Breaking Through: Step 3
On the condition that I continue design work on the house itself, that sketch went over well. So, the basic layout and proportions of the composition were finalized, the pose of the figure and his position in relation to the house were decided on, and I was beginning to form a much clearer idea of the color scheme and mood I wanted to achieve in the painting. I began to keep my eyes open for a suitable model, and started gathering potential reference material for the sky, ocean and cliffs in the background. But more importantly, I put a lot of time into the design of the house. I did scores of sketches, most of which ended up in the trash, many of which I don’t have images of, and some of which were really pretty silly…though a legitimate part of the brainstorming process. Most of these design drawings were done just of the house itself, though occasionally I would include the figure just to get a feel for how the whole composition was working together. I sent many of these quick drawings to the client to get feedback, and incorporated new ideas or deleted parts of the design based on his reactions. Below are a few examples.
This one was pretty stylized, and very angular. Maybe a bit too futuristic…but I kind of liked it. A lot of these design features ended up in the final house in one form or another.
I think this one was mainly a counter to the sharp angle of its predecessor. It felt a little like a concert hall to me for some reason.
Here the Architect makes a showing. There were a lot of things about the house that the client really liked, including the general layout, the curved sections of glass and the lower left side built into the face of the cliff. But, the pointed peaks of the roof, which I included in an attempt to mirror some of the shapes in the cliffs, just weren’t working for him. In retrospect, I agree. He also wanted to lose the pointy prominence of the cliff face centered under the house, and bring a little more of the living space down the right side of the rock.
This is a slightly better version of the previous design. I really liked the angled balconies on the lower portion of this one. It still needs some of the changes mentioned above, including the roof sections which I believe were occasionally being referenced by this point as the ‘tongues’.
