After almost 4 years, I finally finished my portrait of John B.! I've been working and reworking this drawing since October 2004. I was never satisfied with the direction and found myself changing backgrounds, changing approaches, changes techniques. But with my recent disillusion with my work, both personal and profession, I decided, dammit, I was going to DO some work, and finish pieces!It really gelled a few weeks ago when I discovered some new brushes in Photoshop, and tonight, I decided to scrap the darker, moodier background that the photo reference seemed to suggest, and just go clean. It doesn't look as dramatic as the older image I posted last month,(with the better contrast of the olive background, which made the colors of the face pop), but this feels more right. Sure, it's a little Peter Max-y and 80s, but that's my style, I have to accept it. I've always eschewed backgrounds in favor of form and figure, and reducing the background to a single color so that the colors in the individual linework stood out, was the direction I needed.
Damn, I'm so excited to be finally done with this, now I can actually present it to John! I hope it's worth the wait.
note: by the by, since I posted three items yesterday, I'm totally claiming this drawing for Saturday's piece. It was finished after midnight, after all - I mean, check the signing date!
To Waiton Fong, thanks for the comment, man, but it didn't get published. :(
ReplyDeleteAlthough I saw what you commented on and already wrote it myself on even in the blog entry, the jpeg doesn't do the colors in the full-size PSD file justice. I think the fade techniques on the shirt works better against this background, and that finding the right way to resolve the shirt 'fade' was one of the things that left me stymied for years. It's a conscious decision between two choices.
Woops. Sorry, I re-read the post and you did indeed do that. I guess I was just rather impressed with your work that I flew through your past posts looking at your art, hit the comment button without re-reading the top post again. Cheers:)
ReplyDeleteYou're right, it's worth the wait. I'm sure JB is going to LUV it.
ReplyDeleteGood for you. One more thing off your plate.