Baby on Board!

 'Life has a way of knocking over the most brilliant plans'

(from the Jerusalem Train by Jon Dietz)

Isn't this quote so very true.... not only for my painting but life too...with a 'Baby on Board' you can never be quite sure what is going to happen next. (grin)

This has been a fun painting to do.  I wanted to keep the chess pieces and board quite mystical, almost like a surreal world in feel, so I kept it deliberately 'soft focus'. In contrast the baby is very much 'in focus' because, to me, he represents real life with all its unexpected twists and turns. I also chose to add another colour for the babies arms to help draw attention to his action of knocking over the king. Its fun to play with techniques to help convey a message.

Ona

Anyone for a Game of Chess? WIP 4

 It's World Watercolour Day today and I celebrated it in two of the best ways possible... firstly by sharing the news with friends on facebook and helping to spread the word about this wonderful medium and secondly by painting :)

I hope you have all helped to spread the word too and have had some time to paint.

I know many of you are curious to see my progress with the chess painting. I've now completed all but my centre of interest (the baby and the fallen king)

In the traditional chess game black and white are used for the chess pieces but I wanted more colour in this painting. I did however want to keep to the opposites idea for the opposing teams so chose my colour palette for this painting accordingly using mostly the compliments of golden yellows and purply/ browny greys.

I had a bit of fun in the background castling the king (quite literally). I've added a close up below for you to see as it is hard to spot it in the small jpg of the whole painting. Don't forget you can click on either image to see a larger version.

Painting for me, is all about  having fun as well as providing opportunities to engage the viewer and conveying a message. For me, castling the  king just adds to that childhood fantasy feel that I wanted to convey.

I'm still thinking about a name for this painting. I've had several ideas from friends and some of my own.

So far my favourites are:

Baby on Board
Rookie Player
Chairman of the Board

I'm really looking forward to the next part. I'm hoping to really punch the values on the king and inject some fun additional colour into the baby. fingers crossed it works.

Ona

Anyone for a game of chess?

I seem to be averaging a chess piece a day. Glazing is never a quick process but I love how the shape and form  develop as you add each subsequent layer. As you can see below, I'm working on the gold pieces at the moment. I felt gold and pewter/silver pieces would add more atmosphere than  traditional black and white would have done.

I'm enjoying creating the strong lighting. I still need to add a couple more layers to get the depth and colour of each shadow on the floor but will work develop these further while I am working on the other pieces.

I'm still thinking of a suitable title for this painting. Any ideas?

Ona