Cleo's Journey Home Not going to lie I was a little intimidated with this one. I was commissioned by a former colleague of mine to paint a picture of her dog that had recently passed away. I knew my biggest issue would be getting the painting to actually look like her dog. She gave me a photograph to work from and I used it as my template. I can't tell you how many times I referenced that photograph making sure it was as close to exact as could be. I worked the hardest on layout. Once you put the photo next to the painting you know if something isn't right. With my OCD eyes I can spot differences a mile away. The color with light and shadow was just about the second hardest obstacle.
The fun part was creating the background. As you may guess the background is a photograph. I had taken this particular photograph for friends of mine. They were standing inthe mid ground on the steps. So proportion wise, Cleo would be quite large for this real-life scene. That does not matter to me because she is the focal point and in the foreground, she should be large scale (trust me, had I not told you that you would never have know). I did in fact play around quite a bit with detail and color. Just as with the sky, I create how I feel. I wanted this painting to have warm glow feeling at just around sunset. I am really big on creating moments with meaning, so for me this was all sentimental. Think of the passing of time as we move on through our journeys in life. Not to mention I imagine Cleo turning and walking away up the steps as she goes on her own journey.
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Evening with Thistles This painting is actually the view to the West of the Other Place Barn. There is the remainder of my grandfather's childhood home behind those trees. The only remainders of the rock house are two walls. I would like to put the house in some how to make it apart of this scene but you really don't see it from this spot so I will have to fib. The way I pieced this painting together with these three sections is to really show you all you would see if you'd look closely. This whole area is overgrown so there are thistles all over. I wanted them to be the focal point so I put as much detail into them as I could. They may be a weed but I think they are beautiful. They also may not appear proportional, but if you sit on the ground right in front of one this is what you would see.
I would say this painting is unfinished, but that would mean I would have to come back to it and I just don't know what to do. The windmill in the background was not laid out proportionally to the size of the canvas and so it will not fit. It was there but I covered it up with the sky because it did not look right. Turns out it would actually be going off the top of the canvas if I did it correctly. This is a lesson in why you plan and sketch ahead of time instead of eye-balling things. For now I will leave it this way until something comes to me. |
Andrea Stitt
A behind the scenes look at the creation of each painting as well as adventures in being an artist. Archives
December 2017
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