Sunday, April 22, 2007
make that eight
Okay, now it's eight coats of gesso. Bleh, I started over. It's a funny thing, what looks right in a photograph (because it's a photo and we know it's real) can look really weird in a drawing/painting. Normally I do a sketch of what I'm working on but I hadn't been doing that with the paintings (I don't even have a piece of paper that big!). Anyway, not a big deal, I didn't have much time invested. Second time is a charm. ;-) Stay tuned.
Neato! You can actually see the swirls of gesso on the canvas because of the flash! Okay, now here is a question for you. You work at night so it seems that you use a light above your work easel. It also looks like it is yellow light. Are you familiar with working with full spectrum light? One of those bulbs can be pricey but do you know what I am talking about...kind of like an Ott light?
ReplyDeleteThe gesso was still kinda wet, so that's why the swirls showed up so much.
ReplyDeleteLighting, okay, this'll be a long answer. I do work at night a lot, but I very rarely paint after dark. Not that the canvas isn't well lit, but the paint palette is sorta in the dark.
For as long as I had been drawing, up til a few months ago, I just used a normal light bulb (in the lamp on the drawing table). I recently switched to a full spectrum daylight bulb ($10 each) simply because it seemed like it would be better for my eyes. It is a whiter light, for sure, but I don't feel as though it makes a difference in my work. It wasn't as though I'd been drawing the colors wrong all along or anything. If you snuck in here and switched the bulbs again I'm not sure I would notice. People do use Ott lights and various other expensive things.
So most of my night-work is drawing, and there is no problem there with the lighting situation. The over-easle light is a regular bulb, I turn that on just to brighten up the general area a bit more. During the day the room has enough natural light that turning on the overhead blub just brightens things up but doesn't affect colors.
And here I was getting excited to see the next stage.
ReplyDelete