With a large, wrapped canvas given as a birthday gift from my rockin’ wife, I have now begun to really work on Wisdom and Folly Cry Out to the Simple.
Stage 1:
Stage 2 (about a half hour later):
The blue is there because I don’t actually know how to backlight something, and I wanted to get paint down on canvas rather than leave empty space which I’d be afraid to fill in later. This way at least I can paint over it with confidence.
For those of you who don’t know the story, this painting has been a pet project of mine for over a year. I’m only now trying it with real paint, rather than sketches or digitally. (Well… I did try it once before with real paint, and it was a disaster.) So that you can critique it helpfully, what I’m shooting for is a small figure in the middle of a town, with gigantic figures whose bodies are open doors … one leading up and to the left, towards heaven, and one leading down and to the right, towards the grave.
Generally speaking, I think I like the direction this is going… having Folly seated, I think it makes it MUCH more dynamic than the other two standing-room-only pictures. (And it’s more biblically accurate!)
I desperately need your help, though. If you have a scrap of artistic ability and human decency, and can see me setting myself up for a fall anywhere (too primary, wrong light source, anything), please offer constructive criticism now! I’d much rather find out at this stage than 20 hours of work from now.
Oh, and if anyone knows a good resource on how to paint backlighting, I could REALLY use that, too.