Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Nothing To Do But Wait

Another day, and three studies inc. two quick colour tests for a painting about being trapped and unable to act. The picture is mostly 2D, and very abstracted, a pile of figures like shadows. They are archers, firing arrows as they try to escape from the gravitational pull of destiny. They shrink and distort, firing off a few last arrows as they are stretched like chewing gum into the singularity of hell. It's called "Hell is Having Nothing to do but Wait for the Conclusion of an Inevitable Journey".

My initial idea for the colouration was yellow and green, with yellow browns making up the dark objects, with rusty reds to create drama, but this looked a little jarring, so I tried a second colouration idea using blues. I used cobalt turquoise for both studies, with lemon yellow (nickel) and yellow ochre, black and white. These are underpainting tests, so the colours are not the "final" ones but close enough to set the tones and test the colour relationships.

There is no doubt that the second picture is better looking, and the greens in the first are messy due to lack of direction, but the first is definitely more disturbing and panicky which might suit the feeling more.