Waking Among the Clouds: Step 6
It is interesting what a difference it makes having the arms painted. It gives a more finished look to everything else, and allows the first real assessment of how well the composition is working. I am pleased to see that the re-arrangement of the clouds is indeed providing enough contrast to allow the shirt to stand out in the foreground, and to a greater extent, the contrast between the shirt and the nearest arm is really pushing the arm forward. The color scheme also feels more complete with the warm flesh tones offsetting the cool whites and blues of the background.
Aside from the visual effect on the painting as a whole, there is another point of interest, at least for me, in the way the arms are painted. With each of the other elements in this piece, from the clouds to the sheets and clothing to the hair, I have been more selective than ever before with the detail level and the surface quality of the paint. This is a trend that really began with the dress in By the Fountain. I found that by using more paint and blending with a small round brush, I could create a very soft texture that wasn’t so smooth as to feel plastic. In combination with intentionally leaving out smaller details that don’t have specifically to do with the larger forms, the effect is a more consistent, clean feel to the painting. I have used this approach to some extent with flesh since then, but this time I made an effort to keep the detail level in the hands on exactly the same level as the surrounding elements. I also kept some of the same texture to the paint, though I was more careful to control the direction of the final brush strokes, and I think it has a much more skin-like feel because of it. More importantly, I think the different pieces of the painting are better integrated in this piece than in previous paintings.
