i did the night one first (first plein air ever!). and then the day one was the next day, same location. i ended up doing a little dodge/burn on them after scanning them in. and the day image was so super loose and lacking necessary elements, that i went ahead and combined it with a photo i took of the same spot, for a multi-media kind of approach.at any length, the digital alterations are so handy and versatile as a learning tool, that i've had a lot of success 'exporting' those skills back into the paint. just part of the education i guess.
anyone have any palette knife painting tips/references?
5 comments:
I hate palette knife painting, so no tips from me there. I LOVE LOVE the daytime paintint though. I think the crisp, hard edges from the photography elements are a gorgeous contrast to the loose, energetic paint making up the landscape (it almost looks alive). The contrast is like eye candy. I can't stop looking at it. Well done.
Oh, and good color-composition. The cooler colors on the top and bottom and warm colors grouped in the middle.
I like the night scene...the night scene seems mainly about value contrast. Value contrast is quite eye catching, but not so great at keeping my interest for longer than 1-2 seconds. The day scene has more complexity overall. (That being said, I still think that both are successful paintings.)
Dodge/burn?
What's nice about the day time painting is the contrast of soft and hard edges. The whole painting is pretty soft and then adding the photograph gives it some super crisp edges. The nighttime painting does have soft and hard edges but I couldn't find any edges that were as strong and crisp as in the daytime painting. For example the bridge in the front has a hard edge, but it's kind of wobbly when compared to the other painting. However, I think the nighttime painting is more capturing because it's more moody.
dodge & burn are photographic terms, but also tools in Photoshop. the 'dodge' makes things lighter, the 'burn' makes them darker. like little tools that can spot correct elements for exposure.
Michelle makes an interesting point. One of the best things about using a knife is getting a really sharp strong edge. I see a few of them but they hide in very similar values and loose the power of the effect. The photo elements in the front of the day piece make it work for me. Those elements that are so straight and geometric contrasting the loose paint are very powerful. I would try to do the same thing with your knife in the night painting.
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