Catch up

I have been falling a bit behind here. There were a number of juried entry deadlines I was trying to get in on, and my camera and software were not cooperating. And then I have dropped the ball on both classes; The week of April 23, Mark had said that we should come in on Thursday night with our work from Monday and be able to look at it with a fresh eye and know where we wanted to go with it and what was needed to get there. On April 30 I looked at my painting from Monday night as I readied to head to the League, and thought, I just don't care enough. It is not a bad start, and I had done as he had prescribed; IE I simplified the shapes graphically and I kept mostly to 3 values plus the highlight. I just didn't care enough to want to finish it. I think I am just burned out. Saturday was Kevin's class and originally a model was planned. I could not face painting one more bored model so I did not plan to go. Even when that was cancelled, I did not go. AND Melinda and crew were painting again on Saturday afternoon, it was a perfect gray day with the light staying consistent and I did not go join them either. That told me just how burned out I am. I just needed to stay home and recharge.

Friday, I grabbed one of the many paintings I have done over the past few years that I was looking at with a more critical eye and began to repaint it. I did see where I wanted to go with it, FINALLY. I worked on it all day Saturday and Sunday. I did not finish it as I had hoped. But then again it is one of the largest I have in my repertoire at 2' x 4.' I am posting the photo of the original painting and then as it is looking now in its "incomplete" state. I have not touched the ground yet which will be completely redone nor have I come back in with all the highlights on the leaves. The original is on the left. Notice in the remake the greens are warmer as is the fence. I have been correcting values and temperature as well as correcting the drawing. Most of the drawing in the original was okay, but I did get sloppy in certain areas. For instance, the buds at the top had no real shape to them and I had made them too large. I also united the shadow shape in the remake and separated the shadow color on the fence from the shadows in the plants. In some places I had not made a distinction.