l am finally back with a post! I try to be regular with these things but l am not good at it at all! However, p have something l really want to share with you. I know l have discussed many times about not giving up on drawings, but here l have learned a little more! l drew the Betta Fish below a few months ago, the fish you see on your left as you look at the photo. It took me around 80 hours, and whatever l did l could not make it look interesting. I exaggerated the colors l could see in the reference photo, l added more contrast. Yet every time l looked at it my heart sank. It was just boring to my eyes. Same, same, same mid tones that l didn’t even like in combination! l have actually become very good at completing things and sure enough l made myself finish this piece, but l hated it! So all that work went behind the cupboard of no return! Only this time something returned! I looked at it again over the holidays and at all the work l had put into it. I decided that whatever l did to it, l couldn’t like it less than l already did! So l took out my pencils and began having fun with color.
Now you obviously l was limited to some extent because this is pencil. You can’t make it lighter, you can’t change blue to yellow. But allowing for those limits l was free to play. I added greens and purples and pinks and just kept adding. I increased the contrast for more depth and sharpened everything up. lt was really fun just throwing the reference photo out of the window and doing whatever l felt like. The end piece might not be very realistic but at least it isn’t boring! And l have saved a piece l spent a very long time on! Lesson - don’t be too quick to give up on a piece, a little more time and a bit of creativity can take something you don’t like into something totally different.
3 Comments
1/7/2019 04:16:14 pm
a big improvement! much more vibrant and interesting :)
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Sallyann
1/19/2019 08:13:34 am
Thank you so much my friend. I felt it made a real difference and at least rescued a piece l felt like shredding before!
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10/14/2019 02:59:16 am
An exciting piece starts with good composition. Doing this always includes making the subject interesting in some way. Sometimes this breaks down to finding an exciting detail on it to focus on,and sometimes, as seen in fashion sketches, it's about finding the right pose to set things off.
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