'appiness

I've started to sketch onto the canvas the composition for my “Happiness” painting. I did this rough render just to see how the elements would interact.

I found that using the ever familiar Photoshop had made my life easier in planning for this painting. Though, I haven't actually escaped the task of actually drawing - in planning and scaling the drawing onto the canvas. Besides, I like scratching real paper.

What I like about Photoshop is the ability it gives me to re-scale, elongate, cut and rearrange my drawings as well as do some perspective correction without actually changing the paper drawing. It is really cheap and fast to rework a sketch this way. Like for Happiness, I did the original sketch of the woman with an eye level perspective. But I had to depict a wider scenic scene behind the woman so I had to change her proportions to suite the higher point of view.

I wanted to paint something happy for a change. I want it to depict a bright sunny day with a person basking in the sun right in the middle of it all, ecstatic to be alive and free. There will be no hint of a foreboding darkness, or the tiniest indication of anxiety in the whole picture. I'm excited about this painting. I can't wait to lay in the first layers of paint. It's not such a big canvas, so it should be over before christmas.

My Kubol painting however, might take a bit longer. I've reworked, remodeled, painted over and scraped at this painting a number of times already and I'm still not satisfied with the forms or perspective just yet. Apart from that, I started out thinking this would look absolutely cool if painted big. Well, now I feel it's a bit too big and its size is limiting what I can do with regards making my brushwork part of the composition. But then again, that was not really my original intention, so I'm not really fretting over it though it would be nice if the option was still available.

For now, I'm just establishing the hue of the large facets surrounding the figure. I'm also trying to figure out how the shadows might fall.

I've reminded myself time and time again to sometimes lay off the thinking and do more of the painting. I should. This is such a huge canvas, it's daunting just to look at it.