IsabeauxStudio

Fourth of July weekend, three glorious days to do whatever I pleased.  I took advantage of the beautiful weather, and was painting outside.  Painting abstract, trying to loosen up, and work from my mind as opposed from a particular view or image.  The goal for me, was to work within a color scheme,  I wanted to create something that would fill the blank space on my bedroom wall, given that I like things to match, I needed the colors to be red, black, and gold so it would coordinate with the rest of my environment.

I was working fairly large, and started to struggle from the beginning.  My mind was elsewhere, and not focused, and it completely shows.  This image above is the underpainting.

I then segued into adding color on top.  In comes the red, to layer on top of the yellow, along with the addition of the vines.  This is where I started to flounder.  I like the combination of the red, yellow, and brown, but I did full coverage of the red,  and really needed only to place the color thoughtfully.

I tend to be a bit heavy handed with my color use.  I need to be more conscious of leaving the background color to show through, and to leave more white space.  Otherwise, the values are flat, and the piece looks all the same in color and in feeling, with no focal point.  My composition doesn't help either.

So I spent a lot of time looking at this in this current state, trying to figure out how to save it.  Didn't like it at all.  Two things were bothering me,  the size-  too big, the composition as is, was boring in that scale, I needed to cut it down.  Secondly, it was all the same color.  I needed to brighten it up.  With this in mind, I took the piece in a completely different direction.  I decided to play up the "unfocused noise" in my head, and let it ride.  This is where it went.

I cut the piece almost in half,  and then I started to doodle, to scribble, to add texture.  There are lacey patterns all through the piece now,  giving it dimension, and texture.  Very detailed and tedious.  I am liking the piece better now,  but there is still much work to be done.