Interes-Ted WIP 2

Its such enormous fun developing light in a painting. I have been working on the child. I wanted to really develop both the light from the window on his hair, skin and clothing and the reflected light  shining up on his face from the white pages of the book.

Since I wasn't aiming for an exact likeness in this painting, I also changed the expression on his face slightly to make him appear more engrossed in the book.

I will probably work on the window seat next.

Ona

Spinning a Tale WIP 6

I have spent the last couple of days painting in the pattern on her dress and creating the folds of the fabric. I have also been working on developing the contrast between the light and shady areas. The light of the paper only becomes really bright when it is contrasted closeby with some really strong darks. I have also painted the cloth around her neck. I decided to use a contrasting colour here as it seemed to help draw attention to her face and lead our eyes down towards where her hands will be.

I have now masked around the edges of her hands so I can paint her apron.

Ona

Dreaming WIP 2

 

I've had a lot of fun playing with the effect of light on the fence as a way to draw more attention to the dreamcatcher. I still have some work to do grounding the fence and adding in the shadows on the floor and darkening the far portion of the fence a little more to recede it into the background but its nearly done.

I played around a lot with the composition of the fence during my initial planning stage. I had originally thought of having a fence snaking off into the distance but after doing some initial sketches this felt either too distracting or too enclosing depending on the direction the fence took. I didn't want the fence to lead our eyes out of the painting but equally I didnt want the message to be one of imprisonment if I curved it behind the child. Fences are often used to symbolize a barrier so it felt appropriate to have the fence ending. This way it provides an opportunity to lean on it momentarily and dream  but also to allows the freedom to walk around at some time in the future should the child want to. After all it is up to each one of us to choose whether to have the courage to go forwards and follow our dreams or not.

Ona