This past week has been pretty hectic. Filled with terrible things that I had a lot of time to think about while locked down with my little family. Growing up over seas this sort of thing wasn't the norm, but the threat was always there. Because of that I look at so many situations and imagine how I would get me or my family out of them if disaster strikes. It's a subconscious tic I guess. It doesn't consume me, but it's how I think. I'm glad I didn't stay home on that day because I'm sure I would have pushed us out the door and made sure we were somewhere interesting.
As I've told many of my friends, I find it heartening that these sorts of things don't happen more often. They aren't hard to commit and since they happen relatively rarely in the US compared to the rest of the world it's somewhat reassuring that there are so few people out there who are ready to do terrible things to further their misplaced beliefs. I'm fine. We're fine.
I've been in New England coming on 3 years now and this is the first time I've been commissioned to do a boat painting. Although doing paintings of photographs isn't my favorite thing, I usually consider it a technical challenge and a nice way to pad the inside of my wallet. The original photo was pretty neat and I wanted to capture the essence of it. I was given certain directions, but I was generally told I could do what I wanted with it.
I roughed the image out thinking I would just Bob Ross it and get it all done in one shot....
As I have never really painted the ocean this proved a little more complex than expected and I left the painting at this point for quite some time. I waited to paint the mast and sail because I feel like that's "putting the ears on Batman" so to speak. If you can make a figure look like batman without the ears then you've really captured it. Note too the horizon line I tilted for maximum action in a static shot.
My second sitting I was frustrated with my use of local color everywhere so I threw down a layer of burnt sienna and let that dry. For realistic painting I prefer to on a toned surface anyway. It keeps me from jumping right to bright whites. inspired again and I did a lot of hatching brushstrokes with a flat brush
Since the figures in the photo where nearly impossible to see I opted to do more detail work on them. Keep in mind this is roughly the size of a pin head.
I'm a big fan of this sail. I think it came out quite nice.
This picture doesn't quite do it justice, but you get the idea.
Next week... Should be interesting
