Current mood:

artistic

Ho hum...
I worked some more on Helen last night, but didn't get as much finished as I would have liked. Got distracted into an interesting conversation, and before you know it, it's 2.5 hrs past my bedtime, and I'm trying to get some work done! Here's the whole thing, composition-wise and all.



Blocked in some colors on her overdress. I was originally going to put a tiled alcove behind her, but with the shapes drawn in, the background seems to imply more depth. I'll put a window behind her with a pale blue sky - kind of echo the blue in her dress and to give her red hair a little more punch. It'll jive with her character a bit better too. The alcove would make her feel too closed off, too trapped.

The bottom part of the wall will be green and blue tiles, maybe a bit of gold, and the rest carved sandy brown with an eensy bit of orange thrown in the highlights and some blue into the shadows to draw it all together.

The dress will have a lot more detailing when it's finished. Lots of embroidery, maybe a little beading.

I really like a blue/orange color combination in a painting. Blue/gold is a little more popular, a bit more safe, but blue/orange just bam! Wow. Very intense. I think it has to be handled a little more cautiously, because throw too much of it into the bg to unify the painting, put it too close together too often, and it muddies things up. Or push the colors in the wrong direction and you get a box of tide: eye-catching but annoying.

I once read a survey where blue/orange was proclaimed the most annoying color combination. I think the people who answered this were all thinking about a box of tide - all navy blue with fluorescent orange swirls so bright they might as well be screaming at you.

I like pushing the blue a little towards green. Min Rho did this lovely painting once of an angel or fairy or something - all in this shade of blue with red hair and it just popped! Really, really nice.

I like red/green too, but you always risk the painting looking a little x'masy, especially if you've put any snow in it.