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Waking Among the Clouds: Step 7

Waking Among the Clouds

This painting is officially finished. The approach I took when painting the arms and hands was even more useful while working on the feet. The slight simplification of the wrinkles in the arches and the careful, directional control of the brushwork combined to make the feet look like feet, but still feel soft and feminine. I found myself doing a lot more paint mixing right on the canvas than usual as I fine-tuned the colors, and I think that really helped as well. There is an amazing variation of color in the soles of feet (and, to a lesser extent, the palms of the hands) that isn’t present elsewhere on the figure, mainly because the skin there is so different. It changes thickness substantially from the pads of the feet to the arches, for example, and since skin is quite translucent, the thickness affects the color. Ignoring these subtle changes in color leaves the feet looking more like those of a manikin than a living person. (Exaggerating the same subtleties in the face can easily make a figure look flushed. It’s a delicate balance that I am still working on.)

Having finished the feet, I also get to see the result of the careful work on the sheets. It is easier now to see that the shape of the major folds in the sheet is completely dependent on the way the knees and feet of the figure press into the mattress. Since everything matches up, the bed looks soft and weight of the figure is palpable. This is the stuff you really can’t make up.

Final touch-up work on this piece consisted mostly of adding more white to the brightest areas, and some repainting of a very small section of the skirt (luckily the skirt and luckily on the shadow side) where Asher managed to contribute a brushstroke of his own. Never underestimate the height of a determined 2-year-old.

So, for the final assessment, I am really happy with this painting. I think the extra time spent working on simpler figure paintings over the past year has been really good for my technique, especially with skin tones and textures, but also with overall consistency. Having finished this piece I am really excited to move on to some more ambitious compositions.

I am told people are still visiting the studio, so I hope it has been somewhat entertaining and informative. As always I welcome any questions or comments. Thanks for reading.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 7th, 2006 at 1:59 pm and is filed under Waking Among the Clouds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Waking Among the Clouds: Step 7”

  1. Tara Hughes Says:
    August 1st, 2007 at 6:20 pm

    wow. i love your work. i would choose this over mona lisa any day. i like to paint too. except im not that experienced, and am still learning basic techniques. im better at drawing but i want to get int othis. i created a pear-a-tif painting same size and its the first oil painting, and best thing i’ve ever done. i’m know i can point out small details missing from perfection but i think i did a good job. i wanted to thank you for inspiration and i wanted to ask you if its legal to recreate others art with your own name on it instead of the person who you got it from? and i was also wondering how much that pear would cost just to have the satisfaction of knowing that i created a (blank) dollar painting. it must feel good to know you have created a 32,000 dollar painting. you are my favorite painter because this is the kind of artist i would be instead of like an abstract painter, and because you are so very talented.

    just thought you should know. :)

    ~tara

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About Bryan Larsen ~

Bryan Larsen

"I was born on February 12, 1975, and have been drawing as long as I can remember. By the time I was in high school, I knew I wanted to be an artist, although at the time I didn't have a clear idea of how exactly I would use my talents to make a living.

"As I continued studying art, I began to suspect that fine visual art was dead. No one seemed interested in teaching students how to draw well, or paint well. More often than not, my own skills exceeded those of my instructors.

"The only field left that seemed to require good drawing, painting, and compositional skills was illustration, and therefore I began studying illustration at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. I became even more convinced that I had made the right decision in staying away from fine art as I endured course after course of required "drawing" and "painting" classes in which instructors required me to draw with "less focus", or use ridiculous materials such as shellac, glue, sand, salt, etc.

"My second year at Utah State, I met Damon Denys. In discussing Art with him I realized that there were other people who believed that technique and subject matter were indispensable components of any work of art. I then decided that I would work to develop my own painting skills with the purpose of creating artwork that I considered worthy of being called Fine Art.

"Since that time, I have studied on my own: Drawing from live models to learn the human form, studying proper painting techniques from any source I could find ample reason to trust, and developing a philosophy of Art based on reason, and life on earth.

"My goal is to portray the heroic and romantic in human nature and human achievement in a realistic style and a modern setting. I place particular emphasis on composition, technique, realistic detail, proper craftsmanship and consistency of style."