Practice & Post - Hands

[CarlOwen]

Thanks Joe. That's it for today. Time to close up shop, feed the dogs, get dinner going and settle in with soft conversations with my wife.

[CarlOwen]

Finished for today. A little new area painted and a lot of going back in for touch ups and shape redefining.

[CarlOwen]

Did this yesterday. I am becoming mentally vexed. Am I improving? I do not yet see anything new that I have learned from this painting. I see more of an accumulation of all the skills I have learned. I feel myself becoming bored. I can't wait until this thing is done. Don't want to rush it. I enjoy the learning of painting. Is this the limit of my skill? Hope not. Have I reached a Plato? Maybe. Has anyone else gone through this? I think most likely. Self doubts are starting to creep in. I am not a technical advisor on how to paint. I am sharing the emotionality of the painting process that I think all of us share. Kind of hard though to know if that is working or not as I see no responses, other than Joe's, to this endeavor.

I think I will finish soon. I hope. Going to try the old master's method of stubling when the paint is dry enough.

[CarlOwen]

Good morning all. I have only one post this morning from yesterday's work. I actually spent more time thinking than painting. Problems about shading the forms of the hands and arms started to appear. Need to solve how to make the forms look rounded with enough highlights and darks to make the painting look interesting. How realistic should the painting be and yet obviously look like a painting instead of a copied photograph. Parts of the floor need to be darkened to give the illusion of depth. But which parts? Will faded grey on that stupid bucket add dimensionality? Do I fill it with trash? Will the trash forms detract from the hands or add complexity to the painting? Do I want complexity? It appears that I now have few to no problems with form descriptions. A whole new set of problems are starting to come forth about how to enhance the presentation. And, to what level. The final lap to finishing this thing is presenting a lot of problems. It appears that this painting is teaching me something after all. I hope my diary type entries helps other artists who may stop by to look and read.

[CarlOwen]

Work done yesterday. Think I am back on track. And, happy new year to everyone.

[CarlOwen]

I am finished. Sometimes when there are two paintings in my mind and both are impatient, I will with all due caution and speed dispatch the one I am working on to allow the other the comfort of my attention. Such is the case with this one. Hope you enjoy the results. Time to move on for me.

[CarlOwen]

This is the painting in the kind of frame I think I will use.

[Singular]

Turned out great Carl. Thanks for posting the progress. I love watching paintings evolve.

[CarlOwen]

Thanks for your comments Joe. Evolve is exactly the correct word as I do not have a production method and I never know exactly what the finished product will become.

[Derexbrown]

wow, it is amazing

[CarlOwen]

Thank you for your comment. I did this painting free form, that is without drawing it out first on the canvas, just to see if I could do it.

[jenn_iam]

Carl this is great... love the perspective too, it makes for a great composition.
I like doing works that really challenge me to do something outside of the norm. Keep doing these - they are fun, and enlightening and an enjoyable journey for us all!

[CarlOwen]

Thank you Jennifer. Have you been out of town, computer broke down, took a sabbatical, kidnapped, hospitalized, working, or off on a mad love affair? Never mind, nice to hear from you again.

[jenn_iam]

LOL... no. I moonlight at a normal FT day job, and do my creative stuff at all other times of my days/weekends. Had a film I was working on during the summer, that one some festival awards (yay us!)., and then another film that is in works, that started just when the other completed. That's not including the shows and conventions... but its good... got a slower paced day job now (same career field, just switched employers), so I have some more time to devote.

[CarlOwen]

Glad to hear you are doing OK to maybe well. Things are going fine here also. I have won a few awards on two different websites and waiting for the results of Eternal Beauty on the FanArtReview.com site.

[jenn_iam]

Woot! that is exciting news!! Congrats for sure!!

[CarlOwen]

Thank you. You can go to works in progress to see Sisters in Spirit and Barefoot Dancer for further information. Eternal Beauty has been entered into a contest but I have to wait a week or two before I know the results. Earth's Heart III is in my gallery. It won third place in the colors and abstracts contest held by Fusionart.com, and Santa Rosa Lake 6 won Best in Show from Fusionart.com and was in the November Best in Show Exhibit in Palm Springs. That one has a potential buyer. I will know next week. Special thanks for checking in again and your Congrats as you are the first one to do so. So, you get my First Place Thanks. I will start looking for some photos I took in Chaco Canyon to find the pictures of the prong horn sheep. May take awhile. There are only about six to seven hundred.

[jenn_iam]

I did. they look great! Different from your other works for sure, but I like where you are challenging yourself, Carl.

[CarlOwen]

Thank you Jennifer.

[jwidener]

Here is a hand that I practiced using graphite. I found the original image online