IsabeauxStudio

Oftentimes, I ask friends for ideas-assignments-ideas to paint.  It gives me a break from staring at a blank white page and trying to figure out what to paint.  This assignment, of "City... in the rain" came from my friend down in L.A.  It took me several attempts, and several different types of media trying to capture it.  The below is the final result after 3 tries.  I am very pleased with the results, as it gives the viewer a feeling of cityscape, with only just a slight bit of detail.

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.

Late night painting again, picking up where I left off on "Into the Woods."  Regarding Yupo, it can be quite challenging sometimes, as I am discovering that if there is any kind of oil on the surface, the paint won't adhere.  The way to fix this issue is to wipe the paper down with rubbing alcohol (of which I currently have none.)  Though left alone the effect can be quite nice, as seen in some of white areas below where the paint "skipped."  It became a little more challenging in the tree at left- where it skipped too much.

Overall, I think it is coming along nicely.  Not the best composition, but I will see if I can turn that around.  Now the challenge is, how do I handle the middle area?

Months ago before I moved, I made the investment into 25 pristine white sheets of Yupo, 20 x 24"- expensive, huge, heavy and unwieldy all bundled together.  I have been saving them, working small until I better got the hang of working with the substrate, getting used to its idiosyncrasies.

Yesterday I broke it open, eager to work big, and to work looser.

The above is not finished...it is just started.