and vaulted dome when he had a moment of epiphany: he noticed that the candelabra, suspended from a great height, was swinging to and fro in the evening breeze through the cathedral. The time-intervals between each extreme point of the swing, was, he noticed, almost (possibly he thought, exactly) the same, no matter whether the 'pendulum' took smaller or longer sweeps through space. The rest is history.
There seems to me to be a whimiscal resonance here in Galileo's experience to the watercolour painting process: close observation of the subject is first essential, then finding the 'principles of connectedness' e.g. linked shadows etc, then the critical timing of interactive wet-in-wet watercolour comes into play. (The pendulum must be in there some how LOL. And maybe a 'cuckoo' too, to remind me, on the hour, just how 'off-beat' my thinking can be. Now that reminds me of parrots again, and of just how important it is to both whistle while you work and wobble while you walk...
cheers
~W
Wayne: I tell my students that drawing (and painting) is all about very close observation and when that is mastered, smart editing. You always get an "A" from me for your comments. Wonderful reading.
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