Two Shores: Step 11
With the bridge and background in place, the only unfinished part of the painting left is the foreground. So why don’t we start by firing in a happy little tree? (just kidding) Actually, I don’t intend to change much here. What I’m really after is to essentially keep the foreground the way it is, and add just enough detail to it to make it seem “finished”. Compositionally, it would work just fine to leave it the way it is. But then, you can’t go sending paintings with huge tracts of unfinished canvas to galleries–not reputable ones, anyway. And if you’ll recall our original theme, and the title of the painting, “Two Shores”, then you’ll realize that although the painting would be compositionally square by leaving the foreground a blank of burnt umber, it would not be thematically complete without some suggestion of untrammeled grass, trees, or wilderness. Otherwise, we’d have to rename it something like “One Shore”, and that would require a very silly bridge, wouldn’t it?
Painting light color onto a dark base to suggest detail, without getting carried away with REAL detail, is one of the easiest things to do in a painting like this. I don’t have to bend over backwards to paint a lot of detailed bushes and trees, for example, because if I just suggest that kind of detail, your eye will do the rest of the work for me (and I can spend more time enjoying my coffee this morning, thank you very much). In fact, I actually don’t want a lot of detail flying around down there, because if that happened it might distract from the elements of the painting that you really SHOULD be noticing. So I’m going for a bare minimum here. I do this with a little green on the far left, combined with some darker color under the bridge (in its shadow), where I show some bushes overlapping the water.
That’s enough. And I’ll finish up by tidying the base of the little island with some of the same color I used in the foreground. This is a handy way of unifying those two areas without getting too weird.
Of course, a painting would never be quite complete without the requisite signature. I tend to subscribe to the classical method of placing the signature where it won’t distract too much from the painting (and thus, as the logic goes, confuse the overall composition). And there you have it, “Two Shores”.
As a final note I’d like to add that an important step in this process is actually not being shown. (I could, of course, show you, but please take my word–it’s not very interesting) After completing a painting, I always set aside specific time to carefully clean my palette–that’s the flat thing with the thumb-hole in it that painters use to carry and mix their colors (hey, some people might not already know that). I work with more than one palette, but I always tie up the final work with my “finishing palette”. This is a small, durable, plexiglass palette that’s actually perfect for doing detail work, final skin tones, glazing, etc. Every one of my paintings you see at the Cordair gallery was completed using this palette. I’m very particular about it, and I never let anyone else touch it. In fact (prepare to roll your eyes), it even has its own special drawer in my painting stand. As one of my favorite chefs once said, “these things are sacred to us”. He was actually talking about a cutting board, but I think his sentiment is just as applicable to my own tools of the trade. I’m an artist, yes, but I’m also a craftsman. And as such, I attach a lot of importance to those things that bring my creations into being. Painting is a very hands-on process, and every time I send a finished painting away, a little piece of me gets sent away with it. Call me a hopeless romantic, but just don’t let me catch you licking my palette next time you visit my studio–that would probably be punishment enough in itself, but I’d still chase you out the door with the nearest heavy object.
I hope you’ve enjoyed following the process of my little bridge painting. It’s been enjoyable documenting it for you . Cheers, and adieu.
December 26th, 2004 at 6:00 pm
Damon,
The moment I saw your finished bridge, I exclaimed with pleasure. However, on reading your comments, I was bewildered. Your intention was to focus the lights in the horizon, but my attention was on the bridge! I did not look at the bridge as a pointer. The bridge looked too real for me to focus my attention elsewhere (of course I also happen to study engineering, so the bridge would catch my view). Maybe you need to add the Hollywood sign! Thanks for the brilliant work so far.