Overview

For this week’s painting, I chose to continue studying the visual effects achieved through the use of a florescent pink tone. In this piece, I branched out into exploring color variation and experimenting with the placement of diluted colors next to vibrant colors. This exploration can especially be seen in the sky. Although the primary hue of the sky is a pastel yellow, the vibrations created with the florescent pink give the sky a warmer, more alive, feel.

Composition

As for composition, I chose to take somewhat of a more interesting approach to a typical landscape piece. To achieve more interest, I chose a reference picture that was formatted as a portrait rather than landscape.

Brushwork

I would also like to touch on a brushwork technique I have been enjoying recently. As seen in both my previous blog and this one, many of the colors and shapes are almost “blocked in” rather than being blended. The technical side of blending has always been quite daunting to me, so I prefer utilizing visual blending instead. In both paintings I have mentioned, I have limited myself to using only flat and detail brushes. Not only does this create unity through shape and texture, but it challenges me to create soft shapes using rigid components.

Wrap-Up

This toning technique has created some very compelling and overall successful products. However, both of the paintings in which I have used this technique are quite small in scale. Once I have more time in the studio this upcoming semester, I plan to repurpose one of my largest canvases using this technique. The prior piece was a mixed-media self portrait. I ended up not being too fond of the piece, so hopefully I will be able to create a more successful piece as to not waste the canvas!