May 24 - Sashaying up to the Details, Percheron Lesson Painting

Now that I have all the larger areas filled with the general color and value, I go back in and start adding the details, going from biggest to littlest. The man's hat was the last thing I added before photographing it at this point.

But don't look there, look at the rest of the canvas. Hey, there's a truck in the shed now! The trees have undergone some modification to give them a fullness of form, and the shadows across the ground have been made far more interesting than in the earlier painting. I have worked on the horses' anatomy and positioning, and adding to their form by varying the lights across the hides. No details of harness yet. That comes later! Rushing to the details can derail many a well-started painting! I also want to keep in mind that the hierarchy of edges also works for the hierarchy of details. Nothing should be as detailed as my focal point. Therefore, details of leaves on trees would be too much for the details on the man's hand and that horse's head.
As an artist, I always want to give a specific target for the viewer to see first.


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December 11 - Snow Country, 12 x 24 Oil

"Snow Country" Today's painting is a major change for an earlier daily painting. You can see the earlier version of this 10 x 20 inch oil on the dailypaintings.com web site, under the date of June 30 of this year. When I first painted it, the temperature outside was 90 degrees! Tonight I bring it to a different finished state, and change it tremendously--from summer to winter! Why do artists go after work they've done and change it so drastically? One reason is growth of the artist's knowledge. We learn something new, and we want to practice the new knowledge because we see what we didn't know manifest in our earlier work. Another reason is a deep dissatisfaction with the work as it stood before, and a great desire to take on the challenge to see if it is possible to produce an evolution of sorts. And then there's just my reason--having run out of small canvases, I'm painting over bigger ones! (The order is in, they'll be here any day now.)

It is fun to change the colors so drastically, and enjoy the finished result. Oh, I could work more on it if I was of a mind to, but for now, this one still remains in a new finished state! $375