painting strategies

Hi folks: has been a very busy month and trying to get into my painting again. This post discusses how I approach a painting; how I develop a strategy to use as a guide to work with composition, values and color.

I will do this in parts as I have limited time today. I have been going through lots of photographs collected over the years looking for a direction and category for a set of new paintings. This is the first hurdle for me as I need to be stimulated by the topic as well as the painting challenge. I have settled on three areas of interest: rural northwest towns (with old trucks); old railroad cars; and, maritime scenes of working ships.

As I begin, I look for strong compositional views from a set of photographs, seeking the most drama with the basic shapes (triangulated gables, etc.). I follow this with a study on the shadow shapes either existing or imagined that can further dramatize the strong shapes in the composition. once that is accomplished through a series of 2 x 3 or 3 x 5 inch pentel sign pen sketches, I begin to look at simple colors and color complements. I have mentioned before that i certainly get myself in trouble when i use too many colors in a painting so i try to limit.

Okay that is a start and i will come back to this today or tomorrow. ron k